The Survival

Chapter 52

 "If someone saw your faces they would say that you just saw a ghost." His voice sends daggers into my chest and makes goosebumps appear on my skin, and not on a pleasant way.

I can see the way the corner of his lips are twitching, obviously trying to contain an evil smirk, his eyes seem almost black which causes my heart to skip a beat, he radiates dangerous, his gaze is so dark that I could swear that he can see every single one of my deepest secrets.

The tall but skinny man before me has dark, messy hair that looks in need of being washed, his clothes are dirty and ragged. He must be in the house of 25 to 27, although his physical condition make him look older... yet, something about him is palpable and I don't need a specialist to tell me that the man before me is the one that has been with us in these woods, the very same man that has been haunting my nightmares, chasing us through these tall trees and if I'm not wrong, most likely killed 8 innocent girls.

"You seem a little pale. Are you okay?" He addresses me, with fake concern venomously dripping from his voice while his dark eyes seem to borrow right into my soul.

My brain finally manages to process his words and I couldn't agree more with him, I must be really pale almost like snow, and not the type of snow that is under my feet that is dirty and stained, but that pearly white.

Internally, I smack myself on my head. He is seeing my fear through my lack of colour, he can probably even scent and smell it just like a wild animal would. I wish I could be brave, I wanted to be able to puff my chest out, raise my chin and show him that he doesn't scare me... but that is not who I am, and he probably wouldn't believe that little act of courage.

At this moment, I'm just a pathetic girl facing a very dangerous man.

A scared girl seeing her worst nightmare.

I'm just a sheep and he is the bad wolf.

Above all, he is the hunter and we are the prey.

"Let him go." Slowly but surely, my brain cells start to react and began to work. The shock of seeing this... this creature, made my blood freeze and my breath hitch at a point that maybe even my heart stopped working, even if not for a few seconds.

I turn my head to the source of the voice, and find Nathan not very far from me, yet I'm sure that when we were seeing the tombstones we had a bigger distance separating us.

I take a careful look at his expression, he looks emotionless and heartless but when you look closely you can see his eyes swirling with emotions. His jaw is locked at the point that his teeth must be almost shattering, his shoulders are tense, and you can see a vain on his neck and forehead very prominent probably due to the stress and the atmosphere we are in.

Nathan's posture is one of defense and carefulness, and I get it, I just don't understand his words. I look at him with an eyebrow raised and I plead for him to sense my doubts and connect his gaze with mine but that doesn't occur, so that only makes me turn towards the man.

A gasp leaves my lips when my eyes finally register what Nathan was saying, what his phrase meant.

In front of the man is Ed with an expression of horror stamped on his face, the reason for it is the knife that the man has press into his neck.

"Hmm, but where would be the fun in doing that?" His laugh booms through the forest for a while, only for silence to replace it when he finishes. No one dares to talk or even tries to answer is question, why would we? It's obvious that it was a rhetorical one and he is the one with all the cards.

"Oh, how rude of me! I haven't presented myself yet." He places his free hand over his heart in pain, but in a millisecond later it goes back to where it was before to Ed's forearm, "My name is Danny or if you prefer, you can call me by my birth name, Daniel."