Chapter Four

Stumbling forward, I land hard. I slowly look up dazed. The panicking awareness didn't set in automatically. No. It crept in like a black panther in the night. To my immediate right stood a doddering old man with huge sweat stains ruining his green button up. Then to my left, a small child stood staring up at a beautiful, blue bird feeder hung high and proud on a tall, wooden post. His curly brown hair slightly danced with the breeze. It looked picturesque and almost tranquil. Until I set my eyes forward to a grey haired woman in cuffed, flower embroidered, denim shorts who stood chewing mindlessly on a slicked garden hose.

Altogether, the sheer wrongness of the picture came together. I noticed the blood pooling on the other side of the child. The old man, who was seemingly minding his business, was taking small steps forward almost crumbling with every twitch of movement. It took a double glance to see the object of his advancements was a pile of fly infested meat. I shuddered- refusing to focus on anymore.

I forced air into my tight lungs. They haven't noticed me yet. I stood frozen. My arms were still out in front of my torso from balancing my fall. My legs were braced firmly beneath me still aching from impact. My eyes darted around the small backyard. It won't take any of them any time at all to reach me. Maybe I could go back over the fence panel? I lowered my head slightly to the right to look behind me for something to grab onto.

Though, I paused when I noticed an abandoned baseball glove lying a couple inches away from my foot. I snapped my head up to rescan the yard. If there was a glove- just maybe....there was a bat. There it was. It lay abandoned teasingly by the old man. D@#n. If I wasn't in such a bad position, I'd stomp my foot and yell curses at the sky in vain.

Fighting the twitch in my eye, I started sliding my way to the right. With nothing to hide behind, I sent a silent promise to my future self to use the bat against my own skull for my sheer idiot-icy.

Of course, nothing was wanting to go my way today. I noticed the woman turning around in my peripheral, before practically throwing myself to the gleaming bat. I heard more than felt the old man snatching at my backpack as I landed on the dew covered grass. His fingernails scratched against it with a teeth clenching noise. Motherf@1ker. The next few seconds were a blur of scrambling to grab the bat and wildly swinging.

The cold metal dug into my palms when it made impact with something solid. I didn't stick around long enough to find out what though. As soon as it made contact, I was up and bolting for the other side of the fence. My head was full of static as I ran the short distance, and jumped as high up as I could to grab the top of the fence while throwing the bat over to free up my right hand. My arms were trembling as I hoisted myself up and used the momentum to haul ass. Sweat ran in droplets down my face and time seemed to stand still as I fell down on the other side.

My body crashed into a bush, snapping small branches and sending them digging into my skin. I groaned when my head hit a particular hard root slightly above ground. Thankfully the book bag itself saved my upper torso. I used the cover of the bush as an excuse to just lay there. The sky was so clear, I thought dizzily. There was a single cloud in my vision swaying slightly. The fluffy whiteness of it stood daringly against the darkening sky. My eyebrows scrunched almost immediately at the thought. The darkening sky? Has it been that long since I left home? I shook my head and blinked to focus.

With a dejected groan, I sat up. I had to get to Adam. I flinched when I reached my hand up and felt blood. Nope. Definitely not going to think about that right now.

With gritted teeth, I rose to my knees to see over the bush. I tried to ignore the nauseatingly sweet smelling azalea flowers surrounding me. The coast was clear. Climbing swiftly to my feet, I set off around the bush having only two more blocks to cover before I make it to Adam's.

Spending what felt like the next hour ducking into bushes and cutting through more yards,

I rounded the corner to bring me to Adam's house. Sweat was pouring off of me. I was hyper aware of how much my shirt was clinging to my skin and how much I wanted to shred it off.

Yet, once again, something was wrong with the picture in front of me. A quiet neighborhood sat eerily still aside from the breeze rustling leaves in the plants here and there. As I stood at the opening to my best friend's yard, a thought flashed in my brain of his mother repeatedly warning us to keep her gate closed to keep out the neighborhood dogs as they tended to dig up her freshly planted garden center spoils. As I stood there, the gate unlatched and slightly open, the pull of emotions tugged me forward. With steely resolution, I stepped into the yard and clicked the gate locked behind me.