The Faceless Forest

26

At least mom still has her face Emily thought darkly. She wanted to get out but she suspected that her father was monitoring her every move very closely.

After a couple of hours Emily finally decided that she was ready to get up and out, she wanted to try her escape mission again. After a deep breath she got up the courage to open the door, she was met with her father's bulky body. He gave her a smile before grabbing her by her arms and forcing her into the torture room.

"Get away from me!" Emily yelled trying to push, hit, kick, anything to get away from her father.

He let out a laugh, "why would I do that, when we are just starting the fun!"

Emily made a mental eye roll before she kicked him with all her might, which made him let go of her she ran and ran, she was always faster than her father when they used to do races when she was a child and now this was working as an advantage to her.

She found the door leading to the outside world she opened it with haste and she was met with a cool breeze. She ran and ran until she reached the edge of the forest, by then her father had stopped chasing her.

This was where she last saw her friends and she intended to find them, she knew her father would keep tabs on her and her friends as he already had, but that was why she would keep a close eye behind her back, there was also a possibility that her father wouldn't follow her into the forest because of his history for it but only time will tell.

She ran straight into what felt like an invisible barrier, she tried everything to get past it but she was no match for the power that lurked in the forest. She banged she kicked she did whatever she could to try and bust down the barrier. She turned around and sat on her butt, claiming defeat.

Only when she saw her father coming was when she stood up, she knew she had to get away from him and it was like the barrier was never there, she fell flat onto her face into the forest floor. She saw her father's eyes they were greedy, they wanted her. He ran and ran and ran towards the forest and landed face first into the barrier. Emily smiled at him, she outsmarted him.

She smiled, and walked away, she needed to find her friends and she had a pretty good idea of where to find them.

Zoey had a sense that someone was following them way before they reached the shed, but she only paid attention to it when she kept hearing footsteps, branch's cracking and other things implying that someone was behind them but when they looked back nobody was there.

Emily ran and ran and ran, if the barrier acted as it did with her, her father would be able to get into the forest any second and she needed to get away as fast as she could from her father also trying to find her friends after she lost her father off in the forest.

After hours of searching, she found footprints. They looked like they went on forever but she had time. She followed them for hours on end finding no one except for the odd animal, it looked like it was abandoned. She almost forgot about the hallucinations until she had one

It was different from the other ones she had. This time she was in a different person's body it was a strange sensation, she could hear their thoughts and use their senses. She tried to figure out who the body belonged to but then she saw a whole group of faceless who had all bowed down to her, she realized that she was in Lily's mind. She looked around and saw hundreds of the faceless creatures bowing down to her, they all looked like they had a blank stare on their face.

Emily thought this was weird they had never given her or her friends a blank stare as they did with their leader, whenever they saw any of her or her friends they had an angry glare or an evil one but this was a different stare from the normal.

All of a sudden she heard a loud bang from behind her, she turned and saw a bullet rush pass her and into the nearest faceless creature, Emily saw that it was her father, "Oh great, he got through the barrier," she thought. She felt a sudden jerk and was back to her original place in the forest before the hallucination. She wandered around her legs felt weak as if they were being pulled down by an invisible force.

As she walked more her legs felt weaker and weaker, she soon needed to sit down and rest. Shortly after she heard screams for her name, she thought they sounded familiar which indeed they were but not the familiar that she would have wanted.

"Oh Emily, come out and play," she heard her father yell.

She could hear his voice coming closer and she didn't want to find out what happened when he got close enough to reach out for her.

She wanted to get up but her legs were acting as if they had quit working or if they died, but she knew they weren't it was just another one of the forest's many mind games that it had in store for times of need.

She could hear her father getting closer but it wasn't until she could see him when the adrenaline kicked in.

She sprung up almost falling over again but she kept her balance worked for her. Se ran and ran and ran, trying to get away from her father but he was gaining speed. She had an idea and she hoped with all her might it would work.

"Steph,"

"Zoey,"

"Zach,"

"Ethan,"

"HELP," she screamed and screamed over and over until she heard a response

"Emily?!"

"YES HELP ME!" she screamed back, she needed her friends help.

"WE'RE COMING, STAY WHERE YOU ARE," she could hear Zoey yell

"I CAN'T I'M BEING CHASED!'" she yelled as she continued to run, shortly after she ran head-on into Zoey and her friends, they had a quick group hug but she saw her father gaining on her,

"Guys my father wants me, he will do anything to get me, so what I want you to do is get somewhere safe, don't worry about me, and he has cameras all around so be careful where you go," she gave her friends a quick group hug and she was off into the darkness of the sunset.

Her friends looked at each other with shock on their face, mouths wide open but were knocked back by what looked like an adult male, "HEY," Zoey yelled trying to get his attention she took a deep breath and said "LEAVE EMILY ALONE JAKE, WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID!"

He turned around with a smile on his face, sure enough it was Emily's supposed to be dead father.

He started to walk towards them in a slow stride making them as scared as possible before he striked. "Why are you doing this to Emily or any of us?" Zoey said in a trembling voice as she backed up farther and farther as Emily's father got closer and closer.

"Guys just follow my lead," she whispered to her friends only audible enough for them to hear. They nodded as they kept their eyes on Emily's father.

Zoey took a deep breath and ran with speed, her goal was to find Emily, her friends followed and lastly Emily's father, Jake.

Zoey searched the dark corners of the trees and forest but still no Emily, she tripped over a branch and saw her, Emily curled up in a ball in a hole at the bottom of a tree. "EM!" she whisper-shouted, she looked up and relief spread across her face.

"What happened?" she asked noticing that they were all out of breath,

"I told your father to back off, and he started to chase us,"

"Well get in a hole you can't let him find us, you don't want to know what he does on his spare time," Emily said.