Goodnight

Chapter 7

"Ethan!"

It felt like weights were placed on my eyelids when I forced them open. Lena's large eyes were staring down at me, and the sun was peering through the treetops above her to illuminate her figure above me.

"Ethan!" she screeched in my ears, shaking my shoulders roughly. "I'm sorry I left you alone, I'm sorry!"

"What?" I croaked, my throat dry and sore.

"What happened to you?" she stared in amazement at my bloodied body, laying in the center of a dead road. Her fingertips were gentle as she traced them over the burning gashes across my forehead. "Who did this? Do you remember?"

I licked my chapped lips, staring up at the sky and listening to birds chirping and animals scurrying through the forest as if nothing had happened. "I did it," I said, my voice so low I was surprised she heard it.

She was quiet for a few seconds. "You... you did it, did you just say?"

I nodded weakly. "I saw him. He looked like me."

Her eyes changed while watching me - her demeanor shifted almost instantly from worried to sympathetic. "Um... all right, Ethan. Can... can you stand up?"

My head shook in a slight twitch, my eyes closing again.

"We have to keep moving, Ethan, come on," she begged, looking back and forth down both sides of the road.

I slowly lifted myself to a seated position, groaning as the harsh pain sifted throughout my body again. My movements were groggy as I lifted my shirt up and stared down at the bruises that covered my thin torso.

Lena watched, her eyes gentle and her lips pursed in concern. "This isn't good."

I winced as I shifted my body again, my temples throbbing so harshly I had to close my eyes.

"Why are you even here?" I asked her, my voice gravelly and my body trembling from the dull pain pulsing through me.

She stared at me, her light irises big and laced with hurt. "To help you."

"Lena, you have a life. You have friends, school, a future..."

"I really don't, Ethan," she said, her eyes beginning to glitter at the brim with tears. "I-"

"You have... you have T, she's going to miss you so much-"

"Stop it!" Lena cried out, shaking her head and gripping onto my shoulders. Her fingers tightened around me and her eyes were locked on mine, dilated and determined.

"But-"

"I know what they did to you in that place," she said quietly, her gaze moving away from mine. "I know how they treated you... I don't want anything to happen to you again. You protected me, I need to do the same for you."

Memories began flooding through my mind in an anxiety-inducing whirlwind. I remembered being slammed into the wall, screamed at, punched and kicked by the male guards. I remembered laying on the ground and watching other messed up kids deal with the same treatment every night right in front of my face.

I remembered being laughed at while I suffered alone in the rubber room, being watched by a line of guards with smiles so evil and eyes so dark.

Shaking, I licked my cracked mouth again and felt the coppery taste of blood on my tongue. "You believe me?"

She looked surprised by my question. "Of course I do, are you crazy?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "A little."

She shook her head, her hair blowing into her eyes from the rush of wind.

"Why?" I asked. When I saw a look of confusion in her eyes, I added, "Did you believe me?"

"I saw it," she said suddenly, a tear sliding down her flushed cheek.

I recoiled in confusion. "What?"

"Ethan, I-"

The sound of sirens boomed from not too far away, cutting her off. Lena and I instantly glanced at each other in fear, and my heartbeat accelerated when she began standing up quickly.

"Ethan, get up! Stand up!" she screamed loudly, grabbing my arm and yanking me to my feet. I wobbled and tried to run behind her, but the pain I felt was too overwhelming.

I was exhausted, dehydrated and starving, trying to run in the brisk air and follow behind Lena who was sprinting like a track star in front of me. I was panting and groaning and asking "why are we running?" continuously.

"Lena!" I yelled, stopping as she released my arm. "Stop!" I bent over with my palms pressed into my knees, gasping for the freezing air that clenched my lungs with metal teeth.

She stood and waited for me. The sirens were still loud and booming throughout the sky, it seemed inevitable that they were going to catch up to us. If they were after me, I was done for.

"I didn't-" I tried to catch my breath, "-I didn't do anything wrong! The police aren't after me, are they?"

Lena was bouncing with anxiety and pure fear, whipping her head both ways to make sure the police weren't pulling up to us.

"We have to find somewhere to hide," she said, her voice alert. "Can't you run a little longer?"

I shook my head, spitting on the ground. "My back hurts, I haven't worn my brace in a few days."

The flashing red and blue lights became visible from afar through the trees, driving towards us. The harsh sounds of sirens invaded the air and grew louder and louder, making my heart pump faster and faster until it was all I could hear.

Lena grabbed my arm and we ran off the road on to the side where trees and logs were scattered across the woods. Lena looked frantically for somewhere to hide, but there was nothing to hide behind and there was nothing to hide in.

"Ethan," she sobbed, shaking her head and watching as three police cars were nearing closer and closer. "Ethan, God damn it!" she yelped, tears evident in her breaking voice.

As Lena cried loudly beside me, my eyes caught something standing beside a tree. A person, wearing clothes so dark it seemed as if he were just a silhouette. His face was mutilated. It was the crazy, mysterious man, I could tell by the way his large and round eyes were locked on me.

I wanted so terribly to look away from his horrifying, ivory coloured eyes but for some reason, I couldn't look away. My stomach twisted with nausea and bile threatened to escape my mouth. My chest was so compact it felt as if every one of my ribs were crushing against the pressure, and my breath was gone again.

I noticed his flesh, which once covered his forehead, had folded down, displaying the gory contents of his skull. And then, he opened his mouth, where the bottom of his jaw fell to the ground and landed on a pile of snow-blanketed leaves.

"Ethan!" Lena's scream was blood-curdling and tears were streaming down her face, when I heard the sound of tires crackling against the dried leaves and twigs beside me.

The man disintegrated into the wispy winds that whirled through the forest. My heart dropped as I registered what was happening.

And then, I heard the words I had been so terrified of hearing.

"Put your hands up where I can see them!"
_

the end is near :) what do you think will happen?

please comment, your comments and opinions are what keeps me updating!