Beloved Apocalypse

Chapter 2: Jinx

It had been weeks since I had murdered my step mother and my step brothers, including the innocent maid. I was still thinking about Hillary. I wonder how much I traumatized her, I thought to myself.

I was walking around, away from the town, away from the mountains. I hadn’t seen a single human soul for a week, and my mind was going a little insane because of it. My fear, being alone, really started to kick in, and now I was desperate to find someone. I started running down a road, barefoot since I had lost my shoes. It was raining a little, and my last meal had been some berries and some moldy bread. How did I go from a rich kid, to a kid running away from his dead family? That question really haunted my mind. So much so that I got terrified, which made my legs weak and my feet sore. I suddenly tripped down over the edge of a cliff. A steep cliff, down to a river. I gasped and tried to grab a tree, but my arms were too short. I kept rolling down helplessly over the leaves and sharp rocks.

  “Shit!” I yelled. “Help-” I hit my head on a rock, and the pain made my ears ring. I lost consciousness and rolled down to the bottom, all the way down to the water. My arm got stuck in a tree and my legs were in the cold water as I laid there, limp on the ground. I could barely hear the footsteps running up to me when my eyes closed, and I blacked out.

*

I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know if I was dead or alive. I put my hand on my chest and took a breath. My heart was pounding, so at least I was alive. I blinked a few more times and looked around a little. My vision was blurry and distorted, and wherever I was it was very dark. Someone suddenly put their hands on my cheeks and looked me in my eyes. I grunted and closed my eyes again, as I started to feel the pain in my body.

  “Don’t move”, a boy's voice echoed. “Can you hear me?” He sounded concerned, and his hands on my face were warm. Or was it just me that was cold? I opened my eyes again and looked up into his eyes, still in a lot of pain.

  “Who’re you…?” I asked quietly. “What happened?” I tried to sit up, but my whole body started shaking, and I felt a shooting pain in my spine. 

  “I told you not to move”, he said. “Where does it hurt?” He let go of my face and walked around and sat down next to me. I took a deep breath and started gritting my teeth to distract myself from the pain in my spine. 

  “What happened?” I asked again, feeling a little lightheaded. 

  “You fell down the cliff”, the boy said. “You hit your head too. How’re you feeling? Are you nauseous?” He looked back into my eyes and reached out for my face again, but I grabbed his hand and sat up, despite the pain I was in.

  “Who are you?” I asked again, more steady and aggressive. “Don’t touch me until I know who you are.” My grip around his wrist was hard, and I buried my nails into his skin. He flinched and tried to pull away, but I held him back.

  “Hey!” he exclaimed. “That hurts! Let go, and I’ll tell ya!” I let go of his wrist and backed away a little. He rubbed the deep marks in his skin and glanced at me, clearly very annoyed. I tried to back away even more, but my back was too sore, and my arms were weak.

  “You can’t really go anywhere”, he mumbled. “When I found you, you were unconscious, and bleeding. Probably a broken rib, too.” He stood up and walked up to me again. I gasped and stared into his eyes, slowly moving my hand to my pocket. He noticed and crossed his arms.

  “I already took your gun”, he said calmly. “Now, tell me, what the hell are you doing out here, all alone?” 

  “I should ask you the same thing…”, I said quietly. “Who are you?” I tried to sit up properly, but my back hurt too much. The boy just sighed at me and ignored my struggle.