Survival (NaNoWriMo 2015) (✔️) {Edited 2018}

Chapter four- Carlisle's POV (Edited)

Chapter four 

Carlisle's POV

We tried to heal his arm, but nothing worked!

It was as if he was cursed. Eventually we gave up exhausted, out of ideas and in pain. We took out sleeping bags and went to bed on the uncomfortably hard ground.

In the morning we were suddenly awakened by Helen wailing. She rolled over clutching her stomach, which appeared to be bleeding heavily. I lifted up her shirt and jumped back. On her stomach were the words Molly Ink were carved into her skin. Later on it seemed to disappear into thin scars. We quickly grabbed the gel pads and stuck them on her stomach. She hissed and gripped my arm. The death announcement started and Owen cried out.

"Annabel Green from Storminghill," Everyone of us was in terrible agony so we stayed there trembling with fear and pain.

We even tried to uncover the mysteries of this forest and the mystical swing. We decided to keep moving as it was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. We didn't know where to though. Anywhere to protect ourselves from this cursed wood. We packed up and continued looking for that horrible swing. We found it amazing that we did not see anyone anywhere, it was just deserted. It must have been an enormous forest.

We continued until we came to a clearing and tried to settle down for the night. It was starting to get cold. We were hurting all over at this point clutching our arms and stomachs.  We comforted and talked to each other about the strange happenings of the forest. We just couldn't figure it out. Where did the car come from? Who does the Fatalitynote belong to? What is up with the swings? All of it was an absolute mystery and I hated it. We discussed in detail the extraordinary things that had happened to us recently. We eventually got really tired and fell asleep wondering what the next day will bring us; not ready for another day. 

The next day went by relatively quickly without too much pain thank Goodness. We got some food and milled around a bit. Eventually we all sit down in a circle while I got out the Fatalitynote and we all examined it closely. Kayla opened the first page when I passed it to her. She looked shocked and almost dropped the beautiful Galaxy book. 

She slowly began to read the entry out aloud," On the 121st of August, year 4015 fifty percent of the population will die a horrible death. People will die on the enchanted swings..."

"What the fuck? People have actually died on that thing?!" Nathan interrupted hysterically.

"Anyway as I was saying, this book automatically belongs to the person who found it. In this case Carlisle, Some of the previous owners include Molly Inky and the galaxy twins." Kayla finished.

"Damn. They are all dead," Helen whispered afraid like the rest of us.

We nodded and drifted off to sleep very surprised to be awakened by the Death Announcement, "No one has died!" 

"Yes," screamed Owen thinking that the pain in his arm would ease. Suddenly he screeched in agony. The ink on his arm started forming letters into words into names. Holly was one of the names. We cried out in shock as her last name was carved into his flesh. We were devastated as you can imagine. What was going on at home? Of course we explained to Helen who she was. I could tell that she was feeling really sorry for us. I felt so bad for Owen because he loved her and now he has her name carved in his skin as a reminder of this awful place with such a beautiful name. If I had known the truth about him I would have felt slightly differently, but as it was I didn't. I quickly snatched the Fatalitynote out of Kayla's hands and turned to the most recent page: Holly Gemp, ink poisoning.

"Ink poisoning?!" Nathan spluttered," How-How did that happen?!"

We were just as puzzled because we weren't actually allowed to have tattoos or ink anywhere on and near our bodies and Holly hated tattoos!  After much deliberation we concluded that we had to keep walking and looking for that horror-filled swing. We finally found one of the wooden swings after hours of walking. Nathan strode up to it faking the confidence we all wish we had. He began to swing higher and higher.

"Holy..." He didn't even finish his sentence until the swing hurled him through the air. 

When he had landed somewhere in the trees we all rushed to help him.  We found him under a tree moaning with pain. His legs were completely scarred, but they weren't bleeding thank God. The strangest thing was that the scars were moon and star shaped and his legs were turning blue. We guessed that it was because of the bruises behind the scars. No one knew for sure though. We silently helped Nathan to his feet. We tried to help him to walk, which was obviously extremely painful. After walking for about five minutes, which by this time his legs had turned purple, we stopped. Luckily there was a small opening in the forest where we laid out our sleeping bags for what little warmth and comfort we had. We carefully helped Nathan on top of one. We sat around in a circle again figure out the mysterious happenings in this extraordinary forest and the swings. Where did all this magic from? More importantly what were we going to do about Nathan's legs? And who was the person who died yesterday? Owen's arm was covered with the galaxy pattern and the different names carved into his flesh. We continued talking. We once again came to no conclusions about what was going on with the enchanted forest. What about the other people from different Hills? Where were they? Were they suffering as much as we were? Did they discover the swings? We all asked each other these questions, but of course no one knew the answers. We tried to sleep after that, but we couldn't because we were all worried about the days ahead. All of us who knew Holly were devastated and felt almost lost without her. We were also in pain most days due to homesickness, grief and our injuries. 

In the morning we each inspected our own wounds. Nathan was pale as a sheet when he looked up from his legs. His face pinched and wide-eyes open with shock

"What is going on here?" Owen came over to look.

"Holy! What is that?" Owen screeched making us girls jump and run over quickly to inspect. Kayla covered her hands over her mouth horrified. I was speechless and afraid for our lives. The veins on his one of his legs had formed into the word Holly and on the other legs were the haunting words 'Galaxy Twins.' We could even see the blood pumping through the veins. As soon as Helen saw it she ran away and I think she even threw up.

"We keep hearing about these twins! Who are they and why do they seem so important?" Helen asked as she returned paler than usual.

We rubbed her back to comfort her; she smiled faintly. We all needed a bit of comfort. 

"No idea... let's look at this!" Nathan said noticing a book half buried under the sleeping bags. Helen eagerly grabbed it and began reading the title. "The legend of the Galaxy Twins," Helen read quietly. We were quite surprised by what we heard. Apparently the twins fell off a swing when they were babies. The mother was so angry with the maker of this swing for making it so dangerous. She made a cursed high-backed swing made out of wood. She carefully hand made it so that everyone who went on that swing  were in pain. It also says that end we will be happy for it. What does that mean?! I know we were all thinking the same thing. We decided to continue looking for that wretched swing. Helen and Owen still needed to swing. We walked slowly as Nathan's legs were still hurting and we had made a pact that we would always stay together. We made our way silently thinking about the cursed swing had in store for us today. We eventually found it a bit farther into the woods.

We stopped and Helen decided that she could go first much to Owen's protests. She sat on the swing terrified and trembling. I didn't blame her. Kayla gave her an encouraging nod and she began to swing. She cried and thrashed around on the chair then collapsed in a heap on the floor groaning.