Chapter 2: Forest Strangers

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Chapter 2

Wednesday.

The days were going by in a blur and my days were literally numbered. For the past two days my mother had me shopping from makeup down till underwear. Seriously mom, I don't think the beast wants to get to know my undergarments.

I barely spoke to any of my friends because they were either fiercely competitive or they were on the same boat as me and their moms were forcing them to go shopping. I haven't even had time for my boyfriend Jake.

I had been so busy I almost forgot about him.

Jake and I had been good friends since childhood because it was a small town and everyone knew everyone. He was my best friend and we shared everything with each other. When we started high school we decided to date. At first it was all romance and relationships but now during senior year, I felt as if the spark kind of blazed out.

I finally got my mother to let me have a day without shopping and grooming. Jake and I had a date today and I couldn't wait to see him and just let all this stress go.

Jake' house was on the other side of town and closer to the forest that surrounded half of our town. Jake's family was one of the few that hunted for the beast. When I say hunted, I mean full on guns and ammunition, crossbow and arrows and very sharp daggers. Jake tried to teach me to shoot a gun one time, since his father has been teaching him since he was old enough to handle one.

His ancestors believed that the beast was something that was sent by the devil to kidnap the women in our community therefore it should be sent back. His grandfather also had a very close lead last forty years which led to him and the rest of the lunatic hunters into the forest in search of the beast.

But strangely enough they never returned and weeks after their bodies were found on the edge of the forest. I had to admit hearing Jake tell me that story only heightened my fear. That is a main reason for the hatred both Jake and I held for both the beast and the ritual.

When I pulled up at Jake's house I saw him approaching from his garage with his favorite toy, the crossbow.

"Emery!" He called when I got out.

"Jake. Oh my gosh I missed you so much. You have no idea what kind of torture my mom had me through." I said rushing into his arms.

"I'm so sorry pumpkin, I know how much you hate this, as much as I do. But I promise you that you wouldn't get taken, and if you did I would do what I'm best at and hunt down that godforsaken creature." He said smiling down at me.

We may be lacking our spark but boy did he have a way with words.

"Come on I want to show you something." He said taking one of my hand in one of his that didn't hold the crossbow, and pulled me towards the forest.

"Jake where are we going?" I asked, it was unlike him to take me into the forest even on the edge.

"Just come on." He said pulling me and I followed hesitantly.

When we finally stopped, it had been about ten minutes of walking and there were duffel bags on the ground where we stood.

"Jake what are these?" I asked carefully.

"These are our equipment, guns and arrows to teach you. Emery, I love you and I can't risk losing you."

"Oh so you're going to play the love card? Jake I'm not going to get taken, seriously." I can't believe he thought I was going to get taken.

"But you said yourself that you hate the beast. I'm not saying that you're going to be chosen but we have no chance of knowing that for sure. However, you do have to attend this ritual." He said as if he wanted me to be apart of the ritual.

"Why? Do you want me to get taken?" I asked baffled.

"Of course not Emery but you have to be in this ritual... please don't fight it." He said opening his bag up which produced a few guns.

"Why am I such an important asset to this if I may not even be the one to get chosen?" I asked as he handed me a gun.

"Emery, every girl of your age group is going to be there and the beast will only show up if everyone is there. Once everyone is there I can be one step closer to uncovering this story of what the beast actually is. Together we can take it down once and for all. This opportunity only comes once in every twenty years." He begged.

"So you are forcing me into this crap because of your stupid affiliation with the beast. You have got to be kidding me Jake!"

"I'm trying okay? I'm going to give you some more practice in case something happens. I promise I would find you if need be, but you also need to learn to protect yourself." He said gently caressing my face.

"Stop it!" I said taking a step away from him. "You're practically selling me off to the devil just to fuel your obsession. Jake the beast isn't real. Yeah everyone is making me go to this ritual but to hear the words from your mouth.... Well that was just a blow to the gut." I said as I created more space between us while he walked towards me.

"And what makes you think you can actually catch this beast now?" I asked.

"We finally have the technology for this. Please try to understand, the only thing I want more than that beast, is your safety." He said coming closer.

"Safety my ass! And what technology can help you in finding this thing?" I asked.

"Technology, Emery, has developed what we call a tracking device." He took a little chip out of his pocket and showed me it. "This chip will help us kill this beast once and for all." He said smirking.

"How? Because you're going to stitch it on to dress? Jake you're delusion. What if it kills me or the dress gets wet or something?" I said trying to clarify every single fault with this chip. But what he said next was a fault in its own that didn't need clarification.

"Stitch the chip?" he laughed "No Emery. We're going to implant the chip into your hand." He said like it was the most obvious thing.

"Implant what now?!? You have got to be joking right?" I asked but he only shook his head 'no'. "Jake this is going too damn far. You can't implant a chip in me! I'm not your lab rat. And I am definitely not helping you in finding that beast." I said backing away as he neared me with the chip and a knife he took out from his belt.

"Jake what are doing?" I asked and he continued walking towards me.

"Emery please, we can do this the hard way or the easy way."

And with that I ran.

I ran as fast as my feet can take me. I was good at track but Jake was a near champ. I could hear him running behind me but I pushed my legs to go faster.

"Emery wait! Emery you don't know where you're going!" But I kept running without any sense of direction.

I didn't know the woods at all but Jake knew it like the back of his hand while I've never been in here so I had no idea if I was headed towards his house or deeper into the forest.

I started slowing down when I could no longer hear Jake's running and calling behind me but I kept moving. I couldn't believe he actually wanted me to participate in this event just for his own motive but what baffled me more was the chip. He wanted to actually put that piece of plastic in my hand.

I continued walking and tears continued flowing, neither stopping.

I walked for what felt like hours. Soon enough the mosquitoes came out and really started to bug me since I had on a jeans short. But what really worried me was the fact that the stars are now very brightly shinning in the sky and I had no clue where I was going. I left my purse which included my cell phone in my car and now I had no way of contacting anyone.

From what turned out to be me running away from psychotic boyfriend have now turned into me being fully lost in the middle of the forest. A forest that was hundreds of acres long and densely filled with tress.

I tried using the stars to guide me but considering I didn't know how to, I just gave up after about a half hour at looking at the sky. It was quite beautiful really, the thousands of stars dancing around the moon was really spectacular and a sight for sore eyes. With all the artificial lights in town the stars weren't nearly as prominent as this.

After walking for about an hour more my feet became weak and gave out beneath me. I looked for a dry patch on the ground and sat down leaning on a tree.

I felt exhausted and my eyes became drowsy as sleep came over me.

My eyes were closing but there was suddenly a rustling behind the trees a few feet away from me. My adrenaline suddenly kicked in and was in full gear. My eyes flew open and I jumped to my feet in a flash.

I could hear the crunching of leaves as something approached me and I prayed to god it wasn't the psychotic Jake. Who knew what he would do when he found me.

I would prefer it to be the Beast than Jake, at least it might kill me faster but Jake might just torture me and implant that stupid chip.

The thing got closer and closer. My heart dropped to my stomach. My hands became clammy and I started to cold sweat, something that happens when I'm frightened.

What if it was the beast?

What would it do?

Oh my gosh I'm going to die!

But I was surprised, relieved, scared as hell and confused at what came out.

Surprised because of who came out. Relived of who didn't came out. Scared as hell of what could happen now. And confused as to why the person was here.

It was a guy and he was the most incredible man I have ever laid eyes on. He looked about twenty years old. He had dark brown hair and gorgeous chocolate eyes. His jaw looked chiseled enough for me to seriously cut my finger from just touching it. He was breath taking.

But being alone in the woods with a stranger....well I guess you can see the multitude of issues here.

I snapped out of my daze and held my posture high to give off a little intimidation but boy was I scared as ever on the inside. My brain was screaming to run but I knew it would only get worse if he knows I'm scared and my legs were aching.

When I looked back at him, he was looking at me in amazement and wonder. At least I think it was amazement.

I cleared my throat and brought him back from his revere and asked, "Who are you? And what are you doing in the middle of the forest."

"You're beautiful." He mumbled so silently I wasn't sure if that was what he said.

He looked at me in amusement and said, "I can ask the same of you." Wow! His voice was like silk but manly with a hint of authority.

"Well I asked first." I stated.

"Okay, fair. I'm hunting and heard something walked by. Now what are you doing here?"

"I got lost." No use lying.

"Why are you wandering around in the forest alone?"

"Let's just say my boyfriend turned out to be a loon." He seemed hurt when I said that but quickly recovered.

"So he left you out here, all alone. Not knowing of what creatures may be lurking out here?" I could see he was struggling to not get angry.

"No I ran away."

"Ran away? Why?"

"For certain reason alright!" I snapped at him for invading my privacy.

"Alright, sorry I didn't mean to intrude." He said and I suddenly realized that I never saw this boy in my life. It was hard to not know someone in our small town.

"Wait. Why have I never seen you before." I asked and he looked a little taken aback.

"Because I'm not from Fairbairn." He stated simply.

"Okay...." I trailed off waiting for him to continue but he didn't.

"So do you know your way out of here?" I asked.

"Well that depends, where do you want to go." He asked walking towards me, automatically making me walk backwards.

"Back to Fairbairn, do know your way or not?" I asked and kept walking backwards till my back hit the tree. Shit he was still walking towards me.

He stopped directly in front of me. "Yes I do. But are you sure you want to leave?" he asked looking directly into my eyes.

Something in his eyes almost made me say that I didn't and I wanted to stay with him but I knew better, that I had to get out of here. Now.

"Yes. Now if you can please show me out, I will leave you in peace to carry on with your hunting." I said pushing him away and walking forward.

"You're going the wrong way." I heard him call amusingly.

"Yeah, yeah. I did ask you for help but you were too busy interrogating me." I said and he started walking in another direction so I followed.

I silently prayed to god that he actually took me back to town instead of trying something. Boys these days, no matter how long you know them, you can't ever trust them. Jake was a classic example of that.

When we walked back things had gotten exceptionally quiet and awkward. The silence was actually deafening and I felt sad that he had nothing to say.

So I decided to be the conversational one. "So what were you hunting?" I asked.

He turned back and looked at me in surprise as he answered. "Just the usual." He said.

"The usual? You're not one of the beast hunters are you? Because if you are, just know that I think you guys are way past insane." And with that he chuckled.

"Actually no, I'm not one of the insane beast hunters. Just a regular normal hunter that catches deer and rabbits. Why look for something that doesn't want to be found right?" he said and I felt relieved that I wasn't with another lunatic.

"Right. I mean seriously how do they even know this beast exists?" I said.

"Do you believe it exists?" he suddenly asked, throwing me off guard.

"Well, I mean....I guess it could be a possibility but then again there isn't any proof." I said watching his reaction.

He looked somewhat disappointed. "So what you're saying is that you don't believe"

"What I'm saying is that whether or not it's real, I just want to get the ritual over with." I said.

He looked hurt when I said that but he didn't say anything and I didn't want to make this anymore weird.

About a half hour later I started to see the lights of Jake's house. I felt frightened at first to go back there but the stranger's presence was kind of comforting. I felt somewhat safe knowing he was with me.

As we neared the edge of the forest he stopped and caused me turn around, confused.

"Aren't you leaving as well? It's quite late." I said

"No, I have to get back hunting." He simply said.

"Okay sure." I said turning around to leave. But I was stopped when he grabbed my hand and spun me around, causing me to turn straight into his chest. But the electricity I felt was indescribable. It felt like my entire arm was on fire, a pleasurable fire.

"I forgot to ask for your name." He said.

"Emery." I answered. "And you are?" I said feeling stupid for now asking for his name.

Instead of answering me he just leaned down and whispered into my ear, "Soon darling. Very soon."

In a matter of seconds he let me go and walked away. His pace was too fast for me to follow behind and question him. I would've gotten lost again if I did.

I turned back around and wondered what he meant by 'soon' but didn't think too hard on it as I may never meet him again.

When I reached Jake's house, I looked around carefully, making sure that Jake was nowhere in sight. Who knows what he might do if he saw me.

When there were no signs of him I took my car key out and dashed across his lawn and jumped into my car.

I speed off towards my house without a second look back.

For the rest of the ride home I couldn't stop thinking about the handsome stranger I met today. I know he was mysterious and creepy to be in the woods like that, but he did help me. And for that I couldn't have been more grateful.

But there was still one question on my mind.

Who was he?

A/N

Another chapter is up!

Who do you guys think was the strange, mysterious guy? 😉

Thank you to everyone who has been reading! It mean's the world to me.

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