INIZIO

V | FIVE

He couldn't sleep.

Despite how tired he was, he couldn't close his eyes in a peaceful slumber. Jayden had tossed and turned and finally, after realizing he wasn't going to get any sleep anytime soon, he pulled himself up and dragged himself to his front porch, where he could admire the moon in all its lovely splendor.

The fresh night air filled his lungs and he sighed in relief. There were moments in which he felt alone, moments in which he wished for something better to occur in his life.  The place was still too silent for his liking, and it was his third night with insomnia now. He knew he couldn't go on like this. 

Jayden chewed on his lower lip unconsciously. It was in moments like these that he missed the noise of Concord. But he knew better than even think of going back. 

There was nothing more waiting for him in Concord, his mom was busy conquering the world with one bottle of whiskey a day, and his dad... Well, his dad couldn't do anything now. He was like fog; he had been there until he no longer was.

It was all thanks to that one mysterious infection that had spurted a few years back before anyone knew what it was. Now, a few years later, the governments claimed they had the cure, yet everyone knew it was just a controlling pill.

Jayden pulled his eyes away from the moon and began walking around the house. Under the light of the moon, the neon green of the house didn't seem too bad. It looked a bit better. Jayden sighed. Never did he imagine himself leading this life; a fine seventeen-year-old cooped up in a forgotten town running away from a reality that would strike him sooner or later.

The noise of shuffled leaves made his eyes look away from his house. A figure cloaked in black rushed by at abnormal speed, and despite how much Jayden squinted to see what it could be, he couldn't.

Jayden felt as if slime had been thrown down his shirt. What unnerved him the most is that it seemed only like a gust of wind had passed by, nothing more. Jayden frowned. What could have that possibly been?

This was a bad idea; a million warning voices were screaming at him to go back upstairs and hide under his thin blankets. But despite the million warnings, Jayden forced himself to venture nearer the trees that enclosed his house.

The air was still. It was so still that Jayden could hear the leaves falling off the old and tall trees, and he could hear the creatures that lived in the forest.

The similar wind he had heard before was heard again, and Jayden was able to see the silhouette hiding in the trees. He froze, urging his eyes to see what they couldn't, but in the blink of an eye, the silhouette was gone.

"W-what?" He whispered breathlessly, he continued to step forward, suddenly confused by what was going on around him. He took a few steps forward until he realized his house was no longer behind him.

He began to look around, and all his sore and tired eyes could see was an infinite world of trees and pines that hid his house. His heartbeat began to pick up the pace, and he tried desperately not to let his fear get ahold of him.

His feet nervously dragged him down a small dirt path he was barely able to see, his eyes searching for anything that could help him defend himself. What the hell was he thinking? He was just fine up in his bedroom under those awful bedsheet covers.

"Well kiddo, somethings you do, you just don't think, you simply do." His father had once told him that when Jayden asked him how he had met his mom. Turned out his dad had seen her once at the airport, just some strange woman he had seen once, but for an unexplainable reason, he simply chose to walk up to her and chat. Just like that.

Perhaps then it had worked out for his father, but it would bring sure death to Jayden tonight. 

He continued stumbling down the path, tripping over small rocks now and then. What time could it possibly be? Curse nature, he hated it. Oh how he wished he had the guts to tell Rachel to move back to Concord! But Rachel had worked hard to buy the darn house, he couldn't do such thing to her. 

It was then when he saw it.

From where he was standing, it was barely visible, but thanks to the moon, he could see the slanted form of what resembled a house, although it was hard to tell; the roof was made in a way that it seemed it was all one large pine tree.

Then the noise of a branch breaking was heard nearby. He turned toward the noise, and there it was. The figure was a few feet away, and he was positive he could touch it, whatever it was if he just stretched out.

But hell, I ain't doing that. He thought. It took the figure two seconds to realize what he was going to do. But that was enough for Jayden.

Jayden turned and ran down the dirt path, despite the burning he began to feel in his legs, he continued his way down the blurred path, until he began to see stars. It seemed like an eternity before he finally saw the outline of his house, oh goodness, he never thought he'd be ever so happy of seeing the awful neon green house.

Jayden didn't look back, oh hell, he was going to tell Rachel about this, and he was going to make sure that they left this dusty ruined town before sunrise.

He turned back and gasped and tried in vain to stop himself, but he was going too fast.

He crashed right into the figure cloaked in black.

-

There was nothing more he felt than a splitting headache.

He couldn't even bear to open his eyes, even attempting it hurt too much. Jayden groaned, which only caused another wave of pain to surge. In all honesty, he was too pained to even feel fear.

"So, was I right, or was I wrong?"

He could hear the voices far away, yet they didn't seem too far away.

"I think he's waking up"

"Hush"

"Pass me the syringe, give me a smaller dose of the painkiller."

"Smaller? Are you sure?"

Jayden didn't hear anything more, the stars he had seen earlier returned, hell, the whole constellation was floating around until nothing was.

-

Stupid sheriffs, they did naught. Rachel huffed and angrily wiped away another tear that rolled down her cheek. Her cheeks were probably going to remain stained red. Thanks a lot, Jayden. She thought sourly. Where the heck could he have gone? First, the so-called stupid red bacilli took her father, sadness drowns her mother, and now this? Jayden was all she had.

She looked out the window so the people in front of her didn't see her tears. Amidst all, she saw the strange couple, they were staring at her knowingly, and they made her uneasy.

She had already seen them once, back in Ashton when Giselle and Vadim were showing them around town, the girl had short blinding blond hair, while the guy had rich obsidian dark skin and piercing honey eyes. Back in Ashton, it had seemed as if they were following them, the four, but Rachel had brushed it off as paranoia.

But now, Rachel's suspicions arose. Could it be possible that they had Jayden? And if so, why?

Rachel's eyes narrowed, they smirked at her and walked away. Her throat constricted, they had him; she was positive of that now. She snatched up her bag quickly and prepared to leave.

"Excuse me miss, I'm afraid you haven't yet finished filling out some forms – "

"Get out of my way." She snarled, as she pushed past the sheriff with the weird mustache.

She was greeted by the harsh sand-filled wind. With squinted eyes, she walked toward the strange sleek black car that was parked a few streets down the sheriff's office. Rachel had seen them get on that car.

As she got closer though, she could see the windows of the car were down, and there was no one inside. Rachel frowned. Where could they have gone now? Where did they take Jayden?

A thick gray mask came over her face, and then a sickeningly bitter smell filled her nostrils.

Her consciousness left her shortly after.