**[Flash backs will be in bold. **🩵**]**

Warning* Cussing, Death, blood and other ‘gory?’ details. Read at your own will.

…“Your time is up! Better run!”

I gaped at our two kidnappers, shocked. Did they know I broke my ankle? Even now, I could feel the pain radiating through my foot.

There was a rustling behind me as James stepped towards me. He eyed the two and turned around.

“Get on my back.” He demanded. He looked scared. I was about to argue but then my leg crumbled beneath me. “Ok.” I said. I hobbled over to him and forced myself onto his back.

He grunted, falling foward a bit. “You’re heavier than you look.” I hit him as he took of out of the door.

“Have fun!” One of them yelled. James took off as fast as he could. He kept stumbling over the knotted roots that covered the forest floor.

He slowed down after a couple of minutes and set me down. I groaned as I landed on my bad foot. I stared at James as he sank down on a thick trunk.

He was panting, and I could see the sweat trickling down his face. Damn. I knew that he couldn’t carry me for that long, but I couldn’t excactly walk.

Even now, pain was lancing up and down my leg. I wouldn’t be lying if I said tears were slipping down my face.

“Oh, god, Emmy.” James voice startled me. I looked over to him, surprised to see him crying. “We’re out in the middle of no where—“ His voice broke. He took a breath and looked up at me.

Shit. Now I was crying too. James laughed and stood up. He walked over to my tree and leaned in. He cupped my cheek and brushed his thumb over it. It came away glistening.

He smiled. “We’re gonna get out of here. I promise.” I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. He was standing too close. Butterflies were swirling up a hurricane in my stomach, and the barest hint of his cologne was making me dizzy.

My eyes locked on his, and my breath caught. They were a startling blue, like ice in the winter.

For a minute, the world stopped. The birds stopped singing, the wind quit howling at the top of the trees. And then the shots rang out.

The birds really did stop. Because within minutes, a dozen dead birds thumped to the found around us. I froze.

What the hell? I opened my mouth to say the exact same thing when a scream ripped through me. My hands scrabbled at the bark of the tree, trying to get away from blood that seeped through the snow.

James whirled around, trying to figure out where the sound came from. Tears came in fresh waves down my face and my stomach heaved.

“Jamie…” My voice caught as I stared at the bright blue jacket lying on the snow. _My_ jacket.

He turned around and saw the words written on it. In blood.

_Keep going. _

*

**My head felt fuzzy as I cracked an eye open. Groaning, I tried to turn my head. It wouldn’t move. Panic overwhelmed me. Why wasn’t it moving?**

**I looked out of the side of my eyes to see my mom. And then I screamed, or at least I think I did. There was a ring in my ears still.**

**Her lifeless body was slack against he seat belt. Blood trickled from her mouth and oozed from a gash in her throat. A piece of glass had lodged itself into it. **

*

I think that was when I passed out. It was the most blood I had ever seen, and it was coming from my mom. Since then I haven’t been able to look at it. It made me so sick that I had to skip out on a lab in my middle school bio class.

I only made it a few minutes on James back before I made him stop. I hobbled over to a tree, and slumped onto my knees, ignoring the pain.

What little I had made its way up my throat. I could hear a soft breath leave James and he crouched down to hold my hair back. He rubbed my back until I was left a broken, sobbing mess. Over birds.

Stupid, right? I know. And yet here I am.

James put his arms around me and I buried my head in his shoulder. Here I was, stranded with my best friends older brother, in the middle of no where, with kidnappers/killers out to get us.

We had no food, water, and we didn’t even know how to get back to the RV and our friends. We were being chased by two psycho killers that had an affinity for killing birds and using blood to write on a teenagers jacket.

Oh, how I love my life.

[Hi! I hope that everyone in Florida right now is ok. Some of my family actually got sent there to help. Hurricanes suck. Tell me what you think about this post! Should I do a pt. 6? 🩵]