Kiss Of Death (Are You Afraid Of The Dark)

23

The ground was hard beneath Rachel as she laid there, staring up at the black sky above her. No stars were shining down on her, so she wasn't really sure if it was a sky above her. Maybe she was looking down at a deep ocean that was going to suck them all up after they found each other. Maybe it wasn't that. Honestly, it could have been the canopy from the trees. Everything was dark around her, and the only noise she heard was the soft breathing from Adam and Louise as they were sleeping. After running away from the crazy Dr. Vink, they realized that they were lost in the woods. They thought that no one could really find them since the forest was so thick with trees dotting the entire landscape, so they decided to lay down for a little bit, gaining their strength back. But Rachel couldn't rest for the life of her.

A slight chill in the air floated through the area, but the canopy above her sheltered her from the majority of the coldness. She laid in between her two friends who were both snuggled up next to her so they wouldn't get lost again. The canopy also blocked the rain that had started falling when they were running from Dr. Vink. For right now, they were all safe together, which was why Louise and Adam both fell asleep. But Rachel knew that it was only a matter of time before something worse happened to them.

A bird cawed in the distance, and Rachel nearly jumped out of her skin. She sat up from her spot on the ground, glancing around the small area she found herself in. Louise and Adam were sprawled out on either side of her, most likely fast asleep. She couldn't blame them; they were stuck in this torture for much longer than she had been. Rachel knew that they needed the rest, but she wanted to get a move-on just in case any monster found them. She wanted to find her other friends before they get hurt or worse.

Twigs cracked in the distance, though it echoed loudly around the part of woods they were in, making it sound much closer than it probably was. Rachel's head snapped toward it, but she couldn't see anything in the deep darkness that surrounded her. A deep sense of foreboding settled in her bones, but she couldn't figure out why. She thought they were alone and that the forest was just making all those noises, but she knew better than that. Things lurked in the darkness, things that actually went bump in the night.

Her last thought reminded her of Gavin. She couldn't believe that the last thing they had done before he disappeared was argue and fight over Quinton. She knew that Gavin would be glad that Quinton was the Devil, but Rachel wasn't. She felt a certain connection to the boy, and while it wasn't a romantic connection, there was something there. She wondered if there was a boy behind the Devil. She wondered if it was the Devil himself.

Rachel didn't have enough time to think about Quinton, though. There was a rustling in the bushes behind her. She quickly stood up, peering into the thicket of leaves and branches. There was something standing there, blending in with the dark background. Rachel saw the outline of the figure, who seemed to be watching her. It felt like she was in woods that watched her, and this thing was a part of the watcher's woods. 

"Guys," she hissed, kicking Adam and Louise in their sides to try to wake them up. "We have company."

It took a few more blows before both Adam and Louise woke up. Both of them lashed out at Rachel like she was one of the nightmares that they were living with. She nearly fell down by the force of Louise's kick since she was on the cheer squad and all, but her friends finally understood that Rachel was the one talking to them. 

"We have company," Rachel repeated, pointing at the figure standing just behind them in the woods. "I figured both of you would want to be awake for this."

"Where is this company?" Louise snapped, her head whipping around to try and find the thing that Rachel saw. "I can't see anything, Rachel."

Rachel pointed in front of her, not wanting to speak. She didn't want to alert the figure that she knew about them, that she could see them hiding in the bushes. Louise grumbled behind Rachel, and she heard Adam make a strangled noise. She decided to check on him since he was the most nervous person she had ever met. 

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Adam looking at something in the distance. "Adam, what are you looking at?" Rachel whispered, looking back at her figure to make sure it was still there. It wasn't. Instead, it was closer to her. In the darkness, she saw the familiar features of Akiko. "Oh, my God! Guys, Akiko found us!"

Rachel rushed over to her small friend, wrapping her arms around her. The figure -- Akiko -- hugged her back, but there was something off about her. Sure, she wasn't the most touchy-feely person in the world, but Akiko didn't really hug her back. She thought that was odd since she had been stuck in the Land of Scary Stories for a while without anyone. 

"No, I found Akiko," Adam said, his voice quiet and strange. Rachel pulled away from Akiko, brushing off the feeling of something on her neck. She looked over at him to see Akiko standing next to him. "See?"

"Guys, what's going on?" Louise said, her voice quivering in fear. "There can't be two Akiko's. Which one is the real one?"

"I am," the Akiko next to Rachel said. Rachel looked down at her to see a confident grin on her face, one that she normally used to wear back home. Then, her face changed to one of fear. "You can't trust that one! There's something in these woods that shapeshifts into any and everything, trying to trick people."

"That's not me!" the other Akiko said. There was no trace of a grin on her face. In its place was a terrified look, her eyes wide and her skin pale. She didn't look like the normal Akiko, but Rachel couldn't be sure. "I swear on my films that I'm the real me."

"Akiko would never put her films in trouble," Louise said, turning to face the Akiko next to Rachel. "If she would go to the lengths of making sure that we knew it was the real her, then this one has to be the bad one."

Rachel looked down at the girl next to her. In one second, there was Akiko. However, in the next second, a man with white hair and a crazy look on his face appeared. He smiled down at Rachel, and in the soft moonlight, she saw fangs glinting. A scream sounded in the woods around her, and she knew it was hers. Rachel scrambled over to her friends, trying to get away from the vampire that was trying to get her. 

"I knew it was a long shot, trying to be someone you guys already knew," the vampire said, his voice reverberating through the dark area, "but I should have known that you guys were too close to even try to do that. I should have stuck with a different body." Even though his words were sad, there was still a grin on his face. "Very well. I can still drink your blood."

"Oh my God, he's a shapeshifting vampire," Louise said as her, Rachel, Adam, and the real Akiko scrambling back from the creature. "Why does this place keep getting worse and worse?"

"It's called the Land of Scary Stories for a reason," Rachel muttered as they all took off running. She hoped they were running in the same direction as each other because she couldn't bear to lose her friends again. 

The forest was too large and too vast to try and run away from this vampire. Rachel didn't want to lose her friends, and it didn't look like they wanted to lose each other. Everyone was going slow to make sure that they stayed together, and that allowed the vampire to catch up to them. Soon enough, Rachel's feet were pulled out from underneath her, and she crashed to the ground. 

The breath was knocked out of her body when she landed. The scrapes on her legs screamed at her, and it felt like new ones appeared. Rachel looked up to see the vampire looming above her, it's mouth wide open. Her heart skipped a beat, but before the vampire was able to bite her, it was pushed out of the way by two people. Rachel watched as the vampire was pushed directly onto a stick right through the abdomen, which was pretty convenient for her. 

"I knew we could do it!" a familiar voice said. Rachel moved forward and gasped when she saw Hanna and Seth standing above the injured vampire. She felt Akiko, Louise, and Adam join her. "I thought it was you guys running through the woods," Hanna said confidently. 

Rachel wasn't paying attention to Hanna, though. There was something odd about Seth, with his mouth pulled into a strange smile and dark circles underneath his eyes. "Um, what's wrong with Seth?"

"Long story short, he was affected by the Ghastly Grinner. I have to figure out a way to fix him, but he's not dangerous to anyone."

Seth giggled softly to himself, and blue goop slowly fell out of his month and onto the ground beneath their feet. Rachel glanced over at the dead body of the vampire with a shudder. Seth was affected by the Ghastly Grinner, and they had just killed a vampire. This place was full of nightmares, and Rachel didn't think she was going to make it.