Into The Woods

Chapter 14

     They stood still with their curious eyes fixed on the creature. The keeper, as Tatum described, was standing hunched over giving them an unwelcoming stare about 10 feet away. It moved its neck creepily from side to side but never took a step forwards or back.
     "What do we do?" Vanessa whispered to Charlie with her eyes still fixed forwards.
     "I-I d-don't know" Charlie said unsurely.
     Tatum took a trembling step forward and brought his shoulders up to take a breath in.
     "I'm not scared of you! I won't let you hurt me anymore! You stay away from us!" Tatum yelled in sorrow.
     None of them had ever seen Tatum shed a single tear let alone cry. They knew at that moment that what Tatum hadn't told them, was something very serious.
     The keeper didn't even move. No blinking, no twitching. Nothing.
     "If you want to hurt someone, just take me and leave my friends alone! You've already beaten me and have shown me things I can't erase, but it's not going to happen to them!" Tatum demanded while pointing to his friends.
     The keeper elongated its neck and tilted its head to the side. It pointed its long, bony finger at Vincent.
     "Me? Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Listen, I don't know what you want from us but we have lives to return to. Unlike you" Vincent exclaimed angrily.
     Vincent's speech seemed to upset the keeper. It swivelled its neck, cracking what sounded like every bone in its body. It inched forward, holding onto trees for support and started reaching for Vincent. Vincent tried to act courageous, but it was extremely hard to keep his fear bottled up. He closed his hands into fists for self defence and stepped closer to the keeper.
     "Stay back. This might get ugly" Vincent requested to the others.
     "There's no way you're going to fight this thing. It's too dangerous" Irene squealed.
     Vincent ignored what Irene said and started running towards the keeper. It also started running but Vincent was much faster even though his legs were significantly shorter.
     "Come at me!" Vincent insisted.
     The keeper opened its large hand and grabbed Vincent's shoulders. It's hand was bigger than Vincent's torso was. It brought Vincent up in front of its deformed face. Vincent was left stuck, hopelessly starring into its glowing eyes.
     "Let him go!" Tatum cried.
     The keeper brought his attention to Tatum standing in the distance and started crouching forwards. Tatum gingerly picked up a large branch that had fallen from the tree a few feet away. He gripped it like a baseball bat and waited for the keeper to come closer.
     "Tatum what are you doing? You've lost your strength. Just look at you, barely being able to walk" Malachi said nervously.
     "I-I can do this" Tatum informed.
     His knees were shaking as he stepped forward. He gripped the branch tightly trying not to drop it.
     "Tate, wait. I'm the one who got us into this. Let me do it" Charlie implied.
     "Grab that branch" Tatum suggested while pointing to an even bigger branch than the one he had.
     Charlie ran to the weapon and placed his hands as Tatum had his. He stood up strongly beside Tatum preparing for the worst. The keeper was only a few feet away now and Vincent was still starring into its eyes. Almost as if he was frozen.
     "Come and get us if you have the nerve!" Charlie said trying to sound intimidating.
     The keeper dropped Vincent to the ground. He planted onto his stomach with his head turned to one side. Vanessa gasped loudly and tried not to blink her tears out. The others all stood farther behind, not knowing what to do or what to say.
     The keeper put its oversized hand around the trunk of a tree and viciously tore it from the ground.
     "Oh no" Charlie said while looking up at the tree. Both the tree and keeper were much larger than he had imagined. The keeper placed both of its crusty hands firmly around the tree and started swinging at them.
     "Tatum look out!" Uriah yelled from afar.