not what they appear

                                                              Chapter 1     

            Alex and I were running through the forest in my backyard. Alex was holding my hand tight and looked up to smile at me. We weren’t running from anything bad or dangerous, but from everything, good and bad. I smiled back at her and squeezed her hand. But the moment I eased up on her hand, the ground beneath her vanished. Her fingers slipped through mine too fast for me to catch her. I watched helplessly as she fell through the ground. I stared as her mouth formed a silent scream and her arms reached for me. My legs buckled and I fell to my knees next to the hole that was now slowly closing. New leaves formed around the inner hole until it was completely closed.

            “Jason!” I heard my name being screamed from inside the hole before the last leaf closed it up.

            I bent over and touched where my girlfriend once was. A tear rolled down my nose and onto my hand.

“Jason!” My head snapped up in the direction where my brother was calling me. “Get your butt up and get ready for school!”

     Once again, I’m waking up to my brother’s grouchy voice and once again, I thank the grouchy voice for waking me up from another nightmare.

     I ran my hand through my sweaty hair and threw the covers off me. I threw my legs over the side of the bed and buried my head in my hands. What’s wrong with me? This is the second time this week I had this dream. I’ll have to make a note of that: Don’t go into a forest anytime soon.

“Jase, I said get your-”

“Shut up, I’m coming,” I interrupted him before he had the chance to finish his statement.           

     Come on, Jason, shake it off. I sighed heavily and got up to take a shower. A little warm water should wake me up and hopefully wash the nightmare away. The day can’t be that bad if I’m going to be with my favorite person in the world. I smiled and took my time in the shower, despite my brother’s yelling from downstairs.

     After being literally pulled out of the shower and random clothes thrown at me, I was in my brother, Andrew’s, car. Andrew’s 20, only three years older then me, yet he still drives me to school every morning since I’m not responsible enough to have a car.

“You look like crap.” Andrew said messing up my hair.

“Hey, chill out. I just fixed that, and I wouldn’t look like crap if crap, himself, didn’t rub off on me.” I turned towards Andrew and gave him a half smile. I received a hit from that.

    By the time my arm started to hurt a little less, we were at the light across the school. I go to Coconino High School in Flagstaff, Arizona. It’s pretty awesome since there are mountains everywhere and we take a lot of camping trips. Alex and I are planning to go there this weekend. Just us alone in the mountains. I smiled at the thought.

“Are you that happy to be at school, or is it because of Alex? I honestly don’t get why she’s with you when I’m right here.” Andrew smirked and put his hands behind his head.

    I hadn’t even realized we were at the school until he said something - something stupid. I picked up my book bag from the floor and opened the car door.

“I’m walking home.” I slammed the door so hard he honked his horn and yelled something that would have gotten me in trouble if a teacher was outside, before speeding off. Since I was late, again, there wasn’t anyone to yell at me for my brother’s awful language.  

    I walked through the blue chipped doors of the school. The halls were just starting to fill as everyone headed for their first bell. Alex and I had every period together except for third and sixth.

“You’re late, again.” Alex hugged me from behind before I could even see her beautiful face.

    I turned around to face her and bent down to kiss her. She backed away so I could see her brown eyes sparkle under the florescent lights. She had long brown hair that swept over her shoulders, which matched her perfect, natural tan. Her small hand grabbed mine and tugged on it.           

“Come on before we’re late to Mrs. Broil’s room.” she rolled her eyes and pulled me.

    We walked the familiar halls to our English class and made it just in time for the tardy bell to ring. Alex and I took our regular seat in the back of the classroom.

“So what’s your excuse for being late this time?” Alex whispered from behind me.

    I never told her about the dreams. She kind of freaks out on stuff like that.

“Do you think waiting for my brother to stop beating me up is an excuse?” I asked joking around.

    Alex rolled her eyes. “Someday that ‘mmm’ is gonna get it. Why don’t you hit back? Are you really that scared of him, Jason?”

I laughed. “Scared? Yea, right, he wishes. And one day that mmm is gonna get it.” I laughed again as I mocked her. Alex almost never curses. Instead she says ‘mmm’ to cover it up. It’s funny because she is the only girl I know who makes an effort not to curse.

   Alex didn’t find it funny. She slumped in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. I leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings.”

“Mmm.” that’s all she said. I guess that ended the conversation.

   By the time first period ended, Alex was already talking to me about our camping trip this weekend. Everything was set; we were going to hike a trail to the middle of the mountain to set up our site. Alex was still talking about the trip when we ran into Nick on our way to second period, math.

“Hey Jase” Nick said. He looked at Alex and smiled. “Hey Alex.”

   That’s weird. Nick never looked at Alex like that, like he was her boyfriend instead of me. Nick and I have been friends since third grade and never have we liked the same girl. We always went by the rule that whoever called dibs first, got the girl and whoever didn’t, moved on. We were equal; we were both seventeen and pretty good looking. I was 5’8” with brown hair that just touches the bottom of my neck. Nick was an inch taller with blond hair cut buzz short. We both had an even tan and we both pulled all the girls, but never the same one.

I grabbed Alex’s hand to pull her closer to me and Nick’s smile vanished. I could almost hear his teeth clamp down on each other and clench. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and took a breath before speaking.

“Well, I don’t know about you two, but I don’t want to be late.” Nick said turning around without another word and walked off.

    Alex looked up at me. “What’s with him?” She whispered. She’s known Nick since eighth grade. That’s when Alex and I started talking and it wasn’t until the ninth grade that we started being an actual couple. She knew Nick just as well as me and could tell from a mile away something was wrong with him. We just didn’t know what it was.

    I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s Nick, it could be anything, but he’s right, we should hurry and get to class.” Alex nodded and we scurried off.

    The walk was pretty quiet with Nick still a couple of feet in front of us. It’s not like him to get mad, or jealous. I couldn’t even imagine Nick jealous of Alex and me. I didn’t have time to think about what was wrong with him, because by now we were in math and we had a major test today. Alex and I didn’t sit together in this class. Instead she sat on the right with Nick right beside her since both of their last names started with a S. Alex’s was Smith and Nick’s was Stanton. Since my last name was Cress, I sat on the left of the classroom.

When Mr. Brooks handed me the test I could barely concentrate when my girlfriend was being stared down by my best friend. I wanted to walk over there and swing his desk completely around so he couldn’t see her. I forced myself to focus on the test in front of me, but all I could see was how Nick looked at Alex when he saw us. I got so mad I broke my pencil in half. Breathe Jason, just one more day until you and Alex will be alone on the camping trip, with no Nick. I shook off the craziness and focused on my test. I was going to fail this.

   The rest of the day went pretty well. I kept Alex as far away from Nick as I possibly could. After a while of constantly getting Alex away from Nick, she started to catch on. While we were walking home, Alex stopped and I stopped too.

“What’s wrong?” I asked moving closer to her.

“You know what’s wrong. Every time Nick comes over to talk to me, you all of a sudden need me. The first time was acceptable, but when you did it every time I realized something, you’re jealous.” She looked me straight in the eyes when she said those words.

“Me, jealous? Shouldn’t you be saying that to Nick? Didn’t you notice the way he was staring at you? In math he wouldn’t take his eyes off of you. It was bothering me and I didn’t want him near you.”

“Since when do you care how a guy looks at me?” Alex crossed her arms not looking convinced.

“Since that guy was my best friend. Can we just drop this?” I unfolded her arms and took her hands into mine. “I just want to think about you and me alone in the woods.” As soon as I said it, I wish I could take it back, because my nightmare crept back into my head. I shook it off before Alex could notice the look on my face.

    Nothing was going to happen to her. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

    Alex smiled. “I can’t wait, just one more day. It’s a great way to start the summer break.”

    I smiled and grabbed her waist to pull her in for a kiss. I kissed her passionately and her hands moved up to wrap around my neck. I didn’t care that we were on the side of the road making out. It wasn’t until someone cleared his throat behind us that we had to stop. When I looked up to see who it was, my hands tightened around Alex.

“Sorry to umm…interrupt.” Nick said and by the sound of his voice, he wasn’t.

   Alex removed her arms from around my neck and took my hands from around her waist, into hers.

“Sure you are.” I said low enough for only Alex to hear. She squeezed my hand.

“It’s fine Nick. I didn’t know you walked.” Alex said.

Alex knew he didn’t walk. It was a ten minute ride to his house so he rode the bus or drove his Audie. The only times he walks is when he comes over my house. He wasn’t coming to my house today and he knew it.  

“Yea, I didn’t know you walked either.” Nick avoided explaining himself.

“I’m going over to Jason’s for a study date and to plan for the trip.”

I told Nick a week ago that Alex and I were planning a camping trip for the whole weekend before summer break.

“Well, I would be careful if I were you.” Nick warned. I knew where he was going with this. It was a scary story he told me when we were little. It wasn’t real, but the way he told made it seem like it was.

    The same time I said “Nick,” to warn him, Alex asked, “Why?” There was no stopping him now.

“About twelve years ago when I was four, my dad and I went on a camping trip. He told me this story about a couple who spent their honeymoon hiking and while they were hiking, it started to get dark. The wife started to get a little anxious and said she heard something behind them. The husband told her it was just a rabbit or a deer, but he was wrong. She believed him and they carried on with their trip. A couple of minutes later, the wife heard another noise, but this time it was growling,”

“Nick, stop” I felt Alex’s hand begin to shake in mine.

    He ignored me and went on. “The husband heard it too and he and his wife tried to run away from the growling, but it still followed them. While running, the wife fell. The husband tried to help her up and right behind him was the monster that wasn’t a monster, but a man. The man had razor sharp teeth and his skin was dead all over. His eyes were bright white with no pupil, but he could see perfectly. The man attacked the couple, devoured on their souls, and ate their bodies afterwards. No one questioned the disappearance of the couple, so no one went looking. At least that’s what my dad told me. Of course he’s full of it, so I thought the story was bogus,” Nick did a dramatic pause, leaned over, and whispered, “Until I saw him myself while my dad was sleeping. He was dragging a moose as tall as me. He looked at me and put his finger to his mouth, and then he walked off with the moose.”

    Alex’s eyes were wide open and she was shaking. I pulled her into my arms and I felt her shaking hands grab my shirt and she started to breathe heavily.

“W-what if…th-that h-happens to us?” her shaky voice asks.

    I stared at Nick with an evil stare. “It’s not real. He’s just trying to scare you, its okay.” She didn’t believe me. Once Alex was in her panic mode, it would take more then just saying it wasn’t real to make her believe it wasn’t. This was all Nick’s fault. He knew how paranoid Alex got.

    I let go of Alex and walked towards Nick with a fist full of hate. I pushed Nick hard enough for him to stumble back. 

“What the hell is your problem? You got her freaked out over some stupid story. You knew how much this trip meant to me. Now she’s going to be too scared to go.” I was screaming now. Nick looked satisfied with himself, like he wanted Alex to get scared enough not to go on the trip with me.

    He shrugged and said, “How was I supposed to know she was going to believe it?”

I just lost it. My fist of hate slammed against Nick’s face. He fell backwards on the ground and held his face.

“Jason!” Alex screamed. She ran past me to Nick to see if he was okay.

    He had a smirk on his face when Alex touched his face and asked if it hurt.

“Not now when an angle is touching it.” He responded.

    He was asking for it. “You son of a-”

“Jason. That’s enough. Maybe Nick should come with us so he can get some ice on his eye.”

“He’s fine, come on, Alex.” He wasn’t come anywhere near me. Alex gave me an evil look of her own that told me I had no say in this.

“Fine, whatever.” I turned around and started walking towards my house.

    Alex helped Nick up and they started walking behind me. He was making me sick.

    Nick was like a brother to me, but no way was I going to let him take Alex away from me.