Rosalie panicked, the figure was moving towards her too fast. She was moments away from pulling the trigger when the figure fell to the ground, the person landing hard against the leaf covered grass.

Rosalie lowered the gun but kept it close to her body, her finger not moving from its spot over the trigger. She hesitantly stepped forward, her footsteps slow and uncertain.

She should have run, but something told her to stay, that maybe it wasn’t Christopher after all, maybe it was Benjamin or Parker.

In the moonlight she could only just see the figure but the closer she got the clearer the silhouette became. She expected to see Christopher’s tall frame, dark waves shaping his face, yet what she saw was completely different. The person had a medium frame, their hair dark and short. The figure’s head moved and in the light of the moon Rosalie instantly recognised the person.

‘Parker!’ she ran now, long determined strides across the small distance between herself and the man on the ground. ‘Parker!’

Parker leant heavily against the tree, pain seemingly covering his whole body. His head felt light and his body felt heavy. The most pain was in his arm, where blood seeped past the wound, cascading in thin stripes down his arm, leaving a trail of the warm liquid. His vision was slightly blurry, but he could just see the image of a figure running towards him.

He flinched at the sight and tried to move away, but his strength was low and he only managed to cringe. The figure was suddenly leaning over him, concerned eyes and hands roaming his body.

‘Parker? Can you hear me?’

The voice was feminine and as he looked closer he noticed that the person was Rosalie. He sighed heavily, ‘Rose.’

‘What happened Parker? Y-Your arm!’ his wound was then painfully touched, small hands causing further pain to shoot up and down his arm.

He felt less disorientated now that he had rested for a few seconds, ‘Christopher, he came after me.’

Parker was now able to take in the sight of the girl in front of him. Rosalie’s dark waves were messy and falling over her face. Her make-up was running slightly down her face, once perfect dark lines were now smudged slightly above her cheeks. Her eyes which were usually bright were now full of concern, and her lips were slightly open in concentration as she looked over Parker.

‘There’s a cabin, just over there,’ Rosalie pointed into the darkness. ‘We need to get that cleaned up.’

Parker shook his head, ‘We have to get help.’

‘And we will but you can’t keep going like this’ The brunette gestured towards his wound before meeting his eyes hesitantly, ‘D-Did you find Ben and Sadie?’

Parker shook his head, ‘I don’t know where they are.’

‘Ok’ Rosalie nodded sadly, obviously trying to keep her expression void of emotion. ‘Let’s get you cleaned up.’

Parker nodded. Rosalie reached out and helped him up, supporting him as much as she could with her smaller frame for until she was sure that he would be able to walk without falling over again. She seemed to be confident in his ability, taking only a few seconds before allowing him to walk on his own. Rosalie led him towards the cabin.  

Parker was lead up the rickety and broken stairs and lead to a couch where he sat down. Moments later his friend was back, a first aid kit tight in her grasp. She knelt on the ground, placing the kit on the coffee table, rifling through its contents until she found bandages. It took a few minutes, but eventually the bleeding was stopped and a thick layer of bandages covered Parkers bicep.

‘Is it too tight?’ she asked worriedly, her hand pushing back the hair which was threatening the edges of her face.

‘It’s good’ Parker told her.

It was then that Rosalie got a strange expression on her face. She then reached out, her hand under the couch, and when it reappeared she had a piece of paper in her clutches.

‘What is that?’ Parker wondered, but Rosalie ignored him for the moment, placing the paper on the coffee table, and shinning the flashlight over it.

Parker discovered that the worn piece of paper was actually a map. The edges were darkened with use and the print was fading slightly but he could tell that it was a map of the area they were in. There were a few markings in pen on the map, most showing hunting grounds or fishing spots and Parker assumed that whoever owned this cabin must have used it during hunting season’s years ago. The map marked the cabin they were in, as well as the surrounding areas all the way to the main roads which they had followed to get to their cabin.  

The cabin they were in was completely surrounded by thick forests, but there seemed to be a few lakes and streams.

‘Look at this,’ Rosalie put her hand on the map, her finger pointing to a small group of markings, ‘That’s a town, it’s small, but it’s a town.’

‘How far is it?’ Parker asked.

‘Only a mile,’ she said, her finger following along from where the cabin was to where the small town was located, ‘look, if I can follow this river it will lead me straight to the town.’

She shone the torch around for a moment before finding a pen. She leant over the map and drew a line from the cabin to a river then along the river to the town. She studied the map intently for a few more moments, making sure that the river was the best route before making a satisfied hum.

Parker looked up at her. The girl looked as happy as anyone in her situation could be, a slight smile on her face. ‘What do you mean you?’ he asked, ‘We will go together.’

‘Parker, you lost a lot of blood, I need to go alone,’ Rosalie told him, her hand coming to rest on top of his on the map. ‘I know that you want to come but alone I can run there in no time, find help and bring people back to get you.’

The prospect of being alone in the cabin scared Parker, but then again, this whole situation scared Parker. He considered what Rosalie was saying and she was right, she would be faster alone, he was injured and light headed and he would probably just slow her down. He still didn’t want to watch her leave the cabin alone in the dark, waiting until morning seemed like a better option.

‘Wait till morning Rose, we can wait it out here.’

Rosalie shook her head sadly, ‘What Christopher said, that they were probably b-bleeding out, I have to get help now, we have to find them now. What if they are alive?’

Parker nodded, ‘Just be safe, okay?’

Rosalie nodded, ‘I will be back for you okay.’

‘I know.’

The brunette pushed her hair away from her face before standing. She leant over to the coffee table where she picked up a small object, handing it to Parker. ‘Take this.’

Parker realised that she was handing him a small flashlight, it must have been in the emergency kit.  She clasped her own flashlight in her fingers, shining it at Parker.

‘Don’t leave the cabin, okay?’

He nodded and the bright light moved from his face. He watched with slight worry as the girl walked towards the front door of the cabin. Parker noticed the gun which was tucked into the back of her jeans and sighed, at least if Christopher did find her, she would be able to defend herself.

When Rosalie was gone he felt vulnerable and alone all over again. The cabin was fine when Rosalie had been with him, but now that she was gone the space suddenly felt intimidating and nerve-wracking. The darkness filled the room, the only light coming from his small torch. He leant back against the couch and closed his eyes.

The eerie sound of someone making their way up the squeaky, rickety steps was what made Parkers eyes snap open in surprise and fear. The steps were heavy and calculated, leading him to believe that it wasn’t Rosalie that was coming his way.

He quickly turned off the torch and placed it on the couch. He looked around himself, his options were limited. He could hide under the table, the long tablecloth would conceal him sufficiently, he could go to the bedroom with the chance that Christopher would come in and find him or he could try to find a back door, but he didn’t think that this cabin even had a back door. Table it was. He swiftly ran to the table, climbing under the thin cloth and stilling his movements.

It was then that the door opened harsh and hard, the wood hitting the wall with the force of it. Cold breeze flew into the room, moving the tablecloth slightly in its breeze.

Parker could just see under the tablecloth and the sight in front of him made him wish that he was anywhere else but here.

‘Rosy, come out love,’ Christopher’s taunting voice sounded through the small room. Christopher was standing just past the threshold of the door, playing with the knife in his hands. ‘Parker, I know you lied to me, so guess what?’

Parker didn’t need to guess.

‘I am going to have to kill you slowly and painfully. Once I find you, that is.’ Christopher walked around the cabin, going into the kitchen first. ‘You left a pretty big blood trail Parker, it wasn’t that hard to find you.’

Parker was breathing so quietly now, yet he felt the need to stop breathing all together, as if the one tiny sound was going to lead to his slaughter.

He watched as Christopher walked past the couch, only to turn back around and pick up the flashlight Parker had left there. Parker instantly regretted not hiding the flashlight. Christopher turned on the flashlight and shone the light around the room, stopping sporadically to investigate places where they might be hiding.

Christopher suddenly picked up a lamp, throwing it against the wall. Parker covered his mouth to stop his surprised yelp from escaping his mouth. Christopher preceded to curse and angrily move objects around the room, until he stopped suddenly. He picked up the torch which he had thrown and used it to illuminate something on the coffee table.

No! The map! He’s going to know where Rosalie was going!

Parker watched in horror as Christopher lifted up the map and smiled at what he found. It took only seconds for Christopher’s entire demeanour to change, gone was his angry and frustrated movements and they were replaced by a determined expression and thought-out movements. 

‘So that’s where you two are going.’ Christopher muttered, folding the map in half.

In no time Christopher was determinedly running towards the open cabin door, the map held tightly in his hand.

Parker needed to stop Christopher before he got to Rosalie. The second that the cabin door slammed shut Parker was running into the kitchen. He found a large kitchen knife in a drawer and clasped the handle tightly.

His head was already spinning and he looked down at his arm to see that the blood was seeping through his bandages, small lines of red falling down his forearm.

I have to do this, I have to stop Christopher.

Parker drew his eyes away from the painful wound and made his way to the door. He couldn’t exactly remember where on the map the river was, but he knew the general direction. Standing on the porch he couldn’t see Christopher, the man must have already been in-between the thick trees, quickly heading towards Rosalie.

Parker ran towards the steps, but just as he stepped on the top stair, the wood gave way underneath him. Suddenly the ground was rushing up to meet Parker and he yelped, hitting his head on one of the other planks of wood as he toppled down to the ground painfully.

His eyes opened and closed a few times before his eyelids became too heavy and the darkness engulfed Parker completely.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Rosalie was worried. She had been running for quite a few minutes yet she hadn’t seen any sign of the giant river, of which the map had promised this section of the forest held. She kept going regardless, hoping that the river would appear soon so that she would be able to follow it down to the small town. She wished for a moment that she had allowed Parker to go with her, she was worried about the boy being all alone up at the cabin, unable to defend himself if Christopher was to find him.

She shook the thoughts from her mind, she needed to stay focussed on what she could do to help, and that started with her navigating her way through these mess of trees until she found the river. Her torch provided just enough light, but it didn’t remove her fear. Every few moments she would look behind her, just to be sure that Christopher wasn’t there. She kept her mind off of Benjamin, Deon and Sadie. She couldn’t think about them right now, she couldn’t break down in the middle of the woods. She had to be strong, she had to survive this, she had to make sure that her and Parker got out of this alive, it was all she had left.

She stopped when she heard the sound.

The soft, trickling noise that alerted her to the running water nearby. A slight smile made its way onto her face. She had found the river.

The smile was quickly wiped off of her face when the next startling sounds made their way to her ears. The sounds were loud and booming, hard footsteps stomping the ground.

Christopher.

Rosalie ran now, the light from the flashlight bounced around the trees as she whizzed between them. She knew that the light would draw him, but without it she knew that it would be thousands of times harder to navigate through the thick forestry without tripping over or running face first into a trunk of hard wood.

She ran hard and fast, the sounds of her breath heavy in her ears, her heart feeling like it was going to beat out of her chest. The sounds of the running water got louder and she knew that she was close. She saw it then in the distance, the dark running water which promised that she was one step closer to safety. One step closer to getting help for Parker, one step closer to getting back to Mackenzie.

She was momentarily distracted by the running water, causing her to trip over her own feet, her body laying painfully on the hard ground. The gun went flying, falling and skidding along the ground.

She gasped and sat up, bringing the flashlight up to her surroundings, and what she saw sent shivers running down her spine.

Christopher was only seconds away from her. He was running fast, his feet stomping determinedly against the ground as he fought to close the distance between them. A knife was held in one hand, a piece of paper in the other. He threw the piece of paper to the side as he got closer.

She was too stunned to move, her entire body seemed to stop responding.

Her mind screamed to run, but her fingers didn’t even twitch. Her mind told her get up, to run, to find the gun, to hide, to do anything as long as she was away from the danger which was running towards her.

She didn’t run, she didn’t hide, she watched.

She watched as Christopher stopped only a few feet from her, smiling that threatening, sinister grin that told Rosalie that Christopher had found what he wanted, like a predator realising that he had finally caught his prey. There was a twinge in his eyes, and Rosalie gulped as she realised how much he was going to enjoy every pain filled scream that left her mouth, every terrified shiver of her body and every drop of blood that would be spilt.

‘Hello Rosy, what a naughty girl, running from me like that.' He taunted, 'You know what happens to naughty girls?’ Rosalie almost shook at the sinister enthusiasm in his tone and the dark, twisted way he played with the knife in his hand threateningly as he spoke, his eyes not leaving Rosalie’s once, ‘They get punished.’

Sorry, this chapter took a little longer than I had hoped to write so it's being posted a little later than I had planned, but anyway, I do hope that you've all enjoyed this chappy.

There's only two more chapters and the epilogue left! It's come so quickly!

Enough from me, I'm just going to twerk my way back into a corner and let you all enjoy your day.

Wow, I just imagined myself twerking into a corner. Seems kinda creepy.

Well, bye for now, from your favourite creeper of an author! xx