In The Sight of These Hills (Dolan Twins)

Into the Woods

Chapter 17: Into the Woods

"Now I break up in pieces that fly about like clubs.

A wind of such violence

Will tolerate no bystanding: I must shriek.

The moon, also, is merciless: she would drag me

Cruelly, being barren.

Her radiance scathes me. Or perhaps I have caught her.

I let her go. I let her go

Diminished and flat, as after radical surgery.

How your bad dreams possess and endow me."

-Elm

By Slyvia Plath 

Ethan froze stiffer than a dead bird left overnight in the place of its demise.

His eyes slowly shifted between the three figures whose formal shoes were making indentions into the dead leaf covered ground. All their eyes were on him, and Ethan could not move.

"Well, hello, E-Tee-Wee-Tee," said Jake with a smirk, his mouth forming a cruel expression as white smoke, like a recurring dread, escaped his lips with the cold.

Ethan's heart plummeted into his stomach when their eyes met fully, holding them there. A second nature type of fear seeped into him like a wet summer t-shirt, and his heart started to pound like one of a rabbit's. He felt it in his chest and it stayed there, pounding even in his temples. With his mouth suddenly dry, he swallowed thickly against the darkness. He took a small step back, and Jake's eyes grew more expressive, as though thrilled by the small indication of distress.

The bruise on his face was a glaring thing, a tainted thing. Ethan stared at it, blinking. He was in center between Alex and Nate who were both looking at him like bloodhounds with ravenous foam dripping out of their mouths, ready to do damage, ready to follow the trail that lead to pain.

Wasn't Jake supposed to be expelled? How the hell did he even get on campus? He wondered where Jack was since he always seemed to be with them. That didn't matter then. Ethan's hands trembled slightly, yet he stilled them with the balling of his fists. If they were going to hurt him, if they were going to beat him bloody, and he knew that is what they wanted, he was going to take it like a man.

"Meredith, leave," said Jake dismissively as though she was a child who had entered her parents' study without their permission. His suit glowed in the low light of the streetlamps, and his shoulders were wide and intimidating. With tears streaming down her face, her eyes darted between the four of them. She shuttered and balled her hands into fists at her side. Ethan's suit jacket felt heavy on her shoulders and she felt sick with them, but mostly, herself. She looked down at the concrete below her feet, and then she looked up at the blacked-out window of the car next to her. Her reflection stared back.

"I'm so sorry, Ethan," she repeated from behind him, but he did not turn to look at her.

It was all a lie. She didn't want to go out with him, she didn't like him. She was with them, and like the way a hunter may use bait to lure in prey they had used her to lure Ethan into their trap, to lure him away from Grayson.

Along with the fear was a dull pain, the pain of betrayal dripped into his mind and stung viciously. He felt it in the hidden place where the heart keeps all his secret emotions. It hurt like a bitch.