The Girl With No Name

That's Just Great

    After a long while of walking (really, Catherine couldn’t be bothered to keep count of how long), they found themselves at a dead end with only a wood in front of them.

   “James?” Catherine started.

   “Yes?” He responded.

   “Are we lost?”

   “No,” he said simply and walked straight into the woods.

   Catherine was startled. Why in the world would they go in here? She had heard of these woods before. They were supposedly haunted. There were stories that once you’re in, you’re never going to get out. She had always thought that these stories were told to scare the children so they wouldn’t go running off into the woods. But now that they were in them, she found them quite the scare. The dark trees swayed over her, branches like long, evil, bony fingers, just waiting for the right moment to snatch her. She was ninety-nine point nine percent sure that something lurked in the shadows, watching their every move. Barely any sunlight reached the floor, and the only sky she could see was cloudy. Quiet whispers surrounded her, filled with empty promises and evil. Catherine shivered, even though it wasn’t cold.

   “Where are we going?” Catherine asked, in a low voice that only James and herself could hear, for she feared that the trees were listening.

   “It’s not too far from here,” he said, more to himself than Catherine. He didn’t even seem to notice the evil that surrounded him.

   They finally reached an odd forest and stopped after a minute of walking, and Catherine trying not to jump at every sound she heard, while James had just walked on, eyebrows creased, as if thinking very hard. Here seemed to contradict to everything behind them. The trees weren’t evil beings about to snatch her at a wrong move. There were no dark lurking shadows, just a small circle opening where the sun actually reached the ground. It was pretty and peaceful here, but she kept my guard up. Sometimes pretty and peaceful weren’t always the safest.

   We walked right to the other side of it, and entered a cave she hadn’t noticed before. It wasn’t a very big entrance, and they had to bend down to get in, but as they continued on, it got larger and larger until she couldn’t see the roof anymore. It was pitch black except for a small flicker of light deeper in. Her once silent footsteps sounded loud and she felt terribly small in the enormity of the cave.

   “James….Where are you taking me?”  She asked, in a hushed voice that she had wanted to sound strong and defiant, but a quaver of fear in it gave her away.

   “Just wait, you’ll see,” he said. He didn’t even try to comfort her, which scared her. Normally he would, and she would answer saying she wasn’t a baby anymore, she could take care of herself, but secretly she liked it when he tried to comfort her.

   “I can walk by myself now,” Catherine spat, ripping her arm away from him, fed up of his hostility. He didn’t even flinch.

   Finally, they made it to the flicker of light Catherine had seen before. It was a small fire, and right across from them, tending it, was Carolina, just as Catherine guessed. She looked up from the fire when she heard them, acknowledging them with a stout nod of her head.

   “Okay, that’s it! I’m fed up! What’s going on, and I don’t want to be played around with! I mean business!” If it was possible, Catherine would probably have steam coming out of her nose and ears from her furry.

   “It’s a long story,” she said.

   “Yeah, well, by the looks of it, we seem to have all the time in the world!” She snapped.

   “Look, it’s not our faults!” James finally said sounding like his old self, except for the fact that his voice sounded broken, and he slumped to the ground, sitting crossed leg, staring into the fire.

   “Oh, really? Than whose is it? The ghost next door!?!” She had no pity for her brother right now; he had given her none, why should she give him any?

   “Catherine, you’re in grave danger! There is no time to fight with us right now; you’re just going to have to trust us. Now sit,” Carolina said in an air of demand that Catherine didn’t know she had. She sat down at the same as Carolina, right across from each other, eyes locked, Catherine not daring to blink.

   “Well, ain’t that just great! Didn’t have any time before,” she grumbled.

   “And we don’t have much time now either. So let me start,” Carolina pleaded.

   “Fine,” Catherine sighed, tired of arguing.

   “Thank you,” she nodded, and started. But Catherine didn’t hear her first words, for she was sure she had heard a sound behind her. She looked back, but nothing was there. Trying to pay attention to Carolina once more, she couldn’t shake off the feeling she was being watched.