The Woods

Chapter 17

(Day 6, Victoria)
     The familiar ceiling was the first thing I noticed. Then as I turned to my right I gazed at the glass doors, the pool, the grass, the fence. I knew where I was. Asher's house? How did I get here? I sat up and looked at my hands, remembering last night. The intestines as the slithered between my fingers.
     My hands were clean, I touched my face. Clean. Apart from the pain in the back of my head I figured it must have been a dream. Suddenly Asher came into the room wearing only pajama pants. My eyes wandered to his torso, but I quickly brought them back to meet his eyes with a slight blush appearing on my face.
"What happened last night?"
"Well, after you fell asleep in my arms I carried you back here and then went to bed myself. Why?"
"I had a horrible dream then. I was in some place out in the woods, and I found a bag of intestines and you weren't there and."
"Hey, calm down. It's alright, it was just a dream."
     He said as he came over and sat on the bed next to me. He must work out. A lot. Asher smiled as he looked at me.  I found myself comforted by his smile and I leaned against him.
"Everything will be fine. We or someone else will find Madeline."
"I know. I know."
     I said, not wanting to disagree or point out that she might not make it through the cold. And then I remembered Janet and how she had gone out in search of Madeline. I hope she'll be alright. Part of me wanted to go help look, but another part said stay here with Asher. Enjoy the moment.
     It felt nice to be in his presence, to feel so safe and secure. As much as I tried I couldn't keep my mind from wondering. I placed my hands on his stomach and looked up kissing him quickly. He stared into my eyes and I stared into his and both of us knew what the other was thinking.
     I was tired of dealing with this reality, tired of thinking about the mess I was caught up in. Finally it seemed like a brief escape was possible. He kissed me back, passionately, lustfully.
"Asher. Stop."
     I said pushing him back. I wanted this, but I knew we couldn't do this. Not now. Not while Madeline is still at risk. I have to get her out of those woods before my family finds her. Asher stopped before giving me one last kiss and then stood.
"I'm sorry. Maybe after this is over."
"It's okay. I'll go get dressed, I might be able to find something for you to wear."
"Thank you."
     He left, the floorboards creaking but otherwise silently. I felt bad, but at the same time we needed to get Madeline out of those woods. I can't. Not while Madeline is missing. I had to keep telling myself that we would think about it after Madeline was found.
     Asher returned wearing a dark blue hoodie and ripped jeans and carrying a dark green sweatshirt and jeans for me. He laid them on the bed in gentle manner before exiting the room quietly. I pulled off my pants and pulled on the new jeans.
     My hoodie was torn and bloody beyond fixable and it felt nice to finally remove it from my body and replace it with a slightly heavier sweatshirt. Keep me more warm. I thought happily.
     I walked over to the door and leaned against the frame as I peered around, looking for Asher. Where did he go? I stepped out into the hallway and traveled towards the kitchen. This place is creepy when you're the only one here. The kitchen was a decent size, spanning from one side of the house to the other.
     I turned the corner into the kitchen and found that terrible smell I had noticed when I first woke up here. The smell I assumed came from the fridge, but upon closer inspection of the refrigerator nothing was off.
     To the left of the refrigerator was a door, which seemed like where the smell was coming from. My hand went for the doorknob and twisted pulling the door open just a crack before it was shut by someone behind me.
"I don't think you want to go down there."
"Why not?"
"Well that smell, I think it is coming from something that died and I have gotten used to the smell. I've been waiting for it to decompose to nothing so it doesn't have a smell."
"Oh. I didn't realize. I smelt it the first time I was here but everything that happened."
"I understand. Sometimes curiosity gets the better of us." He paused.
"So what do we do now?"
"I need to meet back up with Diane, maybe she went back to Parker's house by now."
"Who's Diane?"
"You weren't here."
"Well are you going to tell me?"
"I'll tell you on the way there."
     I started boldly towards the front door, opening it and heading out into the daylight. Asher followed behind his car keys jingling as they swayed back and forth in his hand. He hopped into his car and started the engine just as I climbed in.
"I have no idea where I'm going."
"You should let me drive."
"What? No way!"
"Come on. Please!"
"Fine, but only this once."
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(Day 6, Madeline)
     My breath was unable to pass through my lips. The cold wood froze my skin as I leaned against the island, a large hole in my sweater exposing my skin to the outside. The footsteps only made me descend further into madness, wanting to rush them and at the same time stay hidden. My body shook as the basement door's lock popped and creaked slowly open with curiosity.
"Dad?"
     A young male called into the darkness below the house, holding the secrets from which the house was built upon. Did he know? Was he aware? What if he knew we had escaped? So many thoughts ran through my head. Every scenario played twice over. Most ending terribly for me and the nurse and I couldn't just leave her behind.
     A groan from the basement sent the younger male sprinting downstairs and I chose that moment to act. I sprang around the island, heading straight for the basement door. I was going to lock them down there and then get out of here, but as my hand wrapped around the lock a fist connected with my face.
     It sent me sprawling backwards into a counter. Looking up a woman stood before me. She was by no means small or incapable of handling herself in a dangerous situation. It looked as though she had gone through some sort of training. Training to murder? She charged silently.
     I barely managed to fall away from her, putting me at the disadvantage now on the floor. She slid, barely touching the counter and sprang at me, keeping momentum going. My knees came up instinctively and she landed on them, knocking the wind out of her. Taking advantage of the moment I punched her across the face before kicking her off me.
     She landed against the cabinets, trying to recover. I turned away, trying to stand and get away. A warm hand wrapped around my ankle and tugged hard, my face colliding with the ground. My body flipped over just as she was about to jump on top of me and using the momentum from the spin I punched. She fell against the island and then I kneed her in the stomach.
     The fight in her eyes did not fade. She will fight me to the death! She started clawing at my face, pulling my hair and I did the same. Our faces bloodied and our heads hurt, but the fight wasn't stopping. My body had taken enough and I knew she would kill me eventually. I managed to climb atop her and started to choke her.
     Using both of my hands, the blood and hair on my hands stuck to her throat as I squeezed hard. Then I noticed the change in her eyes. Her knees dug into my back forcefully, knocking me off balance forward. Her hands instantly went to my face trying to do severe damage.
     My thoughts and actions stopped as my head was rammed into the island, my vision tunneling.
     The pantry door burst open and the nurse brought a heavy metal can down onto the woman's face, stopping her assault. She then grabbed me and leaned me onto her, so we could walk away. We made it to the door before we heard a scream behind us.
     We turned and watched as the woman charged with a knife. I was in no condition to be fighting again. The nurse pushed me and I stumbled before falling, the woman's knife finding purchase in the door. She had gotten it lodged in the door.
     I could only watch as the nurse ran back at the woman, who barely ducked out of the way. She had left the knife in the door and began to recharge at the nurse, pinning the nurse against the wall. My voice was too weak to say anything, to call out to her.
     The woman was kneeing and punching the nurse and I couldn't sit idly by. The nurse was barely defending any of the onslaught of attacks. My eyes darted around, the darkness concealing much of the room. Find something Madeline or you and her die now! My hands grabbed a lamp and I ripped the cord from the wall, launching it at the attacking woman.
     It hit and she fell to the side before turning to me, leaving the beaten nurse sitting in front of the door. She stalked towards me, a sinister grin on her face. Then she remembered the knife and pulled it quickly from the wooden door.
"You thought you could outsmart me? The other two wouldn't be alive if I wasn't here! They don't know how to counterplay, outsmart their enemies."
     She spoke in between broken, shallow breaths. Finally she collapsed on top of me, ready to stab. Out of nowhere a loud yell ripped through the air and the woman atop me had no time to react as the nurse tackled her off of me.
     She wrestled the knife from the woman's hand and lodged it deep into the same hand, pinning it to the floor in a last ditch effort to buy us time to get out. The woman howled in pain, attempting to free her hand from the blade while the nurse trudged back over to me.
     She lifted me, supporting both of our broken bodies and opened the front door so we could escape. We stumbled out into the rising sun, dragging ourselves away from the hell house. We had no weapons, no food, no water. But we are going to get out of this.
     The leaves obscured any obvious path that could be used to lead us out of the woods and the snow reflected light back into our eyes from the little patches of snow and ice. Birds just started to chirp until we passed them at which they took flight and flew away.
     I just listened to and watched nature as I was dragged away. Finally my thoughts returned as the nurse set me down and sat next to me sighing. For a moment we sat without any words, just the fast erratic breaths returning to a normal rhythmic pattern.
"I believe you were going to tell me about something before all that?"
"Well, to start my name is Janet."
"You already know my name."
"I work at Everport Hospital and a woman came in. I think those people were her family."
"What a messed up family."
"I helped her get away and then I heard about you and everything began to remind me of what happened before."
"Before what? I've lived here all my life, what don't I know about?"
"This has all happened before."