The Survival

Chapter 51

The forest seems darker, like the glow that it once had suddenly disappeared. Maybe it's just my imagination and after everything that happened to us, my mind has finally lost it and the dark thoughts that were once hidden in the deepest corner of my mind come out to haunt me.

Or the forest is in fact more sinister than I ever noticed or turned like that these last few days.

With the passing time the fear in me is eating me alive. I'm afraid that we will never leave the woods, I'm afraid of what can happen to me, to Beth and to Nathan. I'm also afraid of Ed, who has been missing for two days now.

When I think back to the day that we first entered the woods I feel like that day was a decade ago, not a month or two, time has slowed down for us, our phones don't work, and we simply can't reach anyone.

The faith that we once had is being ripped from us by each passing day that we remain here. Faith is leaving me just like sanity.

Sometimes I just want to give up and tell Nathan and Beth to leave me because I can't handle this pressure and uncertainty anymore, but it would be very selfish of me, because I know that they need me, just like I need them.

If someone had told me days before I went on this trip that I would get myself stuck in a haunted forest and I would see one of my best friends dying, I would tell them to go see a doctor right before I slap them. But now... well, now my life is upside down.

I didn't know what I wanted to be and follow after finishing college, I didn't know how my future would turn out, yet this was definitely not the way.

"Shit!" I break from my thoughts and look up to find the source of the curse, Nathan tries to hold himself up because he stumbled over a twig. I try to reach for him and grip his bicep, but he is already falling, and my strength has nothing to do with his and I can't beat gravity, so I end up following behind him.

My chin hits the ground and my teeth crash together sending a painful pain to my brain, my elbows are bleeding thanks to the dirt lying on the ground and I can't feel my members.

We don't have more energy, not only in a mental way but also physical. Our meals have been berries and nuts, the only thing we can find. But our bodies need more than that, otherwise they can't coup with us. I'm basically flesh and bones, so is Beth, though Nathan is in better condition than us, you can see that he is also affected.

I rest my forehead on the ground and tries to slow down my harsh breaths, that's when I feel a rough hand gently caressing my hair, I turn my neck to see him and my heart almost stops.

He is covered in dirt and he looks very pale, he is skinnier yet he remains very well built with all the muscles on the right places but you can tell that he is weaker, he has dark circles under his eyes because of all the nights that he stays up to watch over any threat that can come to us, his lips are bruised and purple since the winter has arrived and hasn't been gentle to us, and his eyes...

"They don't shine like they used to.." I mumble, not realizing that I said that out loud, Nathan quirks his eyebrow before he realizes what I mean.

He shakes his head and covers the side of my face with his much larger hand while rubbing his thumb on my very prominent cheekbone, "They still shine when they see you."

I pass my hand over his hair that now is very long and reaches his shoulders, we are still lying on the ground, our clothes are getting wet because of the snow but I don't care. We have been so focused on how to leave this place and avoid Ed, that with so many thoughts in our minds we haven't had a moment to stop, think and just... I don't know, just have this.