Don't Go Into The Woods

Chapter 46

Dimitri smelt her now dried blood on the wall right outside the principal's office. It was too late. He knew it. Still, he charged into the office without any hesitation whatsoever, hoping for some sort of miracle. His father and sister were right behind him. They found Carmen laying there squirming around on the sofa. Her ankles and wrists tied together while her mouth was gagged.

Savannah was nowhere in sight.

Dimitri and Anastasia rushed to Carmen's aid while their father went to investigate the odor they had all picked up the moment upon entering the office. Dimitri got to work ripping the cloths off of Carmen before yanking the gag off of her mouth. Carmen was crying hysterically. Dimitri had to get her under control as soon as possible. He had to know if Savannah was alright.

At least alive!

Dimitri needed to know now. He knelt down before Carmen on the floor and tried his best to behave in a comforting manner while trying to be patient, which felt merely impossible for him right now. Anastasia quickly picked up on how her brother was failing dismally at trying to calm down the hysterical Carmen. She sat down on the sofa beside Carmen and placed one arm around her shoulders, pulling Carmen into her arms in an attempt to console her.

Vladimir approached them than with a horrid look on his face. Dimitri's heart dropped immediately.

"Is it?" Was all that Dimitri could muster to say.

"No. Ms. Hatch." Vladimir said. Dimitri could breath somewhat again. It was not Savannah.

They all immediately turned their full attention to Carmen who was the only one in this room that could provide the answers they were looking for. It was Anastasia though who decided to take the lead in this special type of interrogation. She knew she had to extract the answers from Carmen as quickly and pain free as possible as time was of the essence here. Immediately Anastasia got to work while Dimitri and Vladimir both watched and listened carefully to every word.

"You need to tell us what happened here Carmen." Anastasia said. "Is Savannah still alive?" Carmen sniffed a few times before eventually nodding her head.

Dimitri was relieved to know that Savannah was alive, but his patience had quickly evaporated the moment he knew this. He rose to his feet and started pacing the room to try and stay calm, but it didn't work. He stopped and spun around to face Carmen who had not even attempted to speak. This frustrated him terribly till the point where he became angry and directed all his anger at Carmen.

"Where is she Carmen?!" Dimitri almost shouted at her. "What happened here?! Speak! We need to know before it is too late! Do you want Savannah to die?!"

"Dimitri! Enough!" Anastasia snapped, staring angrily up at her brother who she believed should know better than to speak like that.

Dimitri looked away from everyone, not in the mood to argue with his sister, and continued to pace the room. He felt like he was losing his mind slowly. Carmen used her jersey sleeves to wipe as many tears away from her eyes as what she possibly could before clearing her throat and speaking.
"I was in my room. Suddenly I heard a knock at the door. I opened it to see who it was and found Roman standing there in the passage. I thought he was there to see Savannah so I told him she wasn't there. I thought I was safe. It was day and there were other students in their rooms. That was when Roman told me if I don't let him into the room than Savannah will die. He said he had her." Carmen explained, recalling as much as she could. "I didn't want anything to happen to Savannah so I allowed him in. Two guys suddenly appeared behind him and followed him into the room. They trashed the room in search of the book we had taken from the secret room." She pointed up to the open doorway behind them. Only Vladimir and Anastasia followed her finger while Dimitri continued to pace up and down. "When they got the book they than forced me to come with them to this office. I thought Savannah was here, but when I got here there was only Ms. Hatch. Dead!" Carmen begun to sob again as she struggled to continue with the events of the day.

"And than what happened?" Anastasia said, pushing her to continue.

"They gagged me, tied me up and hit me unconscious. When I awoke, they were dragging me back into the office. Savannah was here with Roman. He threatened to kill me. She pleaded him not to." Carmen said between sobs. She buried her face into the palms of her hands before speaking again in a muffled voice. "Roman said he was going to use her as his hostage to get what he wants. They took her away and left me here behind. She sacrificed herself to save me! She pleaded for my life and let them take her instead!" Carmen started to sob uncontrollably. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I tried screaming for help! I tried screaming at her to not go anywhere! But she couldn't hear my words!" Anastasia wrapped her arms around Carmen to try and calm her down as she started to rock back and forth.

Suddenly Ms. Jennings came rushing into the room. After the sight she had just stumbled into, it didn't take her long to figure out what had happened. "They took her!" Ms. Jennings gasped. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

"We have reason to believe she is alive. Ms. Hatch-" Vladimir didn't complete his sentence. He gestured over to the other side of the desk.

Ms. Jennings immediately knew what he was trying to say. She wanted to say something as the sadness filled her. Ms.Hatch and her had been close before Ms.Hatch become suddenly very distant towards her. Carmen quickly caught Ms. Jennings attention. She rushed over to the girl and took over consoling from Anastasia. "You need to find her." Ms. Jennings said, looking up at them from where she was seated beside Carmen. "They are going to try and use her in aid of the rebellion. Only bad things can come from that. Unless-" Her eyes brightened suddenly from excitement. "-unless this is exactly what the woods had planned!"

"Enough with this nonsense!" Dimitri snapped, stopping his pacing immediately. "Savannah has nothing to do with any of this! Stop bringing up the woods!"

"But don't you see!" Ms. Jennings said persistently. "The woods have brought her to them more than once already and now she is going back! This could all be apart of its plan to put an end to the rebellion for once and for all!"

As much as Dimitri wished the suffering that rebellion was causing would come to an end finally, he refused to accept the idea of Savannah being the one sacrificing her life to save all of theirs. Dimitri stared at each one of them before storming out of the room. It was enough standing around to his liking.  His papa called after him, but he didn't stop. He kept moving forward. He had to. He had to save Savannah before it was too late. He could only hope that it was not already.