Josh, Kyle, and I paced quietly farther into the woods. It wasn't long before something else sparked attention to another member of the trio. Kyle suddenly went spiraling into a tree. The roots wrapped around his body like a boa constrictor. Soon, Kyle lay dead against the tree. It was then that Josh and I realized we had lost the creativity of the group. Kyle was always able to come up with interesting things to do at parties or sleep overs. He was the one who thought up blindfolded spin the bottle.
It was just too much for me to handle. I started to sob into Josh's shoulder. Josh held me tight to his chest and kissed me on the head. "It's going to be OK. We're going to be OK," he murmured into my hair. "We're almost out of the woods by now. We have to be. We've been walking for hours. When we get out of here, we can go to the police and have them figure this stuff out."
"We have to make it out alive, Josh! We have to!" I sobbed.
"We will. We will."
Josh and I continued into the woods. When we finally saw something other than moss covered trees, we thought we had made it to the end of the woods. We were wrong. We had stumbled upon the very clearing that Miss Esmerelda Golding's cottage was located in! There, before our eyes, was the old cottage! I let out a shriek of fear. A few woodland creatures scattered from the old building. Josh held me tight so I would stop screaming.
"Shhhhh," warned Josh. "There could still be someone living here. We wouldn't want to disturb them. Maybe if we ask, they will give us directions out of these terrible woods.
"OK," I choked out. "But I'm not talking."
"I'll do all the talking if you want."
Josh and I slowly and cautiously walked toward the little gray home. As we walked, we noticed no evidence of any life in or around the cottage. When we approached the front porch, Josh knocked on the wooden door. There was no answer. Josh turned the handle. It was locked.
"Josh," I squeaked. “I think we should get out of here... quick."
"Relax, Lil. We have to find out what's in this house. There can't be anyone living here, so I wonder why the door is locked. If no one lives here, then nothing should be inside, right? So it won't matter if we go inside and investigate."
"But if there's no one living here, why would we want to waste time looking through an empty cabin?"
"Who says it's empty?"
Josh searched around the cabin for a way inside. There were no windows and no other doors than the one that was locked. However, there was a small opening in the ground where the basement was located. We dug around in the hole and eventually got into the basement. The basement was loaded with mice and crates of unlabeled substances. When the passage opened, hundreds of thousands of scrawny, dirty mice fled. Josh helped me into the basement and we made our way up the stairs and into the living room. Antique furniture covered with cobwebs lined the creme colored wallpaper. Pictures of families and friends covered the walls. A grand chandelier hung from the high ceiling. A large grandfather clock had stopped ticking in the hallway. A series of unrecognizable patterns lined the floor. As we walked across the hardwood floor, the space underneath us creaked. The room seemed much bigger than it looked from the outside.
I gasped loudly as my eyes crossed over something in the far corner.
"Josh! Look over there! In the corner!" I squealed.
Josh turned and nearly tumbled backwards in awe. In the corner, staring blankly back at them, was a black cat, frozen in time.
I let out a terrible scream of terror. Josh held me tight to his chest. "Shhh," he murmured. "It's fine. It's just a cat. We just have to find what we're looking for and we'll be out of here quick."
Josh looked around and saw a bookshelf. There was only one peculiar book, it just stood there and that book stood out to Josh. The book was titled 'Escape from Willow Creek.' He only had to see the words, ‘Willow Creek’, to immediately pick up the book and scan through the yellowing pages.
"What are you doing?" I asked, curiously.
"Trying to find a way out of this hell hole."
I slapped Josh. "Profanity!" I yelled.
Josh just chuckled and continued to skim the pages of the aging book. He finally came across a map through the passages they could escape out of. "Lil! Check this out!"
I rushed over and glanced at the map. "That's the way out! We have to get out of here... NOW!"
Josh and I made a run for the door. Just then, we heard a tree branch snap outside, so we ran faster. As soon as we stepped outside, a spear came hurdling toward them and plunged through Josh's chest. I screamed as I peeked over my shoulder to see my boyfriend on the ground, laying in a pool of blood. I ran as fast as I could over to him, trying not to trigger any other booby traps. I slid on my knees the last few feet and sat by his side, balling. "Josh! No, you can't be gone! We were gonna make it through this together!" I wailed. I sat for an hour with his dead corpse before finally deciding to move on with my journey. I might have been cold and stained with blood, but I wasn't about to give up on the others. I had to get home and tell the police about our encounter tonight. That's what my friends would have wanted me to do. I pried the book of maps out of Josh's cold hand and gave him our last kiss goodbye. With tears rolling down my face, I set off on one of the most numbing trips of my young life. I took one final glimpse of the clearing, the cottage, the dried up river, and, finally, Josh before disappearing into the dark woods.
I followed the winding path for many hours before deciding to rest beneath a tall oak tree. I gazed up at the stars, the full moon shinning bright above me. The early peak of dawn started to glisten over the tree tops as I finally started to drift deeper and deeper into sleep. Within a few minutes, I was dreaming soundly, my head placed carefully in the soft grass.
