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Kylie screamed and cried as David called the police and her mother. She sat in the backseat, wondering what had happened. How had Eric been taken? Within moments, a siren came along down the street, before reaching the two. Officers came out and immediately began questioning David, after he explained to them that Kylie couldn't talk at the moment. 'Eric . . .' she thought. 'Where are you?'
Then it hit her like a physical blow. Shay.
Had the thing that looked like Shay taken Eric? She had been mad at Kylie before the party, before her final moments. The last time the two had spoken, Shay had yelled her head off, telling her to never steal David again. But then David broke it off, and within four hours Shay got together with Marcos. During the party, she called Kylie and told her the three words that would haunt her forever, no matter if Shay was dead or not. "Watch it, Kylie."
And now, Shay was alive again. Maybe. In a sense, she was. Wasn't that thing, that replica of a dirty Shay, alive? Surely it was. Maybe a hoax. Maybe it was all just a joke. David was behind it all, as well as the police and her mother, and Eric was at Ricky's, safe and sound. A sob interrupted Kylie's thoughts, and her head was spinning. In moments, her mother had arrived as well, and on the asphalt screaming in pain and horror and sadness. Kylie's dad had left when the two kids were little, and he was probably in the Caribbean with a cool cup in hand surrounded by beach and ocean and sunshine, not worrying about his children's welfare. If I could be with Dad, she thought, I wouldn't be here. I would be relaxing in the sun and flirting with lifeguards. Eric would have never been taken and Shay and David would be together.
But that last part, the part of Shay and David together again, hurt her heart too much. Numb, Kylie climbed out of the car and, without anyone seeing, headed into the woods.
"Shay?" she called out again, still feeling too alone. Nothing was normal. "Shay? Come out! What do you want? David? Rest? What? Do you want to take back time, and have David with you, and me be in that car with Marcos? Me be the one with him who gets wrapped around that tree like a burrito?" she cried. "I'm sorry, Shay. But I just can't do that. I can't reverse time. But I need my brother. Please. You have - I mean had, - a brother. Remember when Alex had to go away to camp for that summer? And it hurt you, Shay? Well, I'm feeling like that right now. Only I don't know where Eric is. Please." Kylie said aloud. "I'm sorry."
Something rustled in the nearby brush. She gasped and looked up, praying that it was either Eric or a deer. Maybe this hadn't been a good idea. Her mother was probably worried sick; it was easily past 10 o'clock at night, and with one child missing, she didn't need the other to just randomly wander off. But that was what Kylie had done, and ventured so deep into the forest searching for Shay or Eric that she didn't even realize where she was headed. Now she was cold and alone, in the woods at night, with something, a predator, out there with her brother.
Kylie was scared, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Then the shrubs rustled again, and David emerged. "Kyles?" he called out. "David!" she screamed, running into his arms. His warm embrace was something she had; something to hold on to. She cried on his shoulder as he rubbed her back, murmuring random things, like "It's okay," and "It isn't your fault." But she knew he just wanted to see her smile, to stop crying. Those lies he told her didn't make her feel better at all. Of course it was her fault; Shay had been betrayed by her in the first place. And nothing was okay; her world, like it had when her dad left, was turned topsy turvey, and she couldn't make it better again. This time, the damage could be permanent.
About an hour later, fatigue claimed them both, and the two found a soft spot of dried leaves and a soft dirt to lay on. "When we get up, we have to head right back. Your mom is a mess, and I bet mine is too." he told her, but Kylie was hardly paying attention. Everything that had happened that day, which really wasn't much, just traumatic, had been enough. She did not want to worry about her mom, no matter how terrible a daughter that made her.
Kylie hardly slept at all that night. She had the terrible dream that she had the night before, only Eric had been there, and David was going out with Shay again. Shay attacked Eric, ripping at his throat with those teeth, as David held Kylie and made her watch, before throwing her over the cliff. She screamed in her sleep and David stroked her hair, pushing his body closer up against hers. "Kylie." he said, and with that, the sleeping damsel would quiet down, before another nightmare. The same one, only a different place.
It was about 6 A.M. when the branch snapped in half, waking up the two teens. Eyes peered out from a nearby bush, but Kylie and David weren't sure what it was. Kylie looked around, the drowsiness gone, adrenaline building in it's place, when she made the realization.
Those eyes were not alone.
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