Red As Roses and Black As Night

12. Don't Look Away

Illea was clawing at my shirt. "Put me down!" she shouted, but the way she was shaking told me otherwise. I couldn't stop thinking about Henri, though. The thing that used to be our teacher is now going after him, making the chances of him living very slim.

I stopped running and leaned on a tree. I was lost, that's for sure. The park is huge, and finding my way out wouldn't be very easy. Illea held onto my hand, though she did lead the way through the forest. "So, you know where we're going?" I asked her.

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Away from where we last saw Mr....um, where we last saw the thing." she muttered the last part as if it were bad news. In part it was. A nice teacher gone, as well as another thing out to kill us. I squeezed Illea's hand. "We'll make it out of this alive. I promise." I told her, but she shook her head. "No. Don't make any promises."

"What? Why not? I'm sure I can keep this one."

"Whatever." she hissed, yanking my hand to make me keep up. I stumbled after her, trying not to trip on the forest floor. There were so many logs down here, a lot more that I thought there would be. I just happened to glance down and see that, in fact, it was not a log I tripped over.

An arm. I tripped over a shriveled arm. The rest of the body...well, I think I see a leg farther back and another to my left. But I didn't smell any blood. Not a single drop. "Illea, I think we should rely on my smell for the time being." I told her, not taking my eyes from the arm. I dreaded looking up, maybe knowing if I did I'd find the rest of the body.

Illea didn't respond. "Illea?"

She remained silent. She was trembling now, looking at...something. I turned to meet her gaze and yelped. Two pale corpses stood about twenty feet away, clothing in rags around them. Their skin clung to their bones, muscle gone. Their eyes were black and glassy, rolling around loosely. Their hair came in matted blonde clumps, blood coating their stomachs. I could recognize one to be a man and the other a woman. I could almost see through the man's stomach, where maggots and rotting flesh lay.

"Illea, slowly walk away."

She still didn't do anything. She was crying now, though. And then I caught the faintest of whispers escape her lips. "Mommy...daddy..." She fell to her knees, nearly bringing me with her. I picked her up. "They aren't your parents, Illea. Just dead bodies."

The woman opened her arms, and from her distorted mouth she said, "It's me, Illea. Remember me? How I used to dry your tears when you were sad? Come here, so I can dry them once more."

Illea struggled in my grasp. "Illea, no!" I said, giving her a deadly bear hug and running away from her parents. She clawed at my hands, at my neck, at my arms. She even bit me a few times, but I didn't let her go. I ran faster, but the footsteps behind me were coming quicker than mine. I whirled around and ran towards them--past them, actually. They were that close. I kept running until Illea kicked the back of my leg, making me fall and crush her.

She scrambled away from me and ran to the couple--her used-to-be parents. I struggled to get up, but now something was holding me down. I turned around to find a wolf--Henri. He was hunched over me, growling. I didn't know who he was growling at; me for annoyance, Illea's parents because they're trying to eat us, or Illea for making me fall. I tried to get up again, but he pressed his forepaw on my back.

"Illea, no!" I shouted, but it didn't help. I saw a hand pierce through her stomach, coming through her back and holding a soft something....an organ...Illea screamed, blood coming from her mouth. She fell to the ground as her parents began to chomp on her and take bits and pieces of her body.

And I sat and watched the whole thing.

I tried to look away, I really did, but I heard a choked plea come from Illea's dying lips: "Please, don't look away." So I watched the light leave her eyes as the began to fog over with black. I watched as her blood turned from red to black. I watched as the blackness oozed from her mouth and she got frail until not a drop of blood was left inside her. The black substance went to her parents, and they soaked it up.

Then and only then did Henri get off and run.

I followed, my feet running faster than before. I was stumbling over things--logs or limbs, I didn't know--and tears streamed down my face faster than the river we were running along. I could tell Henri was running slower than he could for me, but I didn't try to run faster. My heart hurt to much.

Everyone I know is either dead or in danger of dying. Even Emma. Now Illea is gone, the teachers are dead, my classmates are strewn about the forest, and the possibility of me dying is highly probable.

I wish my mom hadn't signed the paper.

I tripped over a leg, so hard that I fell to my knees. Henri nudged me, urging me to get up. I knew I could trust where he was going, in his wolf form his sense of smell was a lot stronger. He kept running in seemingly random directions, and the smell of decay began to fade with it. But I didn't want to think we've made it. Because in movies, that's when something bad happens, and right now, this is all too much of a horror movie.

We hit a fence. It was fifteen feet tall and rimmed with razor wire. Henri whimpered beside me, because we both knew that it was made of silver.

We're screwed.

Henri paced the forest floor, stress radiating from him. I ran a hand through my hair. Though we were alone, my heart was still pounding, like someone would round the corner any minute and kill us. But we had to be safe. We had to be. Need to be.

Henri began to change back. He lay on the ground now, whimpering and growling. Vulnerable. Now I had to stand guard for my best friend while man-eating things are on the loose in the forest, probably looking for us right now.

My heart trembled. Yes, trembled. It's never done this before, but now it is. My whole body was shaking right now, actually. Henri--despite the pain he must be in--nudged me. I could almost hear him say Chill out, man. I took a deep breath. He was right.

I ran a hand through my hair--shoulder length, but now I was second-guessing. Maybe I should get it cut when I got out of this. I took a deep, shaky breath. Let it out. Rubbed my eyes. Maybe this will all go away. We'll get out of here, call the police, and then be safe. It'll end up just being a serial killer on the loose and we just had hallucinations about dead bodies. Then everything will be fine.

It has to be.

I opened my eyes. Henri was mostly human now, aside from all the fur that still coated his body. I yanked off my hoodie and threw it over his tush--we may have the same parts but that doesn't mean I want to see them.

The more I thought about getting out of the forest, the more I believed it. When Henri was standing beside me, I'd convinced myself it was all a hallucination.

Until I smelled rotting flesh and heard slow, heavy footsteps. Slow, through the forest.

 And laughter.