How to escape your imagination

Chapter 6

"Wait!" I yell at Francis, who is beginning to aim the gun at Matthew. "I know him!"

Francis spins around pinning the gun to my chest. "I knew you were someone's accomplice!"

He said grinding the words off his teeth.

Martha gently rests her hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "It's ok Francis, just let him talk."

Francis reluctantly puts his gun back down, keeping his eyes on mine the while time. I walk over to Matthew and try to decide what to do, I finally give in to my emotions and wrap my arms around him pulling him in for an awkward hug.

"What are you doing here?" I whisper. Matthew doesn't reply for while until finally he pulls away and looks at me with a frightened eyes.

"Jonathan, I don't know what I'm doing here."

He leans up against the railing, quickly glancing over at Francis, who is eyeing him with disgust.

"I was at my house after the party, when all of a sudden there was a rough knock on my door, and I was honesty curious as to who was at my door so late at night, but right as I was touching the door knob, it burst open, and some guy came in with no hesitation and shot me."

He finished the story in a voice so quiet I could barely hear. "Let me see your arm."

Matthew narrows his eyes slightly but gives me his quaking arm. Across his arm, are two thick black lines. I look at the same spot on my arm and nod my head, reluctantly accepting the sad truth. Matthew and I both had two lives left, just as the voice said. Francis comes walking back over to us, looking slightly calmed down.

"You better let me know what's happening right now." He says, his eyes a blaze of fire.

I turn to look at Matthew, who's apprehensively kicking at a piece of gravel with his shoe.

"I think Matthew is having the same problem as me."

Matthew looks up, reluctant to know the truth but curious all the same.

"What is happening to us, Jonathan?"

I look over to Francis who indicates that I should tell him.

"We're trapped in a movie world, by, well I don't know who by, but someone who believes that we should be here." I begin.

Matthew, to my surprise, doesn't look shocked.

"Go on." He says quietly.

"The only way to get out of here, is to do what it wants." I continue

Matthew narrows his eyes.

"And what's that??" He says slightly raising his voice from a whisper.

"We have to pass each goal in each movie, but if we die, we move onto the next one, but also lose a life."

I show Matthew the bars on my fore-arm, he does the same.

"We could die in here, Matthew."

He nods reluctantly, and pulls his arm back, stuffing it back into his sweater pocket.

"Then let's stay alive."

Is all he says before he gently pushes past me and begins to walk away across the narrow bridge. I stay where I'm standing watching as he gets smaller and smaller.

"It's my fault." I say to Francis, who is attempting to sneak up behind me. "I shouldn't have pulled him into this."

Francis snorts. "Don't do that to yourself kid." He says gruffly.

"Love destroys all possible scenarios for a friendship." He shuffles forward until he's standing beside me.

"You don't want that, do you?"

I pause for a minute taking in his words. Maybe he's right, maybe it was just me. But it really wasn't any of his business.

"I don't need your relationship advice." I mutter.

Francis is quiet. "Suit yourself kid, but whatever hell your going through, just know this."

"And what's that?" I reply growing annoyed.

"I'm always right." He finishes, turning on his heel and walking down the bridge, taking Martha's hand on the way.

I stare down into the murky water that's rushing below the bridge. Something deep inside me longs to simply drop into the water and be pulled away from this nightmare, but I know I have to finish this. Unfortunately, this is only movie #2.

I stare in the water one last time before walking towards the flashy red convertible.

Francis and Martha are muttering about something when I arrive, pulling open the door and sitting down, unnoticed. Martha turns around to look at me with a sympathetic look on her face.

"It's not your fault, Jonathan, he's just a little bit...confused."

I rest my head in my freezing cold hands and hold back tears.

"I just don't understand why this had to happen to me."

I mumble to myself. I hear the click of Martha's seatbelt coming undone, as she turns around completely to look at me.

"Jonathan." she says quietly.

I want to respond, I really do, but I can't bring myself to words.

"If you want our help, you may want to participate in this conversation, so that we can properly facilitate a plan."

I look up at her with a grateful look.

"Thank you for helping Martha, I really appreciate it, but it seems like we aren't really getting anything done."

Francis snorts from the front seat.

"Yeah right kid,"

He says in a smug voice. "This is the most that I've done in one day in a long time."

Rolling my eyes in his general direction, I glance over to the bridge where Matthew is looking out over the water.

"I'll be right back." I tell Martha.

She nods, not really listening. I open the door of the red convertible and cautiously make my way over to Matthew, who looks deep in thought.

"Hey." I say quietly, following in his footsteps by leaning over the edge.

Matthew doesn't acknowledge me, but instead continues to stare intently at the rushing rapids below.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." I reply to his silence.

"I'm fine." He says finally, pulling away from the rail. "I just needed some time to compose myself, that's all." He turns to look at me, with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Do you think we are here for a reason?" He asks, perplexed.

I nod without hesitation. It didn't me long to understand why I was here, but just in case I was wrong, I decided to keep it to myself.

"Did we do something wrong?" He asks once more.

Turning my gaze to match his, I think. I wanted to give him an answer, I felt like he deserved it. He didn't do anything wrong, he shouldn't have been put in this situation. I so I pushed down the gut feeling telling me something wasn't right.

"No, I did something wrong."

Matthew shakes his head, resting his hand on my shoulder. "You didn't do anything."

"It's fine, I haven't had anyone else to blame while I've been here, so I may as well just blame myself." I finish with a slight smile.

Matthew slowly pulls his hand off of my shoulder and looks at me with a serious gaze.

"We are going to get out of here, I promise you."

I hesitantly nod, not attempting to hide my sense of appreciation for his optimism. Wishing I had his glass-half-full attitude, I reply,

"I hope you're right."