New Worlds

Chapter 4

I couldn't just stand there. I slammed the door shut behind me, climbed down the ladder, almost jumping off the last few steps, and ran. I had no idea where I was running to, I just knew I was following the direction of Jacob's excruciating yell of pain. Tears uncontrollably flowed down my cheeks as I jumped over logs, dodged through trees and bolted towards wherever I was heading. My mind raced over and the first thing that popped into my head was that Jacob could be dead. I couldn't remember much about him, the tree house or where I was, but each tree, each blade of grass, each log, each noise, it all seemed familiar. I wasn't sure if that was because I might have been running in circles, or whether I had been there before.

"Jacob!" I called out desperately as I ran. There was no reply. I was running a lot faster than I expected and it felt like I was being watched and talked about. I was used to that feeling, at school anyway. But having a forest talk about me, creeped me out. But that didn't matter because I was looking for Jacob.

"Jacob!!" I called again. Still no reply. I was freaking out and my body decided to go into BTOT (Body Taking Over Trance) mode in the middle of running. I don't remember what happened after that. Though I do remember stopping in another clearing. My head shot around me and I saw Jacob.

"Jacob! Oh my god!" I said running over to him. He was laying on the ground leaning against a tree, holding his hand to his stomach. He weakly shuffled further up the tree as he looked at me. His eyes were droopy and his mouth hung open as he struggled to breathe. I bent down beside him and looked over his body. His white shirt was torn in multiple places up his arm and on his chest, there were bruises developing on his arms and one on his shoulder as scratches covered his body.

"Holy shit! Jacob! What happened?!" I cried, tears pouring out of my eyes. I couldn't stand to see him like this. I may have hardly known who he was, but I knew that even before the crash, I had never seen him like this. The sparkle in his eyes now gone and replaced with anger, protection and fear, but he was too weak to physically show it. I looked down at the hand covering his stomach and saw that the white shirt was stained red with blood. What did this to him? My constant feeling of fear really kicked in when I saw how much he was bleeding. I slowly moved his hand out of the way so I could look at it properly. Jacob kept staring at my face, though I was looking at his bleeding point. It wasn't just a stab wound or anything, it was deep gashes. Like claw marks that had been scraped through his shirt and into his skin. Very deep into his skin. It tore through his muscle and he was losing a lot of blood.

"We... we need to get you to a hospital," I stuttered through crying. I couldn't stop. I just kept staring at the wound. Jacob's soft fingers brushed my chin and turned it towards him. I just cried as I looked into his eyes.

"Shh... I'll be fine. It's not safe for you here. You need to run to the car and drive home. Don't leave your house..." I just shook my head at what he was saying.

"I'm not leaving you here. I'm taking you to the hospital," I said, interrupting him.

"You can't take me to the hospital."

"Why not?! You're bleeding out! If you lose anymore blood, you're gonna die!" I yelled. I was a lot more upset now.

"I'm not going to the hospital," Jacob said sternly as we looked into each other's eyes. I knew, staring into those eyes, that there was no convincing him of letting me take him to the hospital.

"Well... if I can't take you to the hospital, I'm gonna take you home. C'mon," I said. Jacob knew I wasn't going to leave him and he seemed to desperately want me out of the forest, so he agreed to my suggestion. I helped him stand and supported him as we walked back to where Jacob had said the car would be. I didn't ask him anymore questions; I trusted that he would tell me when he was ready.