8.11

By the time I reached the forest the sun had come out. Under the shade of the trees it was still cold; I was grateful for what little sunlight found its way to me. I felt more like I was taking a hiking trip that way and less like I was definitely walking into a trap.

The uncomfortable gut feeling I’d had when I’d left the house was still there. I felt like someone was watching me. More than anything I wanted to turn around, but then that voice would never stop pestering me. I almost hoped to find something, anything, if it meant an end to this.

The birds were singing, and I could see a couple of deer grazing not far away behind some shrubs. It didn’t really feel like a suicide mission apart from the way my stomach twisted every time a branch cracked nearby.

Someone was watching me, I was sure of it. Or maybe it was just my nerves. They were going crazy over this, but there was no way I was going to turn around now. I was staying until I found something that would make the voices stop.

I checked my phone for reassurance, but the signal was dead.

“Fudging great.” There went my only way of calling for help. Had my parents realised that I was no longer in bed? It’d be hours before they’d get worried.

You know, no one would hear you scream if you died here.

“I know, thanks a lot.” I felt ridiculous talking to the voice in my head, but I did feel better hearing my own voice, too. At least it wasn’t the sound of breaking branches right behind me, or the clicking of a gun as the safety was taken off.

I wasn’t really sure where to start or where to go once I’d figured out the former. The female voice didn’t come with instructions, it only ever called for help. When I had been here before I’d felt pulled towards a specific place, but now there was nothing.

I closed my eyes, and leaned against a tree. Or was there? If I focused I could almost feel her, begging for help, but I couldn’t–

It was coming from the right somewhere. It was weak, but it was something.

I followed the thin threat as well as I could, and nearly smacked into a tree when I saw her. My legs turned to jelly. My head became foggy.

“Fudge.”

There was a woman in a hospital gown lying on the cold forest ground. She didn’t look conscious.

It’s probably a trap, and you’re walking right into it, like the idiot you are.

I ran towards her, and fell to my knees besides her.

She wasn’t bleeding, but she didn’t seem conscious, either.

“Hello?” No response. Was this who had led me here? Could it actually be the same person? “Erm, can you hear me?”

If someone finds you bent over her now, they’ll assume you did it. You’re going away for a very long time, Poppy.

My skin crawled. I hated small confined spaces, but I hated the idea of my parents finding out about the voices and locking me away in some looney house, straight jacket and all, even more.

I forced myself to breathe calmly. No one would lock me up for this. I hadn’t done anything. They couldn’t prove anything.

The woman still wasn’t moving. Was she even aware that I was here? Why the fudge had I refused those basic CPR lessons school had offered? The fudge was I supposed to do?

I did what Mum would probably have done, unless she knew better than I did which was very likely, and placed my hand on her forehead.

No fever.

If nothing else I knew she didn’t have a cold.

I put two fingers around her wrist, and hoped to Berry I was doing this right. My twisted nerves made me giggle when I found a pulse.

Poppy Joy, the lifesaver!

I must have squeezed her wrist too hard in my excitement, because she pulled her arm back and groaned.

I froze in place. I knew that voice.

The one that had led me here.

It was her. The voice from my head, a real person.

I was shaking. “Are you okay?”

She moaned, trying to sit up. Hoping that I wasn’t making some internal injuries worse, I helped her lean against the tree trunk.

“Where–”

Fudge, Berry, she looked seriously out of it.

“Erm, are you hurt?”

She turned her head and for a brief second her pale eyes focused on me. She smiled, then sunk back against the tree.

“Fudge! Don’t move, okay?”

Smooth, Poppy. Does she look like she’s going to make a run for it?

I got up, and checked my phone again. Still no signal. Obviously. I was deeper inside the forest now than I had been the last time I checked. But there should have been emergency services available, shouldn’t there? If I could dial that–if it worked–I could call for help and–

I sank to the floor with a strange thud as something heavy hit me over the head.

Then everything went black.