Goodnight

Chapter 6

The only sound I could hear was the dreary sound of leaves rustling in the trees and snow-coated twigs snapping beneath my sneakers. Grey clouds streaked across the obsidian sky, and the chilling air left my teeth chattering as I shoved my numb hands in my pockets.

"Where are we going, Lena?" I asked quietly, looking around the forest where nothing but trees lined the area in front of us.

I knew it wasn't normal for me to feel the comforting feeling I had felt being in the woods alone. Something about the woods stirred a strange mixture of horror and contentment within me - but for once, I wasn't scared. Perhaps I was finally too drained, as I could tell by the way my eyes would involuntarily droop shut while walking that I was way too tired.

When my sister didn't respond, I looked beside myself to find her quiet and focused.

"Lena..."

"What?" she asked, staring at the frosted ground beneath us.

"We've been walking for hours," I said, hoisting my backpack a little higher over my shoulder. "Are you going to tell me what's going on or no?"

She stayed meek and continued walking, ignoring me completely.

"I bet Mom wants to send me back. I could see it in the way she stared at me today... she was so disappointed. She didn't even-"

"Enough, Ethan!" Lena exclaimed, her fingers threading through her hair. "It's so much bigger than you think. I can't tell you, you just have to trust me."

It wasn't making any sense to me - what was worse than going back to that place? It wasn't like I did anything wrong, I just had insomnia.

We began to near a long, winding road that had not a soul in sight both ways down. As we stepped along the dark concrete, I could feel myself growing more and more exhausted. I was ready to collapse.

"We need to stop at some point, because I'm getting tired. Aren't you?" I asked her, feeling my legs weaken.

There was no answer again. The sky had grown even darker within the last few minutes and I thought maybe that was why I didn't immediately see Lena at my side, but it wasn't. She wasn't beside me. I couldn't hear her footsteps anymore or the rustling of the material on her jacket.

"Lena," I tried to say loudly, but my voice escaped in a cracked whisper. "L-Lena?"

I looked helplessly down the road, behind me, to the side where the trees were, and in front of me - she was no where to be found.

"Lena!" I screamed loudly, my breath heavy and forming clouds in front of me due to the frigid air. "Lena, for fuck's sake!" I yelled out again, my chest moving up and down at a rapid pace. "Stop doing this all the time!"

And then I saw someone.

I thought it was her, down at the end of the road. I strained my eyesight in the thick darkness to search for short hair, thin legs and sparkling eyes. But it wasn't her.

I squinted my eyes, trying to find a piece of skin peeling off the face that could indicate whether or not it was the crazy man haunting me every night. It wasn't him either.

It was me.

I could see my messy hair, the bulky jacket with the sweatshirt beneath it, the boots and the crooked stature of the figure. Although it was too dark to make out any distinct features, I just knew exactly who it was. He was just standing there... I was just standing there, staring at myself.

My feet were frozen on the ground, I was completely still as I stared at this image of my figure down the road. I slightly moved my arm, to see if it was a mirror image, but it wasn't. And I was wondering why he was just standing there, staring at me with a shadowed face.

He started walking towards me, slowly, eyes locked on me with every step.

I stayed still for a second, still in shock, as I watched myself walk towards me. Until he began running, sprinting at a fast pace towards me.

Before I knew it, I was running so fast in the other direction, my tired legs were no longer tired legs. They weren't even there. I was just a moving torso, my legs moving as fast as they could beneath me. I could hear the shoes of my figure behind me, nearing closer and closer, and the heavy breath of my figure as well.

My lungs were on fire, they were gasping and contracting, filling with freezing air that suffocated and restricted me. The toe of my boot hit a rock in the road, and I flew onto the harsh asphalt, the skin of my palms scraping and tearing. The wind was knocked out of me when my figure landed on top of me, weighing my body down.

I tried to squirm away, but to no avail. I could only stare up at my own face, gazing down at me with the rain clouds enhancing his anger. I couldn't even register what was happening before he swung his arm back and knocked his fist into the side of my mouth, so hard I could feel my tooth crunch and a piece of it land in my mouth. I spit it out, my chest heaving as I begged and pleaded for him to get off.

I wasn't even scared, I was in total and utter shock as this figure of myself was beating me. His fist swung back and hit my jugular, knocking the back of my head into the asphalt and causing my throat to ache.

"Please," I begged, as he began groaning and hitting me relentlessly - faster, harder, all aiming for my face. He hit my nose, making an irritating and seething pain sprout throughout my face. He punched my mouth again, making my lip hit against my tooth. Blood trickled down my chin as I shook my head.

I felt hot tears on my cheeks. I had no idea what was happening and no strength or motivation to fight back.

He punched my stomach, making me hunch over and gasp in pain. He punched me in both my eyes, all while heavily groaning. He grabbed fist-fulls of my matted hair and slammed me back into the ground multiple times.

Thunder cracked across the sky and nearly shook the ground. I barely even noticed the rain that started heavily smacking against the atmosphere around me, almost cleansing me as I took the worst beating I had ever encountered - and I had encountered a lot.

Was this a dream? The pain seemed too harsh for that possibility, and watching me beat myself up didn't even seem that crazy compared to all I had been through.

"Get off," I cried out desperately, booming thunder muting my pleads as this figure of myself sat on top of me and beat me viciously.

He finally lifted himself off of me, and I felt all of the pain radiate throughout every inch of my body. I watched from my peripheral vision as his leg bent and the toe of his sneaker cracked into the side of my ribs one last time.

I coughed heavily, the rain pouring down on my face and washing the blood off of me as I lay limp in the middle of the road.

Ethan stared down at me for a few more seconds, his face too dark for me to see fully but I knew from the features that it was me. It was me. It was me...

And then, he took off in the other direction, running as fast as his legs could take him.

I just remained sprawled out on the ground, the pain and exhaustion restricting me from moving a single muscle. I cried silently, my loneliness becoming more and more obvious as my tears instantly blended into the substantial rainfall.