Chapter Two

the mystery continues.. (or should i say begins?)

The quietness of the cemetery was overpowering. The little meadow, only moments ago occupied by so much evil; now peaceful and innocent. He saw from his window the young girl searching hopelessly around the cemetery. He saw her face and body, so young, so fresh, so… delicious? He chuckled to himself as he imagined going up to her, making some excuse, and getting what he wants, or is it something that he wanted? He cracked his knuckles, knowing that now was not the time. He can get his fun later, now it was more important to stop Vincent from what he’s doing. Knowing that the sooner all of this was over the better, he picked up his coat, and decided that it was time to pay someone a little visit…

“Sam? Sa—am?” Sarah’s voice cracked a little.

Quiet. No response. Nothing. Only the wind, singing an ominous song for only Sarah’s ears to hear. She tensed up as the moon came out of hiding and shone brightly in the direction of the little forest, which Sarah so far avoided as much as she could. She closed her eyes, trying to sense something, knowing that her friend couldn’t just disappear like that, not into thin air. She opened her eyes, not knowing any more than she did before.

“Sam! Please stop this stupid game! Do you think that this is funny?!” Sarah yelled out, but started whispering before she finished the sentence.

This time, there was a response. A quiet yelp, coming from the direction of the forest. Sarah waited for a moment trying to hear anything else, but there were no more sounds. Without thinking twice, she run towards the forest. The moon, shining above, directed her towards to forest. The wind, as if trying to help her, blew from behind, pushing her towards the woods.

“Sam? Sammy?” she yelled out, without getting a response.

“What the hell?” she whispered to herself, as she reached the entrance to the forest.

Before her feet, there were dozens of animals. Whimpering, and shaking with fear. Little families, gathering together to protect the youngest, hiding away from who knows what kind of evil. Sarah shook her head a little, as if now only realizing that this could be real. That maybe Sam wasn’t just joking around, that maybe something happened to her…

Sarah swallowed loudly, taking in few more breaths and deciding on going in.

She never was one to be scared easily. Out of the two friends, she was the one that was more outgoing and outspoken. She talked with strangers, she could watch any horror movie, but never was she scared as much as when she stepped into that forest.

Her heard pounding as if it wanted to escape from her chest, her palms sweating, her whole body trembling. Every sound made her jittery, even when the wind blew past her; she spun in circles, expecting something to pop up. With unsteady steps, trying not to trip, the walk in forest seemed like forever for Sarah. When she finally arrived at the meadow, her clothes were dripping with sweat, her heart beating faster and harder than after any exercise, and her mind thinking the worst thoughts possible.

Sarah leaned a little forward, put her hands above her knees and breathed few breaths to calm her down. When she felt that she was ready, she lifted her head a bit and faced her surroundings. She took in all of the sights, too freaked to actually register what was around her. The only thing on her mind was finding Sam, and kicking her butt if this all was just a stupid prank. And if it wasn’t a prank, then she didn’t even let her mind wander into those areas. Her throat was dry, her voice croaky, “Sam? Are you here?” The sound of her own voice gave her goose bumps.

“Sam, please why are you do-“, Sarah didn’t finish, for the wind that blew past her seemed to whisper her own name. She jumped up, afraid to turn around a little, not knowing who to expect. And there it was again, her name carried by the wind. Sarah stood at the edge of the forest, she didn’t move since she got to the meadow, nor did she plan on moving. Her feet rooted to the ground, not being sure whether to move, and if where to. Ahead to the unknown? Or back to that forest? The sound of her name being shrieked and whispered from the forest by different voices, made her decision that much easier. Sarah leaped forward, collapsing before a big rock, which greeted Samantha before. Not being to control her feelings anymore, Sarah let the tears flow. They weren’t sobs of sadness, nor were they the tears of happiness; it was just a way to let all of the emotions that were building up inside of her, out. The tears streaked her milky skin, the mascara leaving huge, black circles around her eyes. She hugged her knees, and lifted her head a bit in the direction of the woods, there was nothing there. No source of the sounds. Very ungratefully, she took her skirt, and wiped her face on the rough fabric, trying to calm down. When the only tears left were the ones wiped on her tears, she stood up on shaky legs, and decided that she had to get out. Sarah knew that she was too tired, too freaked to actually do anything constructive here.

“Sam, if you’re here then just know that I’m going” Sarah said in a little shaky voice, “I don’t care if you have no way to get home, it was your stupid idea to play this game. Now deal with it.” With that said, Sarah dusted off her dress and slowly but steadily made her way towards the forest. Against herself, she paused for a moment before the first tree, she waited for anything, any sound. Nothing came, as if all of those voices before never spoke up. Sarah breathed out to calm herself, and made the first step into the forest. This time, the walk seemed easier; she took step after step, without any sounds, or visions. Before she knew it, Sarah tripped on a log that laid in the mud, quickly, she grabbed a tree branch in front of her, and tried to balance herself. Her breath fastened when she noticed a trail of blood running down her arm, to her elbow. She lifted her hand off of the branch, but noticed no cut, not even a scratch. Examining her hand and arm over and over, not being able to find any wound. Then something hit her, reluctantly, she lifted her head, and looked at the branch, and on it, there was a trail of blood dripping down. Her eyes widened in shock and fear, and a small shriek escaped from her mouth. Her head throbbed, her heart beat, her eyes watered again. Sarah didn’t want to believe what she just saw, she closed her eyes, counted to 10 and opened them again, expecting that there only will be more blood. To her surprise, the branch was normal.  There was no blood anywhere; even her arm was completely clean. Not being able to control herself, she yelled out “WHAT DO YOU WANT?” and broke down into tears of rage and panic.

The wind blew past her, as if to tell her to get out of there. Without hesitation, she wiped her eyes, and sprinted towards the cemetery. Her legs, long and lean, moved faster than ever before. Every cell in her body seemed to yell ‘get me out of here’, and that’s what she planned on doing. She didn’t consider herself a very religious person, but she knew that what was going on in that forest was unholy and evil. And she didn’t want to be a part of that. Sarah’s legs carried her faster than the wind, but not faster than words.

“You can run but you cannot hide! You CAN run BUT you CANNOT hide!! You can run, run, run, but you can’t hide, hide, hide! Run, run, but there’s no need to hide!” all the voices around her yelled out. Every tree in the forest seemed to breath, seemed to grow larger as if to keep her from running away. Sarah yelped in pain when one of the branches hit her in the stomach, but no way was she going to stay in that forsaken place. She ducked, she jumped, she leaped, anything just so she’ll get out, anything to be safe…

Sarah jumped over the last fallen tree, and found herself on the cemetery. She escaped. Her unsteady breath continued as she made her way away from the woods. Sarah knew that the cemetery was safer than the forest; she didn’t feel anything evil in the air. She collapsed on the ground, her dress thorn, her hair a mess, her emotions shattered. Sarah said a silent prayer to whoever was up there, to keep Sam safe. She prayed for Sam to be safe at home, or somewhere else, anywhere but the forest.

“Oh, my God. What the hell was up with that?” she whispered to herself, as she laid on the moist ground. She knew perfectly well what she saw and heard, but she didn’t want to believe that. Sarah was a person of reason; there were no ghosts, no vampires, no werewolves, and no witches in her world. She closed her eyes for a moment, as if to escape everything that has happened, but then she heard a car driving by. She lifted her head a little, and saw few teenagers having fun and laughing on that Halloween night, as if nothing bad could happen. Sarah cursed herself for bringing up the idea for the whole ‘let’s go to the cemetery at night’ thing. If she had only known that something like that would happen, she would pay to be able to stay at home. But how could she know that? She knew that she shouldn’t be blaming herself for what happened, because it’s not her fault that there’s something evil in that place, but still, she couldn’t help but feel guilty.

With the coldness of the ground cooling of her nerves, Sarah felt better than she did in the last few hours. She moved her head to the other side, and without even planning to, she looked at the forest, where a pair of eyes was staring back at her. Alert, Sarah sat up, and then quickly scrambled to stand up. Being too afraid to do anything else, she run. For the first time in her life, she was glad that she didn’t live that far from the cemetery. Not looking back, not stopping to get her breath, only looking ahead, and counting steps that are left till she’ll reach the safe harbor. Her steps slowed down when she reached the door. Once inside, she locked all of the locks, and without making any noise, so not to wake her parents, she climbed upstairs to her room.

The only light inside was the moon. Her bed unmade from the morning, her clothes thrown all over from when she was trying them on. Just as if nothing has ever happened. As if nothing changed. Sarah flicked the switch on, and in moments she was drowning in the light. Her room expressed her to a T. Mess everywhere, started projects that will never be finished. A guitar, untouched for over a year, lying in a corner of the room. The wall color neutral, the furniture unexpected and wild as Sarah. Her bed, black and red, with tons of stuffed animals she got over the years. Across from it, a big walk-in closet, filled with different clothes, different colors, different styles. On the wall next to the closet, a full length mirror, with pictures of Sarah and Samantha taped on. She lingered her eyes on one of the pictures, and felt sadness. Stop it, she said to herself. Nothing happened, Sam is still alright, probably at home, playing with me. She let out a loud sight, turned the light switch off and went into the bathroom. Sarah walked towards the tub, and let the hot water run. She stood in front of the mirror, and really looked at herself. Noticing that she was a mess, her face streaked with tears, her clothes thorn, and she didn’t even want to think about the hair. Slowly, she reached for the candles on the counter and for the lighter. She lit the candles one by one, and put each in the corner of the tub. When the tub was nearly full, she turned the water off, got undressed and stepped into the warm heaven. All of the tension that was inside of her got washed away. She scrubbed herself clean like never before, and after just a small bath, felt much better about everything that happened. Sarah got out of the tub, put on an old t-shirts and shorts, and walked towards her room. It was chilly in her room, so she walked over to her window and looked out on the street. In front of here house, stood a black dog, she couldn’t even see him that clearly, all she saw were those eyes. The same eyes that looked at her from the forest. She sucked in a breath, and quickly closed her window and drew the curtains together. After turning her light off, she got under warm covers, and before she fell asleep, she decided to call Samantha tomorrow, hoping that she’ll be home. But she didn’t know that if only she had looked behind that rock, she would have found a pool of crimson blood that belonged to her friend…

Reviews

[Frances O'Neill]

At the third paragraph, you could put: Sarah, then suddenly appeared as if out of nowhere.

I like the part where it said, "You can run but you cannot hide!..."

What kind of friend is that that goes home and takes a bath, when her closest friend could be killed, or raped or something?

The story evolves quite nicely in this chapter.

[Tiffany]

ya, still writing?

[Tiffany]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I loooooooooove this story! I love how you changed the point of veiws, also the last sentance was fantastic! I'm on the edge of my seat here! U got talent!