Fight or Flight

Prologue

Prologue.

Two friends were playing in a forest, which was the main cause for most of the myths in the small town that they called home. But they didn't care, besides they had no idea that this would be the main cause for all their problems in their later lives.

The girl had to move her jet black fringe out of her face again, while her big brown eyes sparkled with excitement and curiosity, as she ran through the trees, her blue jacket flowing behind her as the fallen leaves crunched under her grey sports shoes. Her best friend was trying to catch up with her but was having a little trouble. His short brown hair wasn't much trouble to look after, unlike his friend. He stopped and leant against the tree as his brown eyes scanned around the trees, he couldn't see his friend anywhere. As he turned around, his friend decided to jumpscare him, causing him to jump in fright, a little scream escaping from his mouth before placing his hand on his chest in an effort to calm his beating heart.

"Really?!" He complained to her while she just stood there and laughed. The boy looked at her and smiled a little, he would admit it.

"Your reaction was the best," She said with a childish laugh as she kicked some leaves around "Come on, this place isn't that scary." Said the girl as she tried to get her friend to follow her more into the forest, but he wouldn't budge from his spot

"I...I don't know. Why don't we just stay here? Mum and Dad said to go further than here or bad things start to happen" The boy said as he stepped back, with a panicked look in his eyes.

Huffing, she walked back over to her friend and stood in front of him.

"Fine, but when we are older... We are going to explore the entire forest and prove our parents wrong that there is nothing to be scared of in here!" She shouted and threw her hands in the air, her voice echoing around them and through the forest, alerting something that laid in the shadows of the trees that was now watching the two children.

"Can we head home now, it's getting dark, and this part of the forest gives the creeps." The boy mumbled as he spotted two sets of eyes in the distance

"Alright, you big scaredy cat... RACE YA!" The young girl shouted as she speeds past him.

"Unfair!" Her friend shouted and ran after her

Laughing, they raced each other out of the forest.

They ran out of the forest and found themselves in the girl's paddock, spooking her mare as it reared its head back before trotting off to the other side.

"Well....that was....fun" the boy puffed as he tried to get his breathing back to normal again. "But I have....to go. See ya tomorrow."

"Alright" she replied as she hugged him. "I'll come round tomorrow, the usual time." With that, she let go of him and jogged all the way to her back door and disappeared into her house while the boy climbed over the fence and went into his. But back in the forest, four pairs of eyes were watching the two kids every movement before moving back into the forest, the glow of its eyes disappearing into the darkness

Next Day.

Knocking on the door, the young girl waited outside the boy's house.

"Hello!?" She banged on the door again. By now she was getting worried, he would have answered by now. Opening the door, she stepped into his house. She had only taken a few steps in when she heard the crunch of broken glass that once formed a vase and several picture frames with the pictures either in shreds or stabbed into the wall by the glass that had blood on it that had dried hours ago. She rushed back out and back to her own house to drag her parents over so they could ring the police. They followed her into the house as they watched their footing as they followed her. Even more worried, she cautiously walked into the lounge and found it in disarray.

One half of the table on the wall while the other half had disappeared, the couches in shreds and on their sides. Photos out of there frames and glass covering the floor, and bloody hand marks smeared across the walls. Walking over to a photo that lay on the ground partly covered, the girl picked it up. It was a picture of her and her friend sharing an ice cream sundae, ice cream smeared over their face while both of them had massive grins on their faces as well. It was taken the week before this happened. Her father rested his hand on her shoulder as her mother sighed sadly. Her father decided to search the rest of the house for any clues to where her friend could be. He didn't see the mess in the kitchen. However, for the girl, she turned around and froze. She had to cover her mouth to stop her vomiting up her breakfast all over the floor, there, in the kitchen, was the bodies of his parents, hanging from the ceiling. Foam dripping from their mouth and down their chins, claw marks running across their bodies and all over their faces, their clothing was torn and an arm each had been ripped out of their sockets and were thrown on the floor. Their eyes weren't even in their heads anymore and were actually put into a jam jar that still had mouldy jam in the bottom was sitting on the counter. The pain and panic will be frozen forever on their faces. The girl collapsed to knees as she shook, her blood had gone cold as she screamed at the top of her lungs and broken down into tears. Not caring about the glass cutting into her legs as she knelt on top of it. Her parents came running back to find what she had just seen, her mother was unable to hold down her breakfast and had to rush outside. The girl's father was stronger though as she tried to comfort his daughter, hugging her close and shielding her face from the horrible scene. But nothing could rid of her pain; Her best friend's parents were brutally murdered and he was missing. She could only hope that they would find him.

7 years later.

The girl was now 17 and had just finished high school. That day will always stick with her, she still wakes up at night to the images of her friend's parents bodies imprinted into her mind. She had also just finished her counselling to help her with her flashbacks, nightmares and just learning how to cope with all of it. The picture that she found she carries around her wallet, just so that she could never forget him. The police had called off the search as they couldn't find any evidence leading to her best friends location. She never stopped looking though.

Walking down the main street of the town, she only glanced in a few shop windows. Nothing really caught her eye. She had just finished her last counselling session, so she wanted to think over the final tips the counsellor had given her. She turned down an alleyway as a shortcut to get back to the house when she bumped into someone. After muttering a few sorry's. She looked up and she saw a face that she had resigned to never seeing again. Her best friend that disappeared 7 years ago, one of her reasons for all of her stress, was standing in front of her, fit and healthy like nothing happened that day. She gazed up in his brown eyes that still had the glint of mischief, the smile still on his face, the same one from the last time they saw each other

"Hello, Sofia." He said to her softly, as if he didn't want to scare her away.

She choked back the tears and just hugged him, burying her head into his shirt and muttered. "You're a bastard, Jessie."