Chapter 3

I made my way out the building and Amaria waved goodbye as she got into her moms car and left. On my route home I bumped into Delilah again. She stood there for a minute wanting to say something as I was clearly injured and by her reaction it seemed like she knew why.

“Excuse me.” She seemed disappointed and embarrassed.

I didn't pursue her to talk, I didn't want another confrontation, while she walked away I noticed the shirt she had been wearing, it had the same logo as the one on the sign for Markus’s dads bar. I shrugged it off and still went on my way.

By the time I got home it was at least 4pm. My mom was working late that night and I decided to just have a shower after noticing the dried blood left on my clothes and skin from the fight earlier that day. I had been so distracted I’d completely forgotten about it.

I threw my clothes into the washing machine in the meantime. I noticed a large bruise on my shoulder after getting out of the shower. I guess I hadn't noticed how hard I was slammed against the lockers.

I dropped onto my bed and decided to rest after the tiring events from earlier.

It had been hours since I had fallen asleep and I awoke to pitch black outside my window.

I grabbed a pair of slippers and made my way downstairs with only a flashlight. I knew it might've been some time around 12am to 4am so my mom was likely sleeping.

I snuck into the kitchen and prepared a sad little ham sandwich and stayed there for a minute. I stared into the dark living room across from me, my eyes fixed on what seemed like a shadow. I froze when I thought I saw it move.

I fumbled with the flashlight and pointed it in the direction of the shadow but nothing was there. I shivered and finished my sandwich before I slowly made my way to the stairs up so I could go back to my room.

Every step I took it felt like someone was slowly following behind.

I immediately ran up the rest of the stairs, and closed my door quick enough to be immediate but not enough to wake my mom.

I backed away from the door slowly, time felt slow, my room was dimly lit by my lights, the door knob slowly turned.

I tilted my head as I stared at it, the door creaked open revealing the darkness, a figure emerged screeching, I felt a hand on my shoulder and everything went dark.

I woke up to someone pouring water on my face. When I coughed and opened my eyes I saw Amaria and Markus.

“What are you guys doing in my room?”

Markus looked at me almost in confusion, “well I was trying to get your attention, but you seemed fixated on your door, and when I grabbed your shoulder you just dropped.”

“Shit”, I reached for the back of my head, having felt it tender.

Markus helped me up from my fall and examined my head while Amaria explained why and how they broke into my house.

“Your window.”

“What?”

“Your window was wide open, and there was a ladder behind your house so we kinda picked it up and climbed up to your window.”

“How’d you know it was my room?”

“Yeah, we kinda just assumed, I was scared we were gonna bump into your mom”, markus sat down on my bed

“Well at least you guessed right, she sleeps downstairs anyways”, I paused and processed the situation.

“Anyways we were gonna try and sneak you out”, markus picked up my walkman and fumbled around with it, “To the creepy house in the forest I mean”

“Wait, isn't it like 4am? You guys really wanna go this early?”

“I mean why not, Markus and I sneak out all the time, it's honestly not that bad and there's a small hill not too far from here where we hangout from time to time, we like to take a lantern and blanket while watching the sunrise. We kinda just talk and nap the entire time.”

I decided to go along and pack some things in a bag, Amaria left out through the window while Markus stayed seated on my bed, he stared at me while I got ready.

He noticed the bruise on my shoulder, “is that from the whole jessie scuffle?” “sorry..”

I put on another shirt, “hey don’t worry about it, I should be apologizing to you considering i'm the reason it happened.”

He looked at me strangely, I couldn't decipher what he was feeling. I grabbed my flashlight, my bag, a sweater, and made my way through the window alongside Markus.

I made my way down the ladder, following Amaria holding a lantern off in the distance, where the dark trees tower over the town, the moon high in the sky bright.

On our way to the house I stayed behind with Markus talking, while Amaria walked ahead, I looked around at the surrounding forest, it reminded me of those nightmares I kept having. I turned to Markus.

“I feel like I've been here before.”

“What Do You mean?

“I've had these weird nightmares where theres this girl running through the forest and someones chasing her”

“That's really weird, you think you dreamt of this forest?”

“I think? I'm not sure”, I groaned

Amaria led us into a clearing lit by moonlight, a large decaying and broken down house stood, it looked hauntingly beautiful.