The Broken Ones

Chapter 15

Taylor:

I was the opposite of okay. I wanted to cry so badly. I hadn't felt something like this for so long. And it sucked.

The voices that . . . Memoria Demon spoke: Emotionless . . . Psychopath. They weren't necessarily untrue. Yeah, they hit home and hurt like hell, but I knew deep down that a part of me really was emotionless and what some would say psychotic-like.

But now I actually felt it, this tugging feeling in my gut that I couldn't shake, even after we all finally stood up and began walking again. Felix wouldn't stay farther than an inch from me, which part of me was grateful for, but I also didn't want to feel reliant on him to be okay. I didn't want him pitying me, or worrying about me, or stressing about my issues. And I had far too many of those for him to be stressing about.

We hadn't said much due to the odd state of mind we were all in, this weird funk the forest had brought upon us. Kat and Taylor tried to relieve some of it with light talk here and there, even throwing in a few knock-knock jokes. They did nothing to ease this growing feeling inside.

Were Felix's withdrawals something close to this feeling? If they were, I wondered how he dealt with them for the time he did without doing more than simply punching a tree. Speaking of the tree . . .

"Hey, Felix," I said.

He looked at me with a look, like he was relieved I had finally spoken. "Yeah?"

"How're your knuckles?"

"Oh, yeah," Kat said, nodding. "Really did a number to that-" She stopped short when Felix raised his knuckles for us to see. "Tree," she finished with a gulp.

They certainly didn't look good. Purple and red, swollen at the sides, scraped along his knuckles. I had to look away.

"We should find some water. Clean the wound," I said.

"If there's even water in this place," he said matter-of-factly.

It was true. Also terrifying. The thought of having no water, surrounded by bloodthirsty creatures, somehow made it all worse. Still, I doubted Tyson would leave us with nothing, even if he was completely insane and probably really forgetful.

I turned to Felix's satchel, opening it up and digging around inside in search for a sign of water. My finger landed on something cool before I quickly pulled it out and looked at the item. It was relieving in a way seeing something from our original time period in a place like this. A Thermos, filled with icy water, accompanied by a few other jugs.

"Found some," I said before passing out the bottles. "Save some, though. Who knows how long we'll be in here."

The thought sent silence among us. However, I really didn't feel like dwelling on any more questions or uncertainties we had. Whatever happened from now, happened, and I think we had a pretty good idea of what was to come. Therefore, why worry?

Kat finished her share with a refreshed Ahh, handing me back the bottles along with Felix's. The water helped, but I still felt groggy from my . . . possession? Mainly, I just wanted sleep.

Felix spoke as if reading my mind. "I'm exhausted."

"We just got here," Kat pointed out

"I'm still exhausted. Does Tyson got any blankets in there?"

I dug through the bag for a moment, supposedly finding nothing until pulling out a small, cylinder-shaped pack. I raised an eyebrow at it. "Blanket?"

"Sleeping bag," Kat corrected.

She walked over to the satchel, sticking her hands in it. "My parents and I had a bunch for camping."

Kat and her parents were camping freaks. They loved it more than anything. They offered to take me with them more than once, saying how much more fun it would be with me there, but Walter always declined in a rather rude way. Couldn't be wasting my time with them when I could be putting myself to use at the house. Little did he know that at night, while he was sleeping, I would sneak into the backfield with Kat and we would sleep under the stars. That was as close to a camping trip as we could get. One time, however, I accidentally arrived home after Walter had woken up to find me gone. He didn't like that.

Now, however, this was like one big camping trip in itself, minus the smores and campfire songs. Those would probably get us killed.

Kat pulled out two more bags with a grin. How she managed to smile through all this was a mystery to me. "Aha. Sleeping bags. And some matches and some toothbrushes and toothpaste.

"And some lady stuff for the lady stuff," she added with a whisper.

I rolled my eyes, sighing, "Tyson, what the hell."

Felix chuckled, which was sort of a comforting sound in our current situation. Almost hopeful. "Alright," he said. "Well, I'm going to sleep before I pass out."

I nodded. "I probably will too."

"Hey, Taylor."

I looked up at him. "Yeah?"

He faltered for a moment, just staring at me intently, his eyes searching mine as his lips opened and closed. I glanced at Kat before she awkwardly skipped away somewhere behind us. He was still staring when I looked back up at him. Finally, he breathed, "Thanks."

I paused. And then, as if by magic, some miraculous, supernatural thing, my lips curled up into a grin for a split second. An honest one, before I forced it back into my now blushing face due to the smile. I hated smiling. The rare occasion was always embarrassing for me somehow. "Shut up," I mumbled, pushing on his chest and following Kat into the clearing ahead.

His chuckle followed in my footsteps towards the section where Kat was laying out her bag.

I really, really hoped nothing was around. We were safe. Yet, even with this hope in me, I couldn't shake off the feeling that something was lurking deep in the corners of the forest, eyeing the three of us, waiting to strike at any moment to bring back sickening memories of the past.

And all we could do was sit and wait.

Contacts:

Email: 55leftturns@gmail.com

Tumblr: 55leftturns

Thanks for reading!