I awoke on something hard, originally I thought I was a rock but to my surprise, it was Danielle’s back. She was surprisingly strong, but then again, I am hella skinny. I couldn’t see the sun due to the amount of tall grass surrounding us, but I could see that it was close to night. “Oh!- You’re awake, are you feeling okay?” “Yeah, I’m good.” Danielle helped me off her back- and quickly threw me into the tall grass. “OW- What the hell?!” “You dick! You caused us to lose the only place we were safe at AND you dug up A KID and a fuckin’ dog! What were you thinkin’?!” I froze. I am pretty stupid, aren’t I? I really wish none of this happened. I was the cause of so many deaths, most of those people were just kids. Kids that had so much in store for them in the future.

“You’re right. I-I should leave. I’m hurting so many people and I don’t want you to get killed too. You all were really sweet and-” “Shut Up. You’re not leavin’, besides, she already knows that we know each other so we’re on her death list. Might as well stick with each other till the end, eh?” Danielle flashes her usual carefree smile, that smile always brightens my day somehow. “Yeah, you’re right. Thank you.” We share a gentle hug before going to catch up with the others.

“By the way, Cali- Coconut- is still mad at you. You should apologize to him.”

Oh.

I caught up to Coconut, limping a bit because of how sore my legs were. The grass was almost as tall as the corn you would see in a corn field, but Coconut was way taller than the grass surrounding us. Damien, who was awake, was in his arms- hands- I give up; asking him a lot of yes or no questions. “Oh, hey Hazel. About time, big-head.” Coconut glanced in my direction, then quickly looked away. I felt awful to say the least, I caused this and I have no idea how to make it up to him. “Hey, Coconut, I am so so sorry, I’m sorry for involving you, I’m sorry for putting so much pressure on you, I’m sorry for causing you to lose your home, I’m sorry for many things. You don’t have to forgive me, I just want you to know that I am truly sorry for- god, everything I have done.” And with that, the atmosphere became heavy, but I don’t know what the atmosphere was full of to make it heavy. Comfort? Doubt? I wish I knew. I decided to slow down and meet up with Markus, he was a dog and it’s hard to tell if a dog was judging you or not.

“Hey Markus, how ya doin’, boy?” I reached down to pet him and instead of flinching, instead acting sad and moody from all of the things that happened to him, he was happy and clingy like he used to be before this all happened. I had Markus back again, it made me so happy. That reminds me- “Coconut, I know you don’t want to talk to me anymore but- before my friend died, he said somethin’ about Windermere Street, fifth pothole farthest from the- fork? Got any ideas?” He froze. It was very anxious all of a sudden. “Do you know-” “What. Say again.” “Um- Windermere Street, fifth pothole farthest from the fork.” He still didn’t move. I’m convinced he probably has a fear of forks or something-

“Oh- OH WAIT!”

He dropped the injured kid and ran farther into the field, leaving us behind. “What the Hell?! Where the fuck- Hold up!” Danielle picked up Damien and ran after Coconut, leaving me and Markus behind. “W-Wait! I can’t run!” I tried to catch up but ended up falling over, scraping my knee. I cautiously got up and looked at Markus, who seemed very tense, fur was standing on edge as he glanced all around us. I couldn’t see anything, it was basically night time, the moon shining down on the field that laid under it.

I remembered I bought some items to make a decorated fire later; a tiki stick, lighters, basic things. I bought the utilities out and made a fire on the tiki stick, I made sure I kept it close enough so I didn’t cause a fire. Markus was still scared, but this time, he was staring at the grass in front of him, he looked perturbed and anxious. I decided to look at the grass ahead of me just in case, but curiosity wasn’t on my side today.

Immediately, I was met with the face of the monster that calls herself ‘Mother’. She blended in with the grass almost perfectly, the only thing stuck out was the red highlights of the fire that illuminated on her face. Doing the first thing that came to my mind, I quickly lit her dress on fire earning a horrid screech from her as I ran away with Markus. I didn’t know where I was going, all I knew was that she was after me and I couldn’t let her catch me.

After not even a minute of running, I had to catch my breath, I was too weak from her attacking me yesterday. I looked over to Markus who was staring at the grass again, growling. I knew it was her so I swung the tiki stick in that direction, catching her on fire, and running away. This process felt like it was repeating itself over and over again; catching my breath, looking over at Markus to see where he was looking, swinging in that direction, running away. Voices. All I hear is voices. I can’t even hear the sound of Markus and I running through the grassland dirt. The field around us is basically on fire now and I’m running low on tiki sticks. ‘Mother’ was in a dreadful state, her beautiful white dress appeared as a black sieve, exposing parts of her body; parts of her grey skin looked like acrylamide and it was skabbing from the scorching fire. Yet, she still chased me, whippering from the pain.

I could barely breathe out here. The gas and the smoke were clouding up my lungs, I felt like passing out, I wouldn’t be surprised if I did at this point. Markus was tired too, coughing and wheezing, and at sometimes, vomiting. I couldn’t keep this up. I was tired and hot, I could hardly walk anymore. As I thought this couldn’t get any worse, my leg gave out, I couldn’t run away anymore. I don’t want to die like this, but it seems like that may be the case. I turn to Markus, “I know- Cough I know you may not understand me, but- I-I need you to run, alright? Get- Cough Get the HELL out of here! Go!” Markus, worn-out and tired, ran as fast as he could in the other direction. “Why run my-” “SHUT UP! You’re a freak, you know that?!” She didn’t respond, instead, she began to reach out for me. I tried to crawl away, but I couldn’t, she grabbed my leg and began to pull me in another direction. I needed to get out of here, but I was in so much pain.

“Stop resisting, I need yo-”

“HAZEL! HAZEL ARE YOU OUT HERE?!”

Damien.

She immediately tried to run in the direction his voice was coming from, but I grabbed her leg with little force left in my arms, which wasn’t much as I was dragged along with her. In the distance I could see Damien with a cloth over his mouth, only removing it when he called my name again. He was completely oblivious to the thing heading his way. “DAMIEN! Move your ass!” I could see him turn around, face Immediately filled with fear. He was pushed away by Coconut who grabbed me, threw me off of Mother, and went into hand-to-hand combat with her.

It was pretty astonishing, scary but astonishing.

“Hazel! We are so sorry for leavin’ you, but we have to kinda get the hell outta here!” Danielle grabbed Damien and I and ran off. I could see what was happening behind us, but I prayed that Coco would be alright.

We stopped at a- lake? River? I don’t know really, it looked like a swamp though. Bark! What is- Oh! “Markus! Hi!” He was safe, I’m glad I didn’t lose him too. “Here, me and Calic-Cocon- you know what? I don’t care anymore. Me and Mr. Hoppity over there found a boat, he said to take it down the river and avoid the forest route, he will meet us on the other side of the river. Alright?” Everyone agrees and gets in the boat. It was a small motor boat that barely fit all of us. Markus was on my lap, Danielle was in the back, and Damien was in the middle.

The river wasn’t too narrow, it’s just that none of us know how to drive a boat… Welp. We tried to navigate through the twists and turns of the river as Damien yells about how cold the water is. “Hey, Danielle, sweetheart, you’re doin’ a great job, but can you do better?” “Excuse me, do you want to come er’ and work the boat of wonders? If not, then SHUT!” I got quiet, ain’t no way in hell am I doing that. “You know what? I’ll steer this shit! Move, hoe!” Damien? The hell is he doing? “HOE?! Who the hell you-” He pushed Dan away from the motor and began steering the ship- I mean boat. He was really good at it, too good at it. Kinda weirded me out.

“Damien, how do you know how to drive a boat?” “My dad used to own one of these before he died, sometimes I felt like he loved the boat more than he loved me.” He giggled as he didn’t take his eyes off the water, tears swelled in his eyes. “Oh, I’m so sorry Damien.” Danielle said, giving Damien a look of empathy. I remember losing my dad when I was younger, my mom wasn’t the same ever since. I miss my dad so much. “Are you alright, Hazel?” “Oh- um- yeah, it’s just that when I was about your age, I lost my dad too.” Damien looked empathetic too, but just a bit. “Sorry guys… You know Hazel caused my friends to die.”

…Ouch

“Way to ruin the mood, dickhead.” “Sorry- I just thought it was funny. Anyways, I’m sorry, to both of you. You’re both so young, this must be so hard to go through.” A silence fell around us, but not an uncomfortable one, this one was peaceful and happy. It’s nice to finally have a break from the pain we went through together.

Damien went over to hug Dan, sharing a nice and comforting embrace together.

Everything was great.

Wait-

Who’s driving the boat? Where are we goin- oop.

“Hey, that’s sweet in all, but we’re heading into the forest route.”

“WHAT?! You tell us this now?!” Dan looked as if she was about to pop a blood vessel. “I mean yeah, can’t you just back out of the route?” Damien deadpanned. “No, we don’t have a steering wheel- DUMBASS!” Oh. “Did Coco say anything bad about the forest?” “No, I don’t know what’s so bad about it.” So I guess we have to sit here, preparing for the worst. Great. The only thing we could hear was the sound of the motor in the water, I didn’t hear any birds, frogs, cicadas- nothing. The only life here besides us were plants, there were no signs of animals here, not even insects. The farther into the forest we went, the more destroyed boats appeared, these boats had giant gashes on it’s sides, but the most unsettling thing was that each and every the boats had a large hole in the middle.

“This is making me feel- um disquiet. There’s so many destroyed boats.” Damien said, worry in his voice. “Really? I haven’t noticed.” Sorry dude, I had to add sarcasm. “Can we please take this seriously-”

SCREACH

“What the fuck?” “Did we bump into something?” Danielle looked around rapidly. “No, we aren’t near the trees, and I’m sure the lily pads don’t make a sound like that.” I felt something cold touch my feet.

Water. That hole.

Markus began barking continuously. “Guys, we’re sinking. Move us towards the trees, they’re close together so we may be able to get from one tree to another. Daniel- Danielle?” She was staring at the water, eyes wide- not moving. “Daniell-”

“Guys there’s something in the water.”

Vaycay time 🙃
Due to the vaycay, I may be gone for a bit. I hope this isn’t a bother.

Word count - 2164