***
  I ran and ran, tumbling as I fell below on the twigs and sharp branches. I was in the middle of the forest. In the dead of night. The moon was full above me as it lit up the whole forest, making it glow an off white. I looked behind myself every ten steps I took off, and then back around at the endless forest of wood. I was scared. I knew that feeling from anywhere. But I didn't know what from. Nothing about my past registered to me. Like I had forgotten the whole experience. Like none of the four years before occurred. But I was running. And I picked my pace up again and again. My breath almost non existence as I gasped short bursts of air. And then suddenly, a sharp jab on my head made me fall straight onto sharp rocks and leaves, as I looked up ahead of me. I tried scooting back towards the trees, trying to take cover although I knew it was no use, for he was right above me. Him in his all black attire and the hood that covered his face.

  "Leave me alone Jake!" I found myself saying, as I screamed at him again. But it was like I couldn't control my mouth. I spitted words out so fast, I couldn't keep up or couldn't control. Like I was possessed, or my body didn't belong to me. "What do you want from me?! I know it's you Jake! Do it! Kill me if you're going to! Come on, do it!" What was I saying?

  And as I kept speaking, the man in black just stood there looking over me. Doing nothing. Saying nothing. He just stood there limply. And I gave a confused look. I finally stood up at once, and he still only stood there, but his head followed my gaze as it moved from down to up, meeting my head. But that was all. "Jake?" I spoke again, confused as I was. And I slowly lifted up his hood, getting it off his head. And again he only stood there, almost in shock. Just watching me. Letting me. And as I lifted his hood all the way, the face I imagined I would see was not present. Jake's face was not attached to the mystery person. In fact, there was no face at all. The place where ones face would be, was empty as the dark consumed it. The person attacking me, threatening me, my captor, was faceless.
***

A twitch woke me up as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. A bright light shone on me as I squinted and pulled my blanket over my head. I had slept through the whole night. For once. It didn't feel like it, but the colour of the outdoors told me so. I laid there quietly for another few moments, as I have never been a morning person. Some people, jump right up when they wake and want to get going with the day. I was not like that. I liked to take my time getting up, and laying in bed, or in my case, my chair, and let the day seep into me slowly.

Taking deep breaths in and out. And letting my eyes adjust to the bright light outside, and, for a split second that I woke up, my mind would be blank, at peace. Forgetting everything that happened the day before, weeks before, months before, years before. Everything is just still, peaceful. And then, that second passes, and I am reminded of everything that has happened. Everything I experienced, everything I saw. And the weight of my life pulls me down as I am reminded of the dream I had just had.

  I was running in those woods, the woods I was in for months. It seemed every dream I had occurred in those woods. For that was when the most awful things happened to me, while I was in those woods. But the last thing I saw was odd. How when I lifted his hood there was no face. Maybe that was a metaphor as to what was happening now? Considering I don't know who he is. All I know is that it could be Jake. Maybe. I mean, it seems likely. If you think about it, I did hurt him before I was taken. The way he asked me to go on a date with him, and the way I turned him down. I treated it as a joke, mostly because I thought he was joking. I mean, we had been friends since we were kids. I truly thought he was only kidding. But later, once I found out he was really honest, I did apologize, or at least what I thought was an apology back then. And it was a little after that when I got the first call from him. And then a few weeks later, he took me. And after hearing Jake yesterday, talking to me that way, like he was angry at me, it makes sense. The guy that took me seems to hate me so much, yet he is obsessed with me at the same time. Like an admirer. Who other than Jake could that be? It seems no one else I know loves and hates me at the same time. They all either love me or hate me. Not both. And even the ones who hate me, I haven't spoken to them in years, I honestly don't assume they still have a grudge against me. However, there is Jake who seems to. Perhaps it is a random kid from school, who's hatefulness has returned with the return of yours truly. Just like I suspect with Jake.
But who else could it be? It has to be him, right? It makes the most sense.

  "Jaycee! There's someone here to see you!" my father shouted from downstairs, as I sat up and wondered who it could be. I didn't hear the doorbell ring, or knock. Who is it? Hopefully not Jake. If he's here to apologize, I don't want to hear it.

  "Just a minute," I yelled back before pulling the blanket off and looking at myself in the mirror. I still wore the same clothes from the night before, which I found weird.
Was I just so tired I didn't even bother changing? I never sleep in jeans. I must have been exhausted. But I didn't fuss over it. I grabbed my brush quickly and ran it gently through my long, straight dark hair, making myself look somewhat presentable. And then I went downstairs.

I shifted onto the last step of the stairs as I then was at ground level. The main floor. I turned the corner sharply as I walked over to the front landing, where Dad was standing by the door. I flipped my hair all to the back as I was brought into much brighter lighting, and turned to see who was standing outside the door. It was Hanna. I hadn't seen her since I returned, but I had spoken to her once on the phone. She wanted to meet as soon as I got back, although I told her I wanted to settle in first. Not be thrown back into all the action the first day. Thrown back into the haystack that was my old life. No. I wanted to ease my way back, but change the hay and re-arrange some things, like myself. Or my attitude.

  Hanna stood there in the doorway, a smile lighting up her face as I turned the corner. I gave off a slight smile myself, returning hers. Man, she hadn't changed one bit. Maybe the length of her hair, being much longer just like mine, but other than that she was still the same. No huge makeover like Emily. She was still rather thin, but maybe gaining a bit more weight. It looked good on her, considering I used to think she was too thin, that didn't look great. But I never told her that. But now she looked nicer, healthier. Her blonde hair had darkened a bit, but not much. Only a shade or two darker perhaps. Her freckles around her grey eyes were more pronounced now, something I would die for. Well, maybe not literally. I used to always compliment her freckles, which was a rather odd compliment, but I liked them. They were very cute, and I wished I had them. Sure, I had a few under my eyes, but they weren't all that noticeable. But the most drastic change I had noticed was her face. Her complexion I mean. I remembered she used to suffer from bad acne, with red pocks and bulges all over her face. But now, it was all smoothed out, and all one colour. It looked just like mine now, and I was amazed. She looked great. Don't get me wrong, it's not that she didn't look great before with her blemished skin, she did, only it was a very big improvement. One I liked to see.

  "Hi," I spoke first as I moved a bit with my dad giving her room to come in.

  "Hi Jayc," she answered me as she walked passed me and towards our living room to the left. And as she drifted away from me, I suddenly got a quick glance, or flashback of the many times she would run over to my house after her folks and her got into a fight. She had never had a great family life, although you would never know it by talking to her or seeing her parents. It was odd, since every time I went to Hanna's place her mother and father were always the sweetest, but they also had another side to them when guests weren't over. And I knew that. I had seen it once or twice, when they didn't know I was there. They sure could bicker and nag on each other, and their fights were the worst. There were sometimes when Hanna would be in the middle of it, and that's when she would run to my place. Usually in tears as I tried to comfort her. I was always there for her, my father too since he knew what her home life was like. But she tried to keep on a happy face, and never let people know how she really felt. Except me for that matter. Which I of course was alright with.

  "It's nice to see you again Hanna," my father spoke to her as we both followed to the living room.

  "You too Mr. Thompson," she spoke politely before taking a seat on one of our brown sofa's.

  "I'll just be upstairs if you need anything," my father spoke to me more in a whisper before heading for the stairs. I nodded in a way that spoke for itself: 'alright'.

I joined Hanna as well, as I sat down on the sofa across from her. We sat there for a few moments, just waiting for one another to speak first. I eventually did.

  "I was meaning to say, your skin looks really nice," I spoke, trying to break the ice with a compliment, and she laughed a bit.

  "Thanks. Yeah, I've been working on it. Trying all these natural products and skin remedies. It's really paid off," she nodded as I did the same, and then the silence swept in again. Almost feeling awkward. Which was very odd, considering we had been best friends ever since we were little. Why does this feel awkward. It shouldn't. She's my best friend, just talk to her.
But my mouth didn't listen to my mind. I just kept silent as I let the calm air sit. But luckily, she broke the ice, or silence this time. "I didn't come here to talk about my skin though. I came here to talk about you. How are you?" she asked me, almost feeling like I had told her the truth as to what happened. I guess, for some reason I didn't expect people to ask me questions like 'how are you?' Or 'are you alright?' Considering everyone thought I ran away, those don't seem like questions one would ask another is they only took off. They seem like questions one would ask another if something bad happened to them, like, for example if they were kidnapped, which I indeed was. I don't know, it just felt like an odd question.

  "I-I'm fine. But it's not like....I mean, I only ran away. Why wouldn't I be fine?" I asked, as I voiced my true thoughts. But what if everyone is onto me? What if everything thinks something worse happened to me than what really did? What if they don't believe my runaway story.

  "I just thought, maybe hearing that we all thought you were dead right when you returned, I don't know, I just thought maybe it was a lot to take in? I know it would be for me. Returning after four years to a town where my friends, family and community thought I was dead? Or had been killed? That would be a lot for me," she voiced her opinion as she waited patiently for my answer, and now, that first question made sense to me. Maybe no one is truly onto me. Maybe that's just all in my head. The paranoia.

  "Oh. Yeah, I guess on that topic, it was a lot to take in. It still is. It's getting a bit better now, but it truly was hard the first couple of days," I explained to her, as the thought of my other friends crept into my mind. What if they come visit me too? I can't ignore them, as much as I want to. Hopefully it won't come to that.
And as I thought of them, my mind wandered onto Emily, and I wanted to share that with Hanna. "I apologized to Emily the other day," I spoke to her as she lodged her head a bit, looking back at me now.

  "You did?"

  "Yeah. She's the only one I have apologized to so far. I know I need to for other people, but that will come later. When I see them. But it was mostly her that I wanted to say sorry to. Needed to say sorry to. It was eating at me. Even the days when I was gone, I regretted that so much. How I treated her, and a lot of other people. I don't want to be that girl anymore, Hanna. I'm not her anymore. And I want people to know that," I finally finished as I looked into her eyes the whole time, as I replayed that moment at Emily's in my head again. I felt good that day, saying sorry to her. And I had realized even more that day, that that's how I always want to feel. The way you feel when you compliment someone, or even apologizing, seeing their expression change, for the better I always hope, and that's what makes me feel happier than ever. Making someone else's day. I don't know how I did it when I was younger. Being the darkness that consumed ones life, like Emily's, but all I know is that I never want to be that Jaycee again, or even see the smallest glimpse of her.

  Hanna smiled to me slightly, and I knew then that she realized I was a different person. A changed person. She sat there for another moment, before she grabbed her bag and headed towards the door again. "You're leaving already?" I asked as I followed her to the front landing.

  "Yeah, sorry I have to run a few errands today, but I wanted to stop by and see you," she explained as I went to unlock the front door for her. "Oh, hey, I was meaning to ask you. Did you want to go out to dinner tonight? There's this new little restaurant that went into that store right by the antique shop we used to go in all the time. I think it's called Brown's? I'm not sure but apparently they got really good food. Wanna check it out?" Hanna asked me before she was about to walk out towards her car.

  "Yeah, sure that sounds great!" I answered her energetically as a smile lit up my face, along with hers.

  "Great! I'll pick you up at 7:00. How's that sound?"

  "Sounds great! I'll see you then!"

  "Alright, see ya!" She waved excitingly as she walked down our front path and towards her white car that was parked along by the tree in our front yard, right between both of the police cars.