The Where House

Ricky

We've been walking for at least six hours. Silently. Everyone afraid to speak of what we're walking away from. We're all on edge, flinching at the sound of every snapping twig. Gwen leads our group with no sense of direction. I step on another twig and the three kids behind me jump. I look back at them for the first time since we've started walking.
There's a tall boy, at least 6ft. He's got sandy skin and short dark hair. He looks beat up, stained blood on his shirt and long scratches on every limb. I turn around to see that Gwen is far ahead of me. I run to catch up but catch my toe on the edge of the tree's root. My feet are swept from under me and I hit my chin on a rock. Gwen turns around and pulls out a knife, searching pointlessly for whoever caused me to fall. The tall boy that was behind steps over me. I sit up and bring my fingers up to my chin, it greets my them with bright blood. A girl sits down next to me and pulls out some kind of cloth out of her bag. She's small, no older than 10. She has even darker skin then the tall boy and her hairs is pulled back into a giant frizzy ponytail. She smiles at me and wipes the blood off my chin.
"Leave her alone Grace!" A bigger version of grace pulls her to a stance by her hood. Sisters. They've all continued walking without me. I push myself up and follow. Grace's older sister walks with a limp. There's strange thick liquid oozing from her right thigh.
"Hey!" I yell.
They all turn around and I point to Grace's older sister.
She looks right at me and then turns back around. She's left a trail of whatever is coming out of her leg, she can't keep walking.
"Hey stop!" I yell
She turns around and starts walking towards me. As she's walking her eyes widen and her mouth opens. She stops suddenly and her eyes roll back in her head. She starts to shake and then she falls backwards. Me and Grace run towards her. She's still shaking so Grace flips her on her side, and I place my hands under her head.
                   
It's been about ten minutes since she's stopped seizing. I roll her over and pull up her pant leg. There's four even scratches on her leg. They're swollen and there's a yellow liquid oozing from the center. They're deep and I can tell by the amount of blood on her pants that she's been bleeding for a while. Grace's eyes are filling with tears as she cradles Chances head. I grab her wrist to find a pulse, nothing. I tear the rolled up material from her pants and tie it around the wound, to attempt to stop anymore bleeding. Mainly for Grace's sake, I know Chance is gone, she's lost too much blood. Gwen starts walking towards us. Once she see's Chance's legs she pushes me away and unties my makeshift bandage. She looks and cups her hands over her mouth. She quickly ties it back up and walks towards me.
"She's gone" I tell her, almost too quickly.
Gwen just nods and walks over to Grace. She places a hand on the small of her back and says something. Her words knock Grace backwards, she falls and starts to sob. We all jump as Grace let's out a scream, as if someone had swiftly sliced open her chest and pulled out her heart, crumbling it into tiny pieces. The tall boy finally stops walking but doesn't turn around. He walks over to a tree and leans up against it. Still not turning around. I walk over to Grace and grab her hand. I kneel down beside her and she falls into my lap. I can feel her tears seeping through my leggings. Gwen has started digging a hole next to us, using only her hands. Some of the dirt crawls underneath her nails but she's not the type to care. It takes her about 10 minutes to dig a whole deep enough to hold Chance. Grace stays in my lap the whole time. As Gwen clears her throat Grace pulls away from me. She looks at me, her eyes soggy. One final tear runs down her face as she turns around and steps over Chance's limp body.