When The Darkness Sets In

Chapter Four

Kassandra's Point Of View:

The periods drag on and finally it's lunch. Everyone sits in our normal spot, outside the cafeteria. The tension is so thick, you can cut it with a knife. Everyone remains silent, they all look like they didn't get enough sleep. Well I guess I'm not the only one.

"Are we literally not going to talk about what happened last night?" Andrew breaks the silence. Tory clears her throat and looks at us, her eyes hold fear and she begins to play with her fingers. It was something she did whenever she was scared or nervous. "I uh...there was something in my room last night." Her voice is shaky and she trembles a bit. "There was something in my room too, it was watching me sleep and when I turned the light on, it disappeared. I don't know if I'm seeing things but whatever I saw, it was the same thing from last night." Joey explains his story while rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"I uhm saw the same thing too and it tried to touch my neck so I screamed and my dad was awake so he rushed in the room and whatever that thing was, it...it just like disappeared." Jane's figure trembles as she lets out a shaky breath.

"So everyone saw the same thing in their room?" I ask. Everyone nods simultaneously and I hug myself as I begin to shake. "You need to tell us what's going on Kassandra." Andrew says and my eyebrows furrow. "Me? How am I supposed to know what's going on?"

"Your necklace glowed yesterday. Does anyone even want to know how that happened? We need answers and you're the only here that can give us that because as far as I can see, you were the one that said those words and that thing just disappeared and not to mention that photograph in that cabin."

I stand up abruptly and stare at him, "Are you saying I'm the one to blame for this? Guess what genius if I knew what was going on I would have already said so. I don't know why my necklace glowed and I don't know what's the connection between me and that photograph. I'm just as confused and scared as you all so please before pointing a finger at me, think because it wasn't my idea to go to the forest last night and I would never want to put any of you in danger."

My breathing begins to quicken and I clench my fists. Andrew clenches his jaw, clearly not pleased with the way I spoke to him. Well that's his own problem. I could care less. "Then how did you know to say those words?"

"My grandmother said whenever I'm scared I should say that and at that point I didn't know what else to do, so I said it. I didn't know what would be the consequences of it!"

"Can both of you just chill? Kassandra we are not blaming you for what's happening." Jane tells me softly. I huff and cross my arms, "Well the little bad boy here is." This seems to tick Andrew off. He bangs his fists on the table and stands up, "You are the one to blame for this! You're dumb enough to not know that's it's you in that photograph and whatever that thing was maybe it was guarding that place and when you said those words, it got scared. So yes little nerd, you are the fucking one to blame for this and for putting all of us in danger!"

He storms off to the cafeteria and everyone stares at me with wide eyes and their mouth hung open. I decide I need to take a walk to clear my mind. I walk around the yard of the school and breathe in the fresh air. Andrew's words ring in my head. What if I am the baby in that photograph? Everything at this point makes no sense.

When I'm finally calm I walk back to the table and sit down. Everyone is engrossed in their own conversations which I'm grateful for. Suddenly something catches my eye. It's a small child.

"Do you guys see that small child over there?" I ask.

Everyone turns their head and scan the area. "Uhhh there's no small child there", Tory says. "What? His right there in the yellow t-shirt." Everyone turns to me as if I'm crazy. "I'm telling you there's a child there, just look!" They shake their heads and Jane grabs my hand, "Kass you're probably just tired." I snatch my hand back and stand up.

"I'm not hallucinating!"

I stare at the child and suddenly a black figure grabs it. I scream and everyone turns their head. "What the fuck! It's back!" Everyone huddles in a group and I clutch my necklace. The figure eyes us and gives us a sinister smile. It's sharp teeth is covered in blood and it's claws dig into the boys hand. "Let go of him!" I scream. The figure snaps his fingers and a black circle appears out of thin air. It grabs the child and disappears into the black circle, leaving it to vanish once it's gone.

"What the hell just happened?"

I turn my head and Andrew looks pale.

"He took the little boy."

"What? There wasn't a little boy." Joey says. I shake my head and my palms begin to sweat, "I saw a little boy."

"I saw him too." Andrew says. He walks up to me, "Did he have a yellow shirt?" I nod my head and everyone stares at us. My mind begins to become a jumble sale as questions are just thrown into my head.

"We need to find out what's going on. I say we go back to the forest." I look at Andrew as if his out of his mind. "Are you crazy? What if that thing is there?"

"Well at this point we have to take our chances because we need answers. So everyone meet me after school." Andrew orders.

This guy is crazy.