Taking What's His

Chapter Eight

{ Delilah's POV }

I was dreaming. I had to be.

I shut my eyes tightly, counted to three, and then opened them once more. A strangled sob escaped my lips as I saw that I was still here. That I was definitely 100% here in the dark forest. How I ended up here was a complete mystery to me, although I suspected that it was the fault of sleepwalking. And of course I would sleepwalk right into the place I never wanted to end up in again.

I struggled to stay calm, taking deep breaths as I assessed my situation.

1) I was stranded in the middle of the woods at God knows what hour.

2) I was at least wearing warm pajamas and house slippers.

3) I had no electronic devices on my person.

4) Luckily no animal approached me and took a bite out of me while I was lying unconscious on the forest floor.

5) There was fog. Everywhere.

I let out an exasperated sigh and folded my arms across my chest, surveying my surroundings. 'Maybe I'll get lucky and stumble upon Cyril's cabin...wherever the hell that may be.' I thought to myself as I begin walking, carefully picking where I stepped so that I didn't make so much noise. Of course it would be just my luck that I would step on an exceptionally large branch, lose my footing and fall on my backside on said branch, and make it loudly snap in two, efficiently silencing every nocturnal creature in the entire forest.

A lone wolf howl made my blood run cold and I scrambled up, panicking and running in the opposite direction of the sound. Each breath I took left a ghost in its wake, and I shoved my loose hair out of my face as I ran, surprisingly not tripping over my own two feet for once. I risked a glance behind me, but luckily saw no form of the canine species lunging out of the fog to get me. Wheezing, I came to halt, deciding there and then that I was definitely going to start working out more.

Finally being able to breathe normally again I continued walking, my eyes peeled for any more branches in my path. Despair was one of my more prominent emotions at the moment, but I steeled myself against it, refusing to cry and submit to the creeping, festering fear that threatened to overwhelm me.

"Delilah..."

Shit. I froze, goosebumps rising on my arms as the ghostly, disembodied voice whispered my name. Just like in my nightmare...I shook my head fiercely, deciding to ignore it. I continued walking, my nails digging into the palms of my hands as I clenched my fist.

"Delilah..."

I needed something to distract me. I instantly racked my brain for the happiest song I knew, and the next minute I brightly started humming 'It's A Small World'. I was desperate, obviously. My steps quickened as the voice seemed to come closer, and I briefly wondered if I was schizophrenic and that the voice was just a figment of my imagination.

"Delilah!"

I jumped, my entire body quivering at the intensity of the voice. It obviously didn't like being ignored. 'Luckily no one is around to see just how crazy I've become...' I thought to myself as I gulped and answered the voice. "Uh--yes?" The woods were silent. "Oh, so now you decide to shut up. Thanks a lot." I scoffed sarcastically, beginning to walk again as I grumbled about strange voices and damn towns name Woodbine that were in the middle of freaking nowhere.

I can to an abrupt halt suddenly, squinting my eyes at--oh my god! A cabin! Not giving any thought to whether I would be disturbing whoever lived there (which I prayed was Cyril), I ran to the house and knocked fiercely on the door, bouncing on my toes in excitement. The thought hit me that there might be more then one cabin in these woods, and that any other cabin could possibly belong to some crazy psycho serial killer. I hastily took four giant steps back from the door, ready to book it out of there if need be.