The Woods

Chapter 27

(Day 8, Madeline)
     The hands squeezed tightly around my shirt as I was pulled forcefully away from my former body, now just a corpse in the middle of nowhere. Alongside nature. Tears wouldn't come to my face as I watched helplessly.
"Madeline, I need to get up! Come back! Come back to me!"
     My eyes burned as the words escaped my mouth, useless like I myself was. Nothing I did would make her come back. Make me come back. I stared sorrowfully as I prepared to take my final look at my body. I imagined the beautiful smile creeping across her face as she finally understood a joke.
     Every cut and every bruise passed before my eyes as I recalled each and every one. Every happy memory she had lived through. I had lived through. Snowflakes gently caressed her lifeless cheeks.
"It's over. She lost. I lost... We lost."
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(Day 8, Victoria)
     The warming sun scaled over the tall trees and short shrubs. The sneaky thorns and creeping vines. The shriveling flowers and dying leaves. It reflected of drifting snow flakes and silky spiderwebs.
     The woods felt so alive and yet dead. No animals sang or pranced, ate or called. Just the occasional crack of twigs and constant crunch of dead leaves from autumn's bitterness.
"Help! Someone help! Please!"
     My head snapped up towards the voice as I stopped mid movement. Crashing through the woods screaming was a woman. Her dark red, brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail and she was wearing red and black jogging outfit.
     Her face was bloodied and her legs had been cut by an unknown source. I moved to get closer but felt a sting in my leg. Looking down I noticed thorns aggressively cutting into my right thigh. I pulled sharply, the thorns dragging down the length of my pants, ripping them severely. Using a thorn I cut off the entirety of the leg at mid-thigh.
"Someone!"
     The woman shouted again. I was about to call back and rush to help her when a shadow leaped from the bushed and tackled her. My mind shut down as I watch Asher take a knife to the screaming woman and pin her shoulder to the ground with his knife.
     Her painful screams erupted through the woods, scaring off a nearby group of birds, which took flight. Asher then slowly pushed down to the side of the knife, so it pried her arm away from her shoulder. He then dragged it downwards, cutting half of her arm off from the shoulder.
     Blood pooled around her useless arm as she screamed one last time, abruptly cut off by Asher's blade sinking deeply into her throat. Her cries turning into choked pleads. I watched in terror as Asher then raised her shirt, exposing her stomach and began to carve a check mark  Into her abdomen.
     The blood flowed from her mouth as she spit it up, mixing with the tears that rolled down her face. Asher then grinned menacingly before standing and brushing himself off.
"Sorry, no loose ends."
     Asher then stalked off the way she came from. I blinked as I took a breath. Then I rushed over to the woman on the ground. I put my hands on her neck, applying pressure, but not achieving anything. Blood still oozed between my fingers as I tried to stop the bleeding.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"Girl… there."
     Her weakened limb lifted an inch of the ground towards the direction that Asher had gone in. I tearfully nodded at her as she closed her brown eyes for the last time. I pulled her body into the most open part of the area I was in, in hopes of being able to return to recover her body.
     After dealing with that I sprinted to catch up with Asher. Don't have found Madeline. You sick freak. I hoped and cursed. My hand found purchase on a knife in my back pocket, which I drew and held tightly in my hand.
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(Day 8, Diane)
     Officer Buck ran out the door, pulling his keys from his pocket as he ran to his car. I followed close behind and climbed into the passenger seat as the car started. He reversed from the spot and began to drive furiously with the lights and siren on, people pulling over to provide room for him to drive through.
"So how do you know where she is?"
     He asked, his voice a bit deep and harsh, but with light tone.
"I- Ever since I was born I have had visions. Like I'm me but inside her head, looking through her eyes. I know it sounds ridiculous! But you have to believe me!"
"I do."
"What?"
"A couple years back I met this woman, a bit older than I was, but we liked each other. She was a nice lady, and we were great friends. But she had a gift. Or a curse. She could look into people's futures and see how they would die. I was skeptical at first, but then when she accurately predicted the death of people in the town I had to admit I was suspicious, but in awe. I asked her to tell me mine, but she didn't want to. She was afraid of something. She wasn't believed by many people and was called a witch. She isolated herself in the woods, growing tomatoes and living peacefully. I like to think she is still out there, eating tomatoes and sitting by the fire, reading."
"Was her name Mary?"
"Yeah. How did you know?"
     I didn't want to upset the police officer, but he deserved to know the truth, as sad as it was. I couldn't hold back the tears it brought to my eyes. To think that they had known each other. I thought of how helpful she was to me and to my sister.
"She died, protecting my sister."
     I could feel the emotions in the room drop to a low point. I had told him what he deserved to know. He took shallow breaths, trying to avoid crying as he pushed harder on the gas.
"How did she die? Was it quickly?"
"Relatively. She was shot, preventing Asher from harming my sister. She died a hero."
"You know what she told me before she left?"
"What?"
"That she was willing to give her life for the life of others. Told me I would die doing that very thing. And here I am, but I've accepted that I could die. At any time that I go on one of these missions, I could die."
"I'm so sorry."
"So..." He started with shaky breath, "Are the visions voluntary?"
"No, not usually, but Mary taught me how to do it purposely."
     He smiled at the words.
"Can you see her now?"
"Let me try."
     I closed my eyes and imagined the ocean, a distant beach, free of people. Just an evening along a sandy beach at night. The stars illuminating the sky above me as my toes shifted through the sand. The moon beamed down at me, but was suddenly covered by clouds.
     A strong wind blew the clouds across the sky, covering the stars, the only sound was the crashing of the now violent sea against jagged rocks emerging from the ground beneath my feet.
"Madeline!"
     I yelled out over the waves, hoping for a response, but receiving nothing in return. The darkness overwhelmed me as my vision ended and left me staring blankly out the windshield.
"What did you see?"
"There was nothing."
     My voice was monotone, lacking emotions or tone.
"What does that mean?"
"She's… dead."
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(Day 8, Natalie)
     Madeline lied there before me. My sweet child lost to nature and the elements of the world. I cradled her lifeless corpse in my arms as I wailed and screamed. Pleading and crying.
"My baby! Come back! Don't leave me, don't go! Please baby come back! Wake up, momma's here! I've got you baby! Come on! Come back to me. I love you."
     My frail body rocked back and forth as the snow fell gently around me, the sun hiding behind dark, gloomy clouds as my child left the cruel world behind. I tucked her head into my shoulder as I looked around. So much death. Diane's body sat against a tree, a large stab wound in her gut, blood running from both her wound and mouth, which hung open.
     Another woman's body lied bloody in the blanket of snow, multiple stab wounds in her stomach as she lied there broken. Dead. Standing was difficult, but not impossible. I continued to stare at the destruction around me. Amber was facedown in the snow, blood pumping out from around the knife lodged deep into her back.
     A police officer lied dead next to Diane's corpse. The gun fell from my hand, a soft crunch as it landed in the snow at my feet. My knees trembled weakly from the weight and my arms shivered from the cold.
"Baby, we're gonna go home. Don't worry I've got you tightly in my arms. I'm never gonna let go! No one can make me. You're mine!"
     I choked back burning tears as I turned away from the carnage behind me. Step after step I moved further away, carrying the motionless body of my own child. I returned to my house, laying her down on her old bed, covering her with a blanket.
"I'll go get an ambulance and they can help you."
     I grabbed my phone and dialed an ambulance, then waited silently as the man on the other end spoke into my ear. The sirens finally arrived and I opened the door for them, pointing to the back room as I looked in a mirror at myself. My hair was a mess, hairs sticking out everywhere and blood streaked through some parts.
"It's my fault."
     I inhaled deeply and sharply as I sat up in my bed. My tank top was drenched in sweat and tossed the heavy blanket off of me before walking to Madeline's old room. She wasn't there. No one was except myself, sitting silently staring at the bed.
     I blinked a couple times before shutting the door. Then stepped into the bathroom to look at myself. My eyes were red and bags hung low underneath. My baby girl is out there alone. I thought to myself for the countless time. A noise from the living room caught my attention.
"Amber?"
     I called out into the house, stepping away from the mirror. My hair moved silently over my shoulders as I turned both ways to look down the hallway, finding no one there.
"I'm in the living room Natalie!"
     Amber called back from the living room. My heart felt relieved to hear her voice, to know that she was not in fact dead. The carpeted floor rendered my footsteps silent. Amber jumped slightly when I walked into the room.
"You look a bit scrambled."
     She commented as she readjusted her sitting position on the couch. I yawned before stepping onto the tile kitchen floor to find something to eat. Amber stood and walked over, placing her arm gently over my shoulders.
"Do you want me to make something for you?"
"No I can make it myself."
     I refused her offer and she let go of me, returning to her seat as I opened the refrigerator and grabbed the milk, setting it down on an empty countertop. Closing the fridge I already had my eyes set of the cabinet above the sink, which held the cereal on one side and bowls on the other.
     I grabbed a box and bowl, setting them down on the counter, fixing myself the bowl of cereal I wanted to eat. I replaced the cereal box in the cabinet and the milk in the fridge and then grabbed a spoon, gently laying it in the bowl which I set on the table.
"We have to go find Madeline."