Me
Ally
Lukey
Kai
Bailey
Colleen
Chidi
Jojo
Mateo
Omar
Reza
Seungho
Miguel
Marley
Nikolai
Jean-Claude
Vinny
Jackson
Austin
Trey

There were 20 people at the bonfire this year, which, any other time, we'd consider a slightly smaller group for a night like this, but now no one comes to these things for a reason.  We haven't forgotten the first time, but some of us just... moved on quicker, I guess.  I know I haven't, at least physically anyway.  Headaches, sleep paralysis, nightmares, you name it, if it has to do with my brain it's probably fucked up. 

My name's Charlie.  I'm 18 now, and I've just graduated from high school.  By some miracle, I was able to pull through my classes with all of my mental problems, and I only failed Algebra once.  That was not a great summer for me, to say the least, but summer's never been that great anymore anyway.  Usually I'll just lay in bed all day now instead of walking around town like I used to do.  All the energy I had when I was younger was gone, and I blame it completely on the incident.  But it's all over now, and I can't just keep holding onto the past. 

Thomas and Jo ditched the gathering about an hour ago.  Thomas got a bad feeling and Jo didn't want him to be outside alone.  Sabrina was only here to light the fire, after that, she left too.  It was weird not having them around. They used to love coming to these things, even Thomas liked them, and he hardly ever liked anything. Everything's changed since then, and these aren't exactly very welcomed changes either.

"Charlie?" I heard someone call out to me. I snapped out of my thoughts and looked over at Ally. I can gladly say that the one good thing that came out of that experience was her. She was brave, kind, smart, and most importantly, she was my girlfriend.  Sometimes I wish it could've happened in a better way, but all that matters is that it happened. We were there for each other, because as far as I know, she's taken the incident as well as I have, which is not very well at all. At least injury wise she got off better than me. Sure, she lost an eye, but it didn't take very long for her to adjust to it. The most problems she had was with her depth perception, and they only lasted for about a year anyway.

"Hm?" I mumbled.  It was getting really late, you can't blame me for being a little exhausted.  And by a little, I mean it feels like I haven't slept in weeks.  I promise I have, I've tried at least. 

"You just looked out of it, that's all. Are you feeling ok?" She asked. 

"Yeah, I'm just..." I yawned before continuing, "just a little tired..."

Ally scooted a little closer to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder.  I sighed and leaned onto her. Over the years, she's stayed a lot more confident than I have, which was definitely a good thing when I needed support.  This was one of the few things we did together, just sit with each other and talk. Most of the time it's about nothing, really, but just speaking to someone else does a lot more than you'd expect.

"How's Aloe?"  I asked. Aloe was a pet raven Ally got a couple years ago after her first bird, Archie, died of old age.  I don't know why, Ally just always liked birds for whatever reason. 

"She's fine.  I finally taught her how to perch on my arm properly without falling off every two seconds."  She chuckled a bit, and I smiled. This was all I had ever asked for. It was quiet, calm, and peaceful outside, the most any of us ever heard other than each other being a few crickets here and there. Now I think I preferred this over our old bonfire nights. Sure, I remember when we used to have entire parties over this one thing, but overall we would've gotten to this age at some point, the age where we stop caring so much. We just weren't expecting for it to be this soon.

GET OUT OF HERE.

I jumped up in surprise and looked around.  Ally only got startled because I was, and I don't blame her.

"Are you ok?  Is something wrong?"  Ally asked.  I just sighed.

"No, I'm ok I just uh... thought I heard something."  I lied.

GODDAMNIT LISTEN TO ME!  GET OUT, NOW!

"I-I think we should go.  I'm not feeling too good."  I said.  Ally immediately nodded and stood up, taking my hand to help me up as well.  Before we could even start heading for the path, I could hear footsteps in the greenery around the forest, and I knew we were too late.

The scene was already reminding me of before.  Screams of not just confusion like the first time, but terror as well.  We've seen this before, we know what's going on, but we can't run.  I suddenly feel Ally grabbing my arm and yanking me into the forest, forcing me to follow her as we ran for our lives.  She was screaming something, but I don't remember what.

Someone grabbed the collar of my coat, yanking my grip away from Ally's.  Thankfully I never button my coat up at all, so I wasn't being strangled at the very least.  I had no time to react as something sharp was stabbed into my arm and my vision began to blur. 

Right before I went out, I saw someone else grab onto Ally, and I heard the person holding me whisper, "I'm so sorry..."

***

"I can hear you. Come out and make things easier for yourself."

Thomas and I stayed perfectly still, standing right on the opposite side of the pond from whoever this person was. They had grey hair and bandages over their eyes, and with the way they were facing away from us, I already knew there was no way they could see anything.  They held a small gun in their hands, presumably to kill us.

We both stood there in silence for a long time until Thomas decided to try and back away. The crunch of a branch below his feet made the person's focus shift entirely onto us, like just from that they knew full well where we were. It was terrifying enough as it was to be out here when we heard the initial screams, and now we were being held at gun point.

"Gotcha." I heard them say, though they didn't fire at us just yet.

"What do you want from us?" I asked after a short moment of shocked silence, my right hand slipping into my coat pocket. The figure shrugged.

"I don't want anything from you, so I'm not quite sure myself. But orders are orders, so I suggest you hold-"

I quickly grabbed the handle of the gun I kept with me and pulled it out of my pocket, taking as little time as I could to point it at the person and open fire. I could only get one bullet out before they fired back, and even worse, I missed.

The bullet from them caught my arm, forcing me to drop my gun onto the ground. I held onto the wound with my other hand to try and stop the blood from flowing too much. Thomas held onto my shoulder in a protective manner, looking more terrified than before.

"Holy shit!  Jo, are you ok?!" He asked.

"I'm- I'm fine." I answered, flinching at the pain. The figure chuckled.

"Wow, that is embarrassing. You just got out-shot by a blind person."  They mocked.  I heard Thomas growl out of frustration.

"If you don't want anything from us, then leave us alone!"  He screamed.

"Can't.  Like I said, orders are orders.  Now keep talking so I can aim for your heads this time."

They clicked the gun to reload it and aimed it straight back at us without fail.  I closed my eyes and accepted our fate when we heard a roar coming from where they stood.  They seemed startled as they turned around to be faced with a miniature dinosaur.  Well, miniature compared to a real dinosaur, she was still at least 7 feet tall.  Rita opened her jaw and bit down on the figure's shoulder, causing them to yell out in pain.  They managed to shoot a few bullets at her, but it was too late, as she picked them up and slammed them into the ground.  I could hear the cracking of their bones as they hit the floor, an eerie silence filling the area except for the few gunshots in the distance.  The blind person chuckled right before their breathing stopped. 

"Rita!"  Thomas cried out in joy. 

"Y'all should go.  There's a lot more of those guys by the bonfire!"  She warned.

"But what about you and Chlorine?"  I asked. 

"We'll be just fine."

I nodded as Thomas and I started to run back to town.  I was starting to feel lightheaded as we ran, but I tried to ignore it for the sake of not getting caught by any of those... things.  I don't even wanna call them people at this point if their job is to kidnap us.  Thankfully the roads to our town weren't too far away, but it felt like a pretty long distance when my legs kept wanting to give out. 

At some point, it felt like I lost control of most of my body.  My running slowed to barely a walk before I collapsed on the gravel road, the rocks piercing into my knees.  Thomas noticed I wasn't behind him anymore, and he soon ran back to help me at least stand up again.  I took my hand off of my wound and noticed a very alarming amount of blood staining my hand, and as I looked down at my feet, I could see the warm red liquid trailing down my side.  My vision started to darken, and I blacked out hardly a moment later.