Asher Banning still mourns his mother after three years. When his friend, Caden, decides to get their group of friends together for Christmas as a way to help Asher not feel lonely for the holidays, things quickly turn upside down.
MATURE: for expl...
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My fingers wrapped around the knob and turned it.
I swung the door open and with a simple glimpse of the room, an instant regret washed over me.
Why did I think of this idea?
Nick was right. We should've turned back when we had the chance.
Staring into this room gave more clarity to our situation: someone was out there trying to kill us.
"Now can we leave?" he said, almost like a whisper. His voice was rough and harsh, spitting it out of his teeth as if in anger. Did he have to make it sound like an I told you so?
I backed away slowly, then turned on my heel to face him. "Yeah, let's get out of here!"
We ran out of the shack and back into the woods. The sun hovered over the trees, shining its bright rays through the branches and leaves. How long were we in there for?
I didn't want to check my phone while in full sprint, so I didn't mind the time. Whatever time it was, it wasn't important.
While we should've gotten back on to the trail, we didn't. Instead, we went straight ahead into the unknown, trying to find our way back to the house. I followed Nick considering he knew the area more, so I stayed a few feet behind him.
The trees sandwiched between us. The tip of the sticks grazed against my skin, scraping the surface as we continued on. The rustling of leaves and crunching of twigs was the only distinct sound that we left behind. We dodged the branches and squeezed through the gaps in the middle of the trees. We tried not to get cut by the sticks that stuck out and had to jump over stumps and logs that were in our way.
I was already drained of energy, and the running didn't help bring me back to life. All I wanted was to climb into a warm bed, away from danger and away from the darkest points of reality.
I lost focus somewhere along the way, tripping on a log and stumbling forward into the snow. Something caught my foot. The freezing white powder engulfed my body and all the heat radiating off the surface of my skin was almost gone. Everything trembled as I sat up, trying to reach for the damn thing. It took a while, but I finally touched the log, trying to release whatever it was from its grip. Nothing worked as the cold crawled around my body, nestling inside me like it made a home on the exterior of my skin.
Nick turned and came back for me.
My lack of energy drowned me in a pit of darkness.
+ + + +
I awoke in my bed, smothered in blankets. The room was dark, except for the faint sunlight peeking through the curtains. The alarm clock read 6:32pm.
