The Mask Man In The Woods

25.

CHAPTER | TWENTY-FIVE

I loudly blew my nose into a tissue and weakly threw it towards the garbage bin, missing by a couple of inches.

I ignored it and snuggled back in the bundle of blankets. I rested my head on the armrest of the couch and hugged Drakon's favorite teddy bear close to my chest.

I coughed harshly into my elbow, feeling the soup I ate earlier rise up. I swallowed it down, rubbing my sore throat. Tristian appeared and handed me my fifth cup of tea. I gestured for him to put it on the coffee table.

He carefully lowered it down and sat down on the coffee table, facing me with his elbows on his knees.

"You need to rest." He said softly.

"I can't," I spoke, voice rough and hoarse so I cleared my throat and started to kick off the blankets, "I need to look for Drakon."

The cold started to nip at my skin and I shivered, goosebumps creeping on my arms. I rubbed my arms and coughed.

Tristian reached over, pulling the blankets up and over my shoulders. He scooted closer to me so our knees touched.

"Please stay. You're going to get sicker and there's another storm coming." Tristian said, holding the edges of blankets as if he was willing to tie me up in the blanket if I escaped.

I tried my hardest to flash him a glare, but my body ached and I only managed a frown. "Drakon is out there. I need to find him."

Tristian sighed and shook his head. "Varia... I have looked everywh—"

"Don't start with that," I snapped, feeling that all too familiar lump in my throat, "I don't care that two months have passed. Drakon is there. I know he is."

Since the first night Drakon and the other three boys headed off to the woods, it was like they were swallowed completely without a trace. Two months had passed. Two long, agonizing, hot months had passed, and nobody appeared; dead or alive.

With the whole town, the whole police department and even some dozen city volunteers after it hit the news, there was nothing found. No clothes, no footprints, no DNA of any kind. Nothing.

I spent hours in the woods, combing through every tree, every turn backward and forward, and there was nothing. As that night turned into day, I was for sure Drakon would be found, safe and alive.

But that didn't happen.

So I hoped that he would turn up alive the following day and the next day and the day after that, but my hopes were painfully crushed as the sun set and rose each day. It was like I wasn't doing enough. I wasn't looking hard enough. I wasn't putting my all into finding my son yet each night I sat on Drakon's bed, wondering what was there more to do?

Everyone turned over every little rock, looked under every cliff, inspected every little grain of dirt, and there was nothing.

I was slowly driving myself crazy. I couldn't sleep without waking up in terror. I couldn't rest knowing Drakon was out there, doing who knows what. I couldn't think positively anymore. Every time I woke up, I thought this was going to be the day I would have my baby back in my arms yet as soon as I step out of the house, I was attacked with vivid nightmares and I would end up in bed, crying myself to sleep.

"Just... please," Tristian pleaded softly, letting go of the blanket and cupping cheeks, "You need to stay—at least for tonight. Tomorrow we could head west."

I shook my head, shaking Tristian's hands off. "I want to go look for him."

Tristian lowered his hands to his lap and I could feel his eyes narrow at my stubbornness. He picked up the tea and handed it to me.