Chapter Seven #2
“That’s what you wanted,” he says, his voice low like he’s fighting a wave of nausea.
“What’s that?” Freddie asks.
I look at him in alarm. “What’s what?”
“That up ahead.”
I blink as far as the headlights allow me to see. Something is blocking the road but it’s hard to tell what. We drive closer until Freddie slows the car to a stop, pulling the handbrake up.
“I’m going to check it out,” he says, opening the door his side.
I don’t know what possesses me, but I reach for his arm.
I could scream at myself as my fingers latch onto his rock-solid bicep.
Not only is it stupidly firm, it’s also toasty warm and I snatch my fingers back as if they’ve been scalded.
He turns to look at me with a quizzical brow. “Your fingers are cold.”
“Be careful,” I say at the same time.
“Of what?” he asks with a smirk.
“I don’t know. We’re in middle of the forest in the dark.”
“Get a grip, Hatter,” Sam grumbles, stumbling out his side too.
“Ooh, are we here?” Priya bounces awake, followed by Sara, who both climb out of the car too. The doors slam shut and then I’m left alone, which somehow feels worse. I join them outside, sucking in a breath of the cold, night air.
“Where’s the house?” Sara asks, her voice sleep drunk.
“There’s something blocking the road,” I tell her. “We’re not there yet.”
“Oh,” is her sullen response before she goes back to the car and leans against it, waiting.
Freddie is right up ahead. “It’s a fallen tree,” he calls back.
Sam joins him and they talk together quiet enough that I can’t hear them. I pause to watch this scenario play out. They seem brotherly and respectful of each other for once which I find incredibly disconcerting. Why don’t they hate each other?
Priya touches my arm, making me jump. “Can you hear that sound?” she whispers.
Shivers rack through my body. “Don’t say shit like that in the dark.”
“No, but listen,” she says, her arms wrapping round mine. I go quiet and hear a rustling too. The headlights cast our bodies into long shadows that stretch right out to where the boys are inspecting the tree.
“Probably just an animal…”
“Yeah. Definitely. Not a bear, though. They don’t have bears roaming free in the UK. Do they?”
“No. Don’t be ridiculous. It can’t be a bear.”
“But it sounds quite loud.”
More rustling occurs. It sounds closer. We both peer into the forest to our left where it’s coming from. A shadow moves and I tense all over.
“Boys!” I yell. “Something is over here!”
Footsteps head our way with haste and Priya ditches me to jog back to the car. Sara sees her coming and they barrel through the door. “Hattie! Come on,” Priya shouts, waving me over but I’m frozen still.
I can’t move as the shadow gets closer.
Whatever it is, it’s big. A dog? An escaped animal from the zoo? It sounds lion sized.
I can’t move my legs.
I can’t do anything.
I’m the girl everyone screams at in a horror movie for being totally and completely incapable of survival.
An awful squealing, screeching sound calls out in the darkness as the shadow takes form of a hideous beast and barrels straight towards me.
My heart feels like it’s in my throat.
This is it.
I’m going to die.
Except a large, firm body encloses itself around my waist and suddenly I’m perched on the bonnet of the car instead.
I blink and there’s Freddie, watching me, his face so close, I can feel his breath on my cheeks, green eyes ablaze in the loom of the headlights.
He squeezes my thigh. One short, sharp squeeze.
“Are you…” he asks before the screeching intensifies and his legs are taken out from underneath him.
I scream again. Sam tries to run back towards the tree.
“Fucking stupid pig,” Freddie yells.
The short run has Sam doubling over. He must throw up the entire bottle of WKD followed by his Burger King lunch. I lift my knees to my chest, waiting for the chaos to unravel.
Freddie scrambles back to his feet, his hair dishevelled. “Fucking wild bacon,” he grumbles, his gaze drifting over me like he’s checking for something, before finding his brother’s outline up ahead. “Sam, you alright, man?”
“Yeah,” he says, but he doesn’t sound ok. He sounds miserable.
“I’m regretting this whole plan,” I announce.
“Are you ok?” Freddie asks, stepping up to stand beside me. I blink at him. I can still feel where his fingers squeezed me just moments ago. Little warm imprints branded there for keeping.
“Me? I’m fine. I’m not the one who just got attacked.”
“I wouldn’t call it an attack,” he quips. “It just knocked me over.”
“How big was it?” I ask, since I hadn’t seen it as it barrelled past.
“Massive.”
“Ok, but where did it go?”
Freddie looks behind him, unbothered. “Somewhere over there. I guess we disturbed it.”
Sam rises to a standing position again and slowly makes his way back towards us just as the horrible, high-pitched sound blares again.
He tries to outrun it. He almost makes it, but he’s just been sick.
He’s too slow. Stumbling. It knocks him down too before screeching back in between the trees.
Freddie runs to his brother’s aid, grabbing him by the arm and hauling him along.
Sam flings himself into the passenger seat and slams the door.
Freddie returns to where I’m now hugging my knees on the bonnet. He stands his ground, refusing to move again for the horrible creature, eyes searching the darkness for its return. But the boar clearly reads his energy, as we hear him trotting off into the forest, the distant cracking of twigs.
“Well, looks like we’re going to have to walk the rest of the way,” he says.
I laugh at his joke, but he doesn’t even flinch.
Because he’s dead serious.