Forest

Chapter 5- Glowing Eyes

I woke up that Saturday morning refreshed and warm. The blankets wrapped around me like a cocoon or a nest. I stayed like that for a few moments, taking in all the comfort and calmness. Eventually, I got up out of bed after laying there for a few minutes, grabbed my phone off its charger, and headed down stairs to make myself some coffee and lounge around on the couch. As I headed to the kitchen, I noticed it was 8:30am, meaning that my favorite show of all time was on, so I hurried to make my coffee so I could sit and watch an episode or two before getting ready for the day (even though I had nothing special planned).

Just as I had finished the second episode, there was a knock at my door causing me to jump a little since I wasn't expecting anything or anybody. I slowly got up from the couch and headed to the door to answer it. Just as I had opened the door a crack, Summer came rushing in with a bunch of food in her arms- Chris and Tyler trailing behind her (Chris carrying drinks and more junk food while Tyler carried blankets and pillows) screaming, "SLEEP OVER!!"

I laughed but also turned slightly pink because Tyler had come over and I hadn't showered or brushed my teeth. Despite my protests, no one seemed to care for my appearance as they gathered in to give me a big group hug. After they finally dispersed and I could breathe again, I thanked them for the surprise and told them I was going to take a quick shower and change into some new PJs.

"We should be able to start the 'party' off right watching some Mean Girls," I suggested, since it was only 9-something in the morning, which would allow us to save all the horror movies for night time.

I ran up the stairs towards my bedroom to grab my clothes to take a shower. Once I had new comfy PJs in hand, I headed to the bathroom and hooked my phone up to the bluetooth speaker so that I could have a little jam session in the shower and while I got ready. I turned the shower on and made sure the water was pretty warm before I got in. Since it had been a few days since I washed my hair last, I grabbed the strawberry scented shampoo and lathered that in my hair, messing with the shapes I could make while belting out the song that was on, even doing a small dance. After doing all that for a few minutes I rinsed my hair out and put in strawberry conditioner I had, then grabbed a scrubbie and poured some of my rose body wash on that and washed my body, bopping my head to Jumpsuit by Twenty One Pilots. Once I had finished I rinsed my body and my hair, turned off the shower, and squeezed the remaining water out of my hair so I could wrap it in a towel. I opened the shower door, wrapped my hair and body in a towel, and got out. Since I was in the bathroom connected to my room and wasn't going to wear makeup anyway I decided to just get dressed and ready in my room. I put on my new comfy PJs and some fuzzy socks (because fuzzy socks are the best ever), then headed to the bathroom to hang up my towels and finish drying my hair with a hair dryer. Once my hair was dry, which was after about five minutes with the hair dryer, I threw it up into a messy bun and headed down stairs back to my friends.

As I got back down the stairs I noticed everyone was gone except for Chris, so I asked him where they went.

"Hey pal, where'd Summer and Tyler go?" He looked up at me kind of shocked like he had just came out of his own world and hadn't realized I'd been there.

"Oh I don't know..They just said they were going to get more snacks and stuff, I guess," He replied, giving me a slight shrug before zoning back out. I was shocked because we had plenty of snacks and drinks, then I noticed the back door was open, I screamed. Chris jumped up looking around at what could be wrong.

"CHRIS, THE TREEHOUSE!" His head snapped towards the back door and we both looked at each other for a split second before sprinting towards the woods. I was the first to arrive and climbed up the ladder like my life depended on it, (in a weird way it felt like it did). To my surprise, they weren't there. That fact allowed me to let out a sigh of relief and lay on the floor to catch my breath. I heard Chris climbing up the ladder but all I could do was lay there catching my breath, almost on the brink of tears- a mix of happiness and sadness. Chris laid next to me, out of breath too, but I couldn't move. I was too tired and had too many emotions flowing through me at that moment in time.

After about 10 minutes of laying on the floor, and just trying to calm down over all, Chris and I had both sat up. We heard voices in the distance- not so close as so they would see the tree house, but close enough so where we could hear them talking and laughing.

"They must have gone to the creek," I whispered to Chris, just to make sure that the voices didn't hear us.

"You're probably right," He whispered back, "but why would they have just left the back door open?" Asking not only me but also himself.

We stuck our heads up just enough to be able to see out of the window in the direction we thought we heard the voices. Sure enough, in the distance behind a few trees and bushes, you could see Tyler's jacket and hear Summers loud laugh. I sunk back down so that I couldn't see anything but Chris kept watching- making sure they weren't coming this way. I was in my own world of thought with ideas rushing through my head.

Did Summer like Tyler? Why did they lie to Chris? Does Tyler like Summer? Would Summer break the codes?

I was broken out of my thoughts with Chris shaking my shoulder lightly and asking if I was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just thinking why they had to lie to you," I told him, telling him the partial truth.

Summer and Tyler got back to the house, but soon realized it was empty. Summer knew exactly where we were but she wasn't just going to give away our secret hideout, (I should have had more faith in her than I did). Tyler asked where Chris and I were, but Summer played dumb and said she didn't know and that she would call me to see.

Around five minutes after they got back to the house, I got a call from Summer. Ignoring it and texting her instead, I told her we'd be back in 20 minutes. She just replied with an, "okay, see you then Ru. love you." I didn't bother replying. I was too physically and emotionally drained.

Chris and I continued to lay there until he broke the silence.

"Ruby, are you okay? Like really?" He asked with his voice full of concern. I turned to look at him and saw he was already looking at me, his eyes laced with concern as well. "Yeah I am Chris thank you, are you okay? Cause you know i'm always here for you when you're not." I told him with reassurance and comfort. "Yeah i'm good I just wanted to make sure you were good too." He gave me a nice smile, not the kind of smile you give someone when you want them to stop talking and it's just your lips, but a real smile that reached his eyes and showed his teeth. I smiled back because his was just too contagious. I suggested we should start heading back to the house before it got too late, to which he agreed.

When we arrived at the house, Tyler and Summer were sitting on the floor watching whatever was on TV. We told them that we had went for a walk but got slightly lost. Tyler bought it, but like I said; Summer knew exactly where we were, causing me to silently thank her for not telling Tyler the truth and breaking the code. Chris and I got situated on the couch watching TV with the other two until it got a bit later so that we could start watching scary movies (we were all horror fanatics except for Summer). After about an hour and a half of aimlessly flipping through the channels trying to find something good on, we decided it was finally late enough to start watching scary movies (since the sun had started to set thanks to daylight savings).

6 Hours Later

It was almost midnight by the time we finished our third horror movie of the night, The Conjuring. Chris was passed out, Summer was hiding behind a blanket, and Tyler was laughing his butt off at Summer with her small squeaks and screams. I chuckled at her myself before I got up to grab myself a couple snacks and water. Before I knew it, I passed out on the couch, leaving Tyler and Summer being the only ones awake.

I woke up with a jolt in a cold sweat around 4am. My eyes darted all around the room taking in all my surroundings which soon became familiar. I sat up and drank some cold water remembering the dream, well nightmare I had...

I had woken up to go to the bathroom, as I finished washing my hands and face I looked up into the mirror because it felt like I was being watched. As I looked up the lights went out and I was surrounded by glowing eyes. Some red and orange, others yellow and white. I jumped back from the sink and the lights came back on, that's when I woke up.

I finished drinking the cold water, laid back down on the couch, and drifted back into a deep and peaceful sleep.