Chapter Two: Taken

Annabelle and Shayde discover who kidnapped Trevor. They set off to resccue him, but are stopped by a mysterious creature who captures Annabelle and takes her somewhere where she finds someone...

Chapter Two: Taken

 

One thing you need to know about the forest is that the floor is almost never soft. And if it is, its something you wouldn’t want to lay in. Sure, there’s soil that’s soft and moss, but that stuff smells. And I don’t want to lay down in smelly muck. To bad I already did, and for longer than I would want knowing that I was already asleep for a bit.

Yuck.

 

Another thing you need to know is that I am deathly afraid of spiders. If I even see one, and even if it’s the size of a needle point, I freak out. My body gets tense, and I try everything I can to keep from screaming. So, laying on the floor of a forest is not my favorite thing to do.

 

I felt wide awake. Staring at the now-brightening canopy, which wasn’t very bright much due to the fact that this forest is mildly dark even in broad daylight, I tried to get my mind off the fact that we hadn’t found my brother yet. There were no signs that we had found that led to wear he might be. I felt horrified knowing that I had no idea where poor Trevor was. Things sure weren’t going very well, nor will I ever know if they ever will.

 

 

Shayde rolled over in his sleep, which resulted with a face plant into a bunch of shrubs. “Errguuhhh… Whaa?” he grumbled. “Err… whas this…” I punched that moron. “Shayde idiot! You rolled into a bunch of weeds. Oh well, its time to get up anyways, you lazy--” “Okay, okay, I get it… I’m up…” He yawned and sat up, straightening his clothes like some girl.

 

I looked at him and couldn’t help but laugh. He looked so funny- dirt in his scraggly hair and plastered on the left side of his face… he looked like an Eskimo who just discovered soil.

 

We moved towards the entrance of our little bushel of safe. Pulling away the branches, we were greeted by a pretty welcoming site.

 

A stranger, a tall stranger with dark red eyes and clothes black as night stared straight at us, holding what looked like a sack filled with something incredibly squeamish and screechy. He sneered at us, revealing a mouth of razor sharp fox-like teeth. Reaching out, he grabbed the nearest tree and shook it. Shayde inched closer to me, so that his arm brushed mine. The tree cracked and one heavy branch fell, enclosing us between the entrance of the closure and the creep who stood in front of us, now smiling, I felt a chill go down my spine, and gulped. “Um…” “Don’t… move…” whispered Shayde.

 

I obeyed, and slowly breathed in and out, trying not to move a muscle.

 

The man stood there, and started to inch over to us. Instinctively, Shayde slowly grabbed my arm. We were both scared stiff.

 

“Hmm…” growled the stranger with terror in his deep, scratchy voice. “Look what I caught… and two of them too. They look good… and adding them to you,” he turned his head and addressed the sack, “I shall have three. Three snacks are definitely better than one.” He then glared at us, and his deep red eyes seemed to burn a hole through my skull. “But, the sack’s full. No room. Too bad. I will find you again, you two…”

 

Then he vanished, just like that, in thin air.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“He’s the one that took my brother!” I yelled, pacing back and fourth. “He’s the one! He vanished into nothing! Just like he did when he took my poor brother, who was probably in that sack! Poor thing might get eaten! WE HAVE TO SAVE HIM!!!” I yelled the last sentence to the heavens. Shayde was leaning comfortably against a tree munching on something we bought from a nearby store with left over lunch money. He just watched me as I continued my rant. “We have to go after him! We can’t let him get away anymore!” Shayde looked up. “Yeah, we can totally stop him when he just vanishes.” “Gah, Shayde, I know this. He is going to get away and re-appear somewhere else. We need to track him down best we can. Be a ninja!” On the last word I did a little jump. Shayde just stared at me like I was mental. “Ok, you ninja freak. I’ll try my best to help you.”

 

I sat down next to him. “I could never do this alone. I need your help!” “I know.” replied Shayde, swallowing a bit of cookie. “I’m never going to leave you. I don’t care what happens. I’m with you on this.”

 

I smiled at him. “Thanks,” I muttered shyly as I nudged his arm. He smiled at me, then nudged me back. We sat in silence for a while and ate.

 

Things were a little easier knowing that we knew who the prime suspect probably was. But, things were a lot harder knowing that my brother was probably going to be served for supper. We had to save him, like now!!!!

 

We set off as soon as we were done eating. Where to, no one knows.

 

We decided to talk the time away while hiking through an un-known wood. “Hey, Shayde, remember that one time in second grade when you…” “Yea…” he cut me off. Obviously he didn’t like that memory of the time he exploded a pen and sent ink flying at this girl that he used to like.

 

“Annabelle, remember Field Day? So fun. Especially the water balloon fight with the teachers. Man, we always bombed them. Ah, the good old times in elementary school…” “Yes, I remember everything like it was yesterday,” I told him. “Now, in middle school, all the fun times washed away. Now, its all work and no play.” “I agree--” But he was cut off.

 

Ahead of us stood a great creature. It was as tall as a medium-height tree and had a wingspan that looked twenty feet across. It was standing on all fours and staring at us, as if about to pounce. It had a long tail with a spade at the end, and was very scaly. Probably what you would call a dragon. Except that dragons don’t exist right…?

 

“Oh my [swear word here] gosh, what is that?” gasped Shayde. “I--I don’t know…” I whispered, shocked with what I saw. “I don’t want to know… holy freakin’ crap… it’s moving towards us…”

 

And it sure was. Slowly, the animal etched closer and closer, until it was about ten feet away. Then, raising it’s wings higher, it opened it’s humongous mouth, and started to breath…

 

“FIRE!!!” I screamed. “Holy--- run!!! Shayde, MOVE!!!” Shayde was standing there, full of shock. I had to grab his arm and pull hard, almost tripping him, for him to realize this was reality.

 

We ran and ran, Shayde a little bit ahead of me. The “dragon” was right behind us, breathing fire about every five seconds. Things weren’t going to well… seeing as my jacket and Shayde’s hoodie set on fire. Running like the wind, though, thankfully put it out before it could set our actually bodies on flames.

 

The dragon never slowed down. We never slowed down. Who would slow down if your life depended on every second of running?

 

We ran. And ran. And ran. And the dragon followed. And followed. And followed. What was there to do? That’s right, keep running. And dodging all the flames that came our way.

 

Nothing could stop us, until… “SHAYYYYYYYDE!!!!! AHHHH!!!!” The dragon had my foot. Oh, my poor foot… first the wolf, now the dragon. This time, there was nothing I could do; he was to strong, and pulled me to the ground. I hit hard as nails, and was out.

 

Darkness surrounded me like a huge blanket, and all I could hear was the last of Shayde’s horrified yell, “ANNABELLE!!!!!”

 

 

* * *

 

 

My eyes slowly opened. What happened? Where was I? I had no clue. No answer to both of those questions.

 

Surrounding me was a large, chamber-like room. The walls were tall and earthy, and the ceiling hung high above my head. The room echoed with an occasional plop as dew dropped from above and on to the dirty stone floor.

I felt weak, and every bone in my body ached as if I was thrown against a wall. I tried to sit up, but couldn’t. It hurt like crazy.

 

I was a prisoner. But, I soon realized I wasn’t the only one in the room. To my left, in a dark corner, I heard a small whimpering. I decided to check it out. Inching over, I saw a small, curled up figure. “Hey,” I whispered calmly. He looked over at me, revealing calm, scared blue eyes that looked sort of… familiar. “Annabelle?” he choked weakly.

It didn’t take me long to realize that it was Trevor. I came over to him and wrapped my arms around him, lifting him into my lap. “Trevor, buddy, are you ok?”

 

Trevor looked terrible. His face was bruised, and his clothes were extremely dirty. He looked like he just came out of a house fire. “Annabelle…” he croaked. “I’m so glad to see you…” “I’m sure you are,” I said as I cradled him in my arms. “And boy, am I glad to see you. What happened?”

He proceeded to tell me what happened. “I was at the park, and it started storming, so I headed over to where Mom was. I happened to pass the woods on the way, and, before I knew it, someone grabbed me. I screamed as loud as I could, but soon I was shoved into a sack, and taken. In the morning, I heard my kidnapper talking, and I heard your voice. I also heard someone else’s voice, a boy, who seemed to be with you. Then, we disappeared again, and I ended up here.” He ended with a small frown on his gentle face, and I stroked his fine blonde hair. “Trevor, I’m so sorry… This is all my fault. If I was a little faster I could have caught you before you vanished.” “It’s ok Annabelle, its enough to know you are here right now. Who was the boy?” “The boy…” I stopped for a while to think about what I was going to say. He was one of my best friends… I guess I could say that. “The boy… his name is Shayde. He’s one of my best friends. He came along with me, to help me. Awe, Trevor, he’s not my boyfriend, just a friend.” I smiled, and he smiled back. “Will he protect you?” Trevor asked with those innocent eyes of a ten-year-old. “Yeah,” I guessed. Though I wasn’t really sure if he would “protect” me, I did trust him. With my life. “He will,” I finished. “Just promise me you’ll be ok?” “I promise, sissy,” he gave me a hug. I really hope he’ll be alright…

 

 

* * *

 

 

Shayde paced the floor. The dragon was gone, thank God, but so was Annabelle. What was he going to do? He didn’t want anything to happen to her what so ever. She doesn’t deserve it… And what about Trevor? How was he going to continue searching for him without Annabelle? How would he ever do anything now without her? Oh please God, please, let her be ok. Don’t let anything happen to her. Or Trevor. He prayed. Please.

 

Shayde sat down and put his head in his hands. He tried to think of what to do, but all he could think was save Annabelle and Trevor, save Annabelle and Trevor. He had to save them. He had to think up a plan. Quick. Before it was too late…

Author's Note

Chapter two is finally done. What do you think? I think it's ok.