(*Chapter 15*)

Chapter 15

"WHat the heck!" Keep going!" She started to kick and hit me on my back. I stood up on my hind legs and she went sliding off my back. She ended up on her butt and was not happy about it, I didn't care. I walked over to the tree. I was turning back into a human as I was walking. I noticed I was now crawling to the tree, so I stood back up, but never stopped looking at it. "My dream was true." I picked up the piece. I played with it in my fingers. It had Jack's scent. It was almost like a lemon-honey. It was sweet, but sour.

"What did you say?" Claudia started walking towards me and I turned around sharply at her. "This is Jack's." I held it out to her.

"This is Jack’s? How do you know?" I looked back at the tree, then at the clearing. The images came flashing through my mind again.

"I saw it happen." Claudia started walking around. She touched the trees. Running her fingers over the broken wood. "What happened?"
I started to walk back to the tree. "It started here. They had him tied. It didn’t hold him long though. He was able to untie the knot then he attacked there leader. I guess he was."

"What did he look like." She was sitting on a tree that was kind-of bend like a chair. "I don’t know. His face was blurred."
"What happened next?" She turned back to me.

"They got into a fight. Punching and kicking, but soon enough he hit Jack into the hench mens’ arms. He then started to punch him in the stomach." I fell on the ground. It was as if I was feeling his pain. Claudia came rushing over to me. She put her arm on my back and helped me over to the natural chair she was sitting on. "Okay. Obviously ya’ll have a tight connection, so let’s take a break." She sat on the ground at my feet. She started to take off my shoes. "What are you doing?" I asked her.

"You’ve been running for a while. Your feet must be tired." She took my shoes off and there were pulsing blisters all over them. From the bottom of my ankle, to the tip of my big toe. They were really starting to hurt. Probably because all the weight was off of them now.

"We have to keep moving." I tried to stand up, but feel right back down.

"You are not going anywhere with that those feet." She went back down to my feet and tried to wrap them up.

"Wait. I think I know something to help." I pulled my foot up my mouth. I started licking it and I could hear Claudia making gross noises. If she thought it was gross, think of the person accually licking there foot.

I finally licked both of my feet clean. I started to wipe my mouth off on my shirt. Feet is definetly not a flavor that I will buy any time soon. I put my feet back on the ground. They were started to bubble. Claudia watched from behind a stump. "What are you doing over there?"

"I am not going to be close to your exploding feet." She started to laugh and I just laughed sarcasticlly. "Ha ha. You sure do know how not to make a person scared." She peeked back over the stump with a big smile on her face. Then my feet were bubbling even more. She scurried back to the safety of the little stump.

I watched my feet. They were getting huge. They were red and gross. It looked like a really red, big bubble. All of a sudden they started to join together. They formed one big bubble. I watched as the joined corners and soon enough they were all together. I started to get scared. Having one huge blister on the ball of your foot is worse than having them all over. It had done it on both feet and I had the biggest urge to lick them. I started bending my head down. "Don’t lick them!" Claudia whispered-yelled at me. She was showing the top of her head and her eyes over the stump. I ignored her comment and watched the blisters suddenly stretching. It was like they were covering my foot in an extra skin. It almost tickled.

Claudia walked over to me and sat down. She looked at them, with an expression I couldn’t read. It was weird. Once they had covered my feet, there was no more pain. My feet were almost better than when I had put lotion on them last night. "That was," I waited for her to think of something mean, or rude, or even funny. "AWESOME!" She screamed it out loud. She started jumping up and down. "Wow, why can’t I do that." She sat back on the ground, indian style and crossed her arms like a toddler not getting something they want. "Oh, I know what your thinking." Then she stuck her thumb in her mouth and started to suck on it. She smiled up at me with her thumb still in her mouth.

Then all of a sudden a twig snapped.

She stood straight up and stood tall, as if acting strong.

Then another twig snapped.

We both looked towards the woods around us. "We need to leave." I was getting a strong scent. One I didn’t like at all.

"I can smell it too." We both looked at the circle of fallen down trees around us. As if back to back we looked around. I went back and sat down, starting to put my shoes back on.

"We’ll have to run fast. I’ll run and so will you." I was tying up the laces and looked back up at her. "Are you insane. I can’t run that fast." She only let out a sigh and got on her knees and hands. "Ohhh, I get it now." I hit my head like an idiot, becuase I was one. I walked back over to where the piece was hanging. I touched it again and immediatly got the images. Claudia came over and held my hands. I guess it looked like I was falling. Then suddenly Jack lifted his head and said, "Maggie." Right then and there I felt myself changing. His image still in my mind, I was changing slowly. The scent was getting stronger and I felt Claudia let go of me. "Come on! There getting stronger!" I opened my eyes and saw Claudia yelling and screaming at me. Soon enough she was smiling at me.

"Let’s go." She started running. She had the strongest scent of all, so I looked back at the tree and then I ran after her.