The Bog - Part IIII
Chris is missing and Hector and Emma head out to find him. Unaware something's looking for them.
You can catch up on the story so far here.
Jenny was on her knees crying. It had been five hours, and there was still no sign of Chris. Henry and Emma had decided to circle back in hopes Chris had just gotten lost. Hector chose to stay with Jenny.
He knew he needed to keep her mind off the terrible possible fates of Chris, but he’d never been good in a crisis. He initially wanted to go with Henry, but Emma beat him to that. Instead, he just sat on the wooden stairs staring at Jenny in the moss circle, tears streaming down her face as she listed the worst scenarios her mind could conjure.
“What if he fell into the bog and drowned?”
“What if this was his plan all along?”
“What do you mean?” Hector said quizzically.
Jenny looked up, wiping the tears from her eyes, her turquoise mascara running.
“He’d sometimes joke about disappearing in the woods. He said he just preferred being alone. What if he actually made it a reality?”
Hector scoffed at the thought, but before dismissing her, he started to think back to his conversations with Chris over the years. He soon realized Jenny’s theory might not be so crazy after all.
As he opened his mouth, however, to reaffirm her suspicions, he saw the sadness in her eyes. He knew he couldn’t break her heart even more by agreeing with her. Chris had been a lonely person, preferring solitude even when with his friends. If this was intentional, this was the most likely solution, one that Jenny didn’t need to hear right now.
“That’s ridiculous. Chris loved you; he wouldn’t just leave you without saying a word.”
“But he did leave me, and how do you know he loved me?” Jenny snapped.
Hector knew in that moment why Emily didn’t stay.
“He always felt distant, like he’d be more interested in what I do and my personality than me. I never believed he saw my beauty the way other people do.”
Hector slowly climbed down the steps, stunned by Jenny’s omission. He strolled, joining her on the moss patch. Regretting his decision as the moisture soaked through his pants.
“That’s the biggest lie I’ve heard tonight,” Hector chuckled.
Jenny didn’t know what to make of his comment and continued to rub her eye.
“Chris saw you better than most guys do. He saw the effort you put into your makeup and outfits and complimented you each time. He even noticed the little things, like when you changed shades of nail varnish. I remember him telling me once, and I had no clue,” Hector continued.
“He noticed those things?” Jenny asked.
“Not only that, but he loved them. He loved everything about you, and I like to believe it’s because he’s ace, he noticed everything about you. It was his superpower, and he chose to use it on you.”
The air suddenly dropped as the awkward tension slowly began to rise. Hector had no clue what was supposed to happen next. He’d never comforted a friend before. He decided to count in his head one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi-
Before he could get to four, Jenny wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight, sobbing in his ear.
“You’re right. He loved me, he wouldn’t leave me. Thank you,”
#
“CHRIS!” Emma screamed.
“I swear, when I find Chris, if he’s not dying, I’m going to kill him,” Henry grumbled.
The sun had already set with visibility near impossible, but neither wanted to give up. Despite the fact that they both hated Chris for abandoning them, they couldn’t leave their friend alone in the moss. They occasionally shared a glance, hoping the other would break.
Emma looked back, shooting Henry a look as she rubbed her hands together, as her icy breath surrounded them in translucent clouds. Henry, however, didn’t notice, focusing on the path ahead of them, his torch losing power with each passing second.
Emme tried again, this time sighing as she tried to warm her hands up. Henry still refused to take the hint.
“Oh, for gosh sakes, Henry. Let’s just head back,” She snapped.
“He could be close, then we’ll circle back,” he replied.
She sighed as she took her right hand and placed it on his shoulder. Stopping him while offering the comfort he’d been longing for since the search began.
“We don’t have enough light to continue. We can’t carry on, even if we want to. We’ll end up lost just like him.”
He tried to keep it together but eventually broke down. Blubbering like a high schooler on the last day as he realized he might never see his friend again.
“I just want to find him so bad.”
“Me too, Henry, but we’re not going to find him like this.”
#
“We’ve been walking for an hour, where the hell is the cabin?”
Henry looked at Emma, just about making out her worried demeanour, and it filled him with dread. He knew she was right; the cabin should have come into view by now. They were lost, but neither could admit it. The light on his torch was running out, and the night’s cold touch was slowly wrapping its arms around them.
“I’m sure we’ll come across it soon. I bet the others have a fire going. We can just look out for that.”
“Yeah, you’re right. There’s no need to panic,” Emma said.
They continued for 100 yards when Emma’s worst fears we realised. In the corner of her eye, she saw the torch in Henry’s hand start to splutter, fading in silence like a fictional time traveller’s craft. In that moment, she wished the torch was more than a torch as its life slowly dimmed, and their surroundings became the unknown.
“Oh great, I told you we needed to go back sooner.”
Hector agreed, but knew saying so would cause an argument, and that was the last thing they needed. He slapped the shaft, hoping there was a jolt of energy left, but with each whack, his hope died.
“That better be the torch you’re whacking,” Emma retorted.
“Ew, gross, why the hell would you think that?”
Emma didn’t have an answer; she couldn’t think clearly. Her heartbeat was at a thousand beats per minute as a hot flash raced across her body. She no longer feared nature’s icy death grip; now she feared she’d boil. Her nerves were turning the dial on her internal thermostat. She knew she needed to get moving before the panic set in.
“Let’s just get moving,” she said.
“What, but we have no idea where we’re going?” Hector snapped.
Emma didn’t care what he thought; she knew she couldn’t stand there any longer. This was all his fault anyway, she thought to herself. As she stumbled in the dark, her hand reaching out for trees guiding her on a path to somewhere, she hoped it was the cabin. Her mind began to wander to the potential animals around her and the danger they could pose.
“We’re safe from predators, right?” She called out.
“Why are you bringing that up now? When we can’t see anything?”
“Sorry, my mind just drifted there,” she said.
The two of them drifted, feeling their way through the moss-covered field, unaware that with each step they drifted further away from each other. Emma hadn’t noticed enjoying the silence of his apologise, as the squelch of mud took her full attention.
“Oh gosh darn, I so hate this place.”
Emma looked down, hoping to get a glimpse of what her foot had stepped in. The brief glimmer of light from the moon as the clouds parted gifted her a glimpse of the marsh.
“Great, my foot’s stuck.” Muttering to herself.
She reached around for a tree, one sturdy enough to take her weight. She knew this was a delicate operation. Being lost in the dark was one thing, but she knew she wouldn’t cope doing it barefoot.
“I’m not losing my darn shoe.”
Her hands gripped the trunk of the tree as she slowly pulled her foot. All she could hear was the squelch as the mud refused to relinquish its grip on her shoe. Slowly pulling, she could feel her ankle slipping out of her shoes, forcing her to stop.
“Wait, wait, damn it.”
Readjusting her, pushing her ankle back into her shoe, she thought to herself how she’d just buried her shoe deeper into the mud, erasing any progress made. She once again gripped the tree’s trunk and slowly pulled.
Fearing a repeat of before, she pulled her leg forward, instead of up, hoping the action would scoop her shoe free. Grunting and straining, she could feel her shoe slowly sliding out of the mud. Relief washed over her as she loosened her grip, hoping to use the force to propel her forward.
Only as she went to move forward, something gripped her foot, jerking her forward. She reached out for the tree to break her fall. Reaching out into the darkness, her fingertips grazed the rough bark as she tumbled into the mud with a thud.
“Gah, what the hell?”
She crawled, trying to pick herself back up, but as she pulled her left leg, she felt the fingered grip tightening, climbing from her foot to her ankle. She turned to see what had caught on her foot, hoping it was a tree root. Only it wasn’t a root holding her foot.
Her eyes widened as she saw a large mass move in the dark, pulling itself towards her, using her ankle as support.
“Henry, this isn’t funny, you prick,” she screamed out.
She pulled her leg again, presuming Henry would let her go, having had his fun. Only their hand remained, pulling on her now.
“Henry, stop now.”
She pleaded, hoping he would stop his messed-up fun. Only the more she cried out, the more she realized his silence was deafening. This shadow wasn’t Henry; it was something else entirely.
“AAAHHHHHHH!”
Emma kicks and screams as she frantically tries to free herself from the creature’s grip. She grasped the mud, digging for some soil to pull her forward. The ground is moist as he nails fill with mud. The hand on her ankle becomes two, pulling her towards them.
Unable to see their face, she screams, hoping Henry is close by. Unaware he is nowhere close, her screams are muffled by the dense trees.
To Be Continued.