Heartless

22

As we pulled onto the street we saw flashing lights by his house. "No matter what happens...you stay behind me. Got it?" Colby said and looked over at me as he parked his car on the street. I nodded and we got out of the car. Sam was outside talking to the cop when he saw Colby and I walking up, "Colby!" He said and ran over. "Dude what happened?" Colby said. I was standing behind him, holding onto his arm. "Someone tried to break in dude...I don't know how they got the code for the gate..they might have jumped it." Sam was frantically looking around as he spoke. Colby pulled him into a hug, "it's okay brother" he said and looked at the house. "Is anyone in there?" I said to the cop, trying to get answers. "We don't know, my partner is checking it out." I couldn't wrap my head around what was happening. My mind was in a haze as Sam and Colby were trying to figure out what happened.

A couple minutes passed and loud noises were coming from the house. Colby protectively stepped in front of me, but I peered from behind his shoulder to see what was happening. Someone came out, I couldn't make out their figure but they were holding something, maybe a camera? They were wearing a mask as they ran up to us, causing Sam and Colby to jump, the person screamed as they ran to us, "WELCOME TO THE MEGAAAA PRANK WAR!" The person pulled off their mask and revealed themselves. "Corey are you kidding?!" Sam said as he laughed. I took a sigh of relief as the three of them laughed and played it up for the video. "How did you even pull that off?? Did you actually call the police?" I said trying to piece it all together. "This is my friend! He has a cop car...I don't really know why but he said he would help me" I had to admit it was pretty genius. They finished up the video and we all went inside eventually. Today had been eventful to say the least but I now had too much energy. We all sat in the game room and chilled out for a minute.

"We should go back to the witch's den." I said softly causing Colby, Sam, and Corey to all look over at me. "No way." Colby said shaking his head. "Why not?" I said raising my eyebrows. He took a deep breath, "you know what happened last time...." his tone was hard to read. "Yeah...but nothing really happened." I protested. "I'm down to go." Sam said and Colby took a deep breath. I don't know why he was being so protective, nothing really happened there. "Alright. Everyone go get ready, we will leave in 10 minutes" Colby said and stood up. He walked upstairs and I followed him to his room. Once we were in his room he took a deep breath.

"What's going on with you." He said turning around to look at me. "What do you mean?" I tilted my head. "I mean why do you all the sudden want to go back to the witch's den. The place that whatever we were talking to said it was going to hurt you. Why do you want to go back so bad?" He looked frustrated but also helpless in a way. I knew he was worried about us going back there, but I was sick of feeling so weak. "I'm sick of being afraid of things I can't see. I'm sick of feeling like a helpless baby that just cries all the time. I'm sick of letting my anxiety take control of me." I didn't notice how worked up I was until Colby was standing closer to me wiping a tear from my cheek. "I'm sick of letting my past control me. I need to be brave for once. I'm sick of being a baby." Colby caressed my cheek, "you're not a baby. You're the strongest girl I know, and you don't have to prove to anyone that you aren't weak..." I took a deep breath, controlling my emotions. "I know I don't. But I have to prove myself wrong." I shook my head, composing myself once again. He looked at me with soft eyes, "there's really no convincing you to not go, is there?" He tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. "No. I have to do this." I was determined to face one of the things that had given me nightmares.

I threw on one of Colby's hoodies and we went downstairs. Sam and Corey were already waiting by the door. We all piled into Colby's car and were on our way. My heart raced as the memories of my dream flooded into my head. Maybe this was a mistake.

As we pulled up I took a deep breath. We had a long hike to get up there but still being here was very unsettling.

Colby grabbed my hand as we hiked, I gave him a reassuring smile. "So what exactly happened here last time?" Corey said. "We came here and something came through the ouija board and said it was going to hurt a girl. And that it wasn't a nice spirit. Cora was the only one playing, and then a rock fell from the ceiling almost onto us." Colby explained as we walked, "and you want to come back here?!" Corey said with a laugh. "You're nuts dude" I knew I was nuts but I had to conquer something for once.

I was determined to not be weak, until I saw it. The witch's den sat in front of us once again.

I was terrified.