I Tried

Chapter Five

I Don't Know

Megan's POV

This was a nightmare. El was kidnapped by... Whatever the heck that static thing was, James had ran off and now I was lost in the woods with a strange little girl who didn't like me. 

"Where's El and James?" She asked sleeply. It was almost dawn, but at the same time it was still hard to see anything.

"I don't know. We're looking for them though."

"Did the tree monster come?"

"I don't know. It was dark. I couldn't really see anything." I lied. She she didn't need to worry about anything right now anyway.

"When are we gonna find them?"

Goodness will she ever shut up! I thought bitterly to myself. I feel like having three younger siblings should have prepared for this, but it didn't.

"I don't know."

"You don't seem to know a lot."

It took every fiber of my being not to scream at her. She was such an ungrateful brat. Agh! I know she's just a little kid and right now she's scared, tired and stressed. We all are. But it still wasn't easy to resist the urge to strangle her.

"I know. Will you please stop talking?" I bit my lip in blind angry.

But luckily she did shut up after that.

After a while the sun rose and I could see my surroundings much more clearly now. Heather was still rather tired so least that kept her quiet.

"What's that?" Heather asked as we continued our awful journey down this miserable forest.

"What's what." I responded bitterly. I did not want to go through another round of dumb questions.

"That." She repeated simply as she pointed at something off in the distance. It almost looked like a person lying on the ground...

"What the-" I stopped myself before I swore in front of the little girl. "James?!"

James didn't respond.

Please don't be hurt. I repeated in my head over and over as I rushed over to him.

When I got to him he was still lying on the ground, barely moving at all.

"Please don't be dead, please James." I said, frantically shaking him to get up.

"Is he okay?" Heather asked as knelt down beside me. Her voice sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

Before I could reply James sat up straight like a whip. "Elizabeth! Megan!" He shouted, in between sharp breathes.

"Are you alright?" I asked as relief over flooded me like a tsunami. At least James was alright, maybe there was hope that Elizabeth was too.

"No. No I'm not. Elizabeth is gone, we're lost and there's a freaking monster on the loose!" James shouted.

"It's okay. I'm sure we'll find her." Heather said, with such a naive hope in her voice. I wish I could be like that.

"I hope so." James said as he took a deep breath.

"I'm so, so sorry James." I said as I helped James back up to his feet.

"I'm sorry too, Megan." He muttered. Keeping his gaze on he ground instead of me. He sounded bitter and I couldn't blame him.

So silently the three of us headed out. 

The forest seemed eeriely quiet. Something felt wrong. But that was probably just the fact the El was missing. The fact that there was a monster running around. And the fact that we were lost.

Which all added up to making me feel a bit quezy and my chest feeling hollow.

I wished the forest would make me feel a bit better. Normally it calms me down no matter what. But now the birds were silent and there wasn't any wind to crackle the leaves. 

"Heather, so you wanna play a game?" James asked out of the blue. I'd become so used to the silence that it almost startled me when he spoke.

"Sure! What game?" Heather said excitingly. She smiled and think it was the first time I'd ever see her do that.

"Umm.. what about Twenty One Questions." James said, blurring his words together as he spoke.

"Okay." Heather said. "I'll go first."

"Okay, I'll ask the first question then. Is it an animal?" James asked.

"No." Heather said with a sly grin across her face.

I zoned out after question ten or so, but apparently James couldn't guess that Heather was thinking of a willow tree.

I thought that was kind of a odd thing to thinking about. I expected a little girl like her to be thinking of a dragon or a unicorn.

James and Heather kept playing as we went on. They both got really into and started thinking of more and more stranger than the last. James won a round by saying a trash bag and then Heather won by thinking of scarecrow.

To be honest I thought that one should have been a lot easier for James.

The two kept playing till I heard something strange... Something that sounded... very wooden... Something the sounded like the monster from last night.

"What was that?" Heather said and she quickly rushed over to James for protection.

"I don't know." I said slowly. "I don't see anything..."

"It sounds like it's right beside, why can't we see it?" James said, his voice was both utterly blaffed and terrified. Just like El the last night...

"Is it the tree monster?" Heather said, her voice filled to the birm with fear.

"No, those aren't real. It must be something else." I reminded her. But she simply scowled at me.

"Uh, you sure about that." James said as he pointed to something behind me.

"Yes. I've grown up with monsters, I am a freaking monster so yes, I think I would know if there was a tree monster!" I snapped. I wasn't sure why though. They didn't do anything wrong. I was just so... So angry at everything I've done and everything I haven't done.

I never should have dragged James and Elizabeth on this stupid hike... I should have come alone. So then, Heather could still be found but those two wouldn't have to go through this. Nobody should go through this...

"Uh, Megan. Turn around." James said calmly.

With a slight grunt I turned to face a willow tree moving towards me.

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Heyo, sorry for not updating a lot, I'm in the middle of moving and it's been kinda hectic. I'm going to try to get back on my regular updating schedule soon.

But thank you guys so much for reading <3

And yeah I'll talk to you guys in the next chapter, bai.