CHAPTER FIVE - JOEY
God that man is insufferable, I just wanted to help him… I can feel his stare boring into my back since he probably wasn't expecting me to actually leave him alone. The leaves crunch under my feet, and I come to a sudden halt. I peer up into the forest, where I see nothing else but green leaves on trees with blooming flowers.
"What the—?" last time I checked it was supposedly spring… which makes sense when you look up (from what I've heard about spring) but as soon as you step you hear a loud crunch of the brown and crumpled leaves underneath your boots. I guess with all the stress of this whole situation I didn't realize how strange this place actually is. For example, there shouldn't even be seasons let alone trees. I feel my palms start to get clammy and I suddenly cant move an inch. The one body part I can muster to budge is my head and shockingly it whips around just in time to see Manny running off in the opposite direction. He looks frightened which I guess I should've expected from him since this situation is quite… dare I say scary.
The second I begin to feel my limbs again I pick up my foot and step. One after the other. The trees seem to loom over me and it feels as if they could collapse in on me at any second. I am not used to feeling this scared which honestly scares me even more. Leave this place. "Whos there—?" I look around but there's still no one around me for most likely hundreds of miles, well except for Manny. Leave! "Who are you?!" I demand this time registering that maybe this voice I'm hearing isn't a physical being but simply my conscience telling me off. Or maybe I'm more insane than I thought. You'll know who I am soon enough.
***
My head snaps up, thoughts racing through my mind, but the voice is gone. "HELLO?" I yell, But no reply. Perhaps this place is making me go crazy. I look around only to find the trees are still green and prosperous while the forest floor still looks like a dead tree took a shit on it. The air has a twinge of a scent to it, that smells of mainly pine needles and sap. The surrounding area of the forest is mostly trees except for a small wooden cabin right in front of me, which I now realize wasn't there prior to me waking up. Without thinking I stand up and stagger towards the cabin. My foot still aches from the bullet wound although much less than before.
The interior of the log house is bare bones with something some might call a couch, only if they were being very generous, a coffee table with three legs leaning against the floor, and a fireplace which looks surprisingly clean compared to everything else inside this place someone perhaps once called home. There are logs stacked by the fireplace along with some tools I assume are used to keep the fire going, shockingly the place seems decently well kept, except for the shitty furniture and dirt floors, it seems like someone could live here if they tidied a bit. Maybe surviving out here would be difficult but who knows… maybe this place will save my life.
A little curtain tucked behind the corner wall peeks out and catches my eye. It's a dull green color with holes spread every once and a while until the top of it. I move cautiously towards it because what reason would there be to have a curtain unless there was something to hide? My footsteps are very quiet but still hearable if you try hard enough so I tread slowly. As I reach the strip of fabric a cluttering sound echoes above me. The sudden noise knocks me backwards onto the floor and then… nothing but the sound of my heavy breathing and the wind.
I urge myself to stand once more and I comply, begrudgingly moving at a steady pace towards the curtain once more, this time when I stop there's no sound, not even the rustling leaves. The eerie nature of this place is getting to me and I don't know how much longer I will last before I go insane. The curtain flicks to the side with a gentle woosh and there's no one there, my mind, which was racing, is now scarily still. A silver ladder which gleams with the sunlight stares back at me and the metal rungs look so clean, cleaner than the fireplace, and certainly the cleanest thing around for miles.
As I climb, each rung disappears as soon as I step onto the next, again and again I feel as if this ladder will never end, maybe even hope that it won't. Yet it does. The top of the ladder has a trap door which is shut and hopefully not locked. My palm presses up against the oak wood and pushes luckily it swings up with ease. I step up onto the floor of the attic and stop short. My breath hitches in my throat. A creature that I've never seen in my life stands before me and I can't move an inch. The bird that has been extinct for around 500 years apparently isn't. With that realization my feet start to go numb and then they are senseless with no feeling in them at all and my brain is still just repeating the same thing over and over and over again. Dodo bird. Dodo bird. Dodo Bird.
I don't even realize that I fell down the ladder until I make impact with the hardwood floor. A snicker echoes throughout the cabin and my mind snaps back to reality. "Damn! That was good! I would pay to see that happen again!" Of course he's here as soon as I fall flat on my ass. The blood that was previously in my arms and legs now rushes to my cheeks and he laughs harder. His whole face goes red with glee and hatred.
"You know I think you should see what's up there yourself… then we'll see who's laughing." His cackling falls short and he glares at me with an even more despising look.
"Maybe. I. Will." He storms past me and up the ladder where I hear nothing until a loud; "WHAT?!" Echoes through the cabin.