EASTON

“What did you tell him, Easton?” Paxton asked for the hundredth time tonight.

“I'm not going to tell you guys” I mumble, dodging their question again. They haven't stopped asking me since we got back to their cabin to play games. I'm debating leaving earlier than I normally do just to get them to stop.

“Why not? We saw the whole thing, it's not like we'd be embarrassed if you told us” Porter said. Apparently neither of them is planning to leave me alone tonight.

“Either you guys stop asking or I'm going to go back to my cabin early” I started, hoping they'd take the hint.

“Just tell us, Easton!! Please!” They begged at the same time. 

Yep I'm leaving.

I gathered up all my stuff without saying anything, and made my way toward the door. That's when they realize I wasn't joking and rush to try to stop me from leaving. “Easton, we're sorry, we will stop. Okay? You don't have to leave earlier because of this to just be by yourself longer” Porter cried, trying to block me from leaving. “Yeah, Easton, we know you hate being by yourself, you don't have to leave. We'll stop” Paxton finished. 

I understand they are worrying for me but I don't need it right now. I did actually want to be by myself, it might be a bad decision later but I do want to be alone right now. “It's fine, but I don't need you guys interrogating me right now, I'll see you two in the morning.” I say as I shove my way through to the door. 

Once I'm outside I sigh with relief and start making the short walk over to my cabin. Me and the twins are neighbors, but I got the bigger cabin obviously. When I get inside it finally hits me that I'm alone. 

Shit.

I try to ignore the fact that I'm the only one in the cabin, how quiet it is, how I can hear everything, how I hate it all. The silence is eerily, almost deafening despite the lack of sound. Suddenly I'm aware, aware of the void of my house, the wind, the sound of my own breath. It's sickening

The edges of my vision darkens and my breaths grew short. I- I shouldn't have left. I don't want to be alone again. In my mind all the memories come flooding back. 

~flashback~

My mom wakes me up to tell me that breakfast is ready before she leaves for work leaving me to get ready for school. It's mid August so I should probably start wearing warmer clothes but I choose shorts and a hoodie instead. As I'm almost out of the door I realize that I didn't hear or see Cloud this morning.

Cloud is my dog, she's a white husky, and very loud so it's a little concerning when I don't hear her. 

So I turn around, leaving the door unlocked, to go look for her and make sure she's alright. I don't find her in my mom's room, where she normally is. But instead I finally find her in the basement asleep. I'm not more than ten minutes late, but at least she's alright.

But as I go back up the stairs I suddenly feel like I should leave as soon as possible. That's when I get the my room to close my door when I see someone in the room across from me. Before they see me I dash into my room and hide under my bed. 

It's too quiet, all I can hear is me breathing, my heartbeat, and the sound of the person's shoes walking around. Suddenly I hear footsteps getting closer until they're in my room. Did they see me? 

I could see their combat boots from where I was, walking around until they stopped directly in front of me. 

Everything stops. I stop breathing. They stop moving. The only thing I hear is my heart beating. 

Then they turn and walk away. But I can't move, I'm frozen in place. I can't hear them anymore. But what if they're still here? I'm by myself, under my bed, where I can only hear my heart beating out of control. 

I don't move until my mom gets home, yelling my name, snapping me out of where I can't. Causing me to break down. 

~end of flashback~

I can't do this. I'm back to being the kid under the bed. Frozen with fear. 

I can't hear anything but my heart beat. I shouldn't have left the twins as soon as I did. Normally I'm so tired when I leave their cabin that I just sleep but I'm not going to sleep anytime soon.

I reach for my phone to call Rowyn so she can help. But I must have missed it somehow because I called Wells instead. I forgot I even had his number. Just as I'm about to cancel the call he picks up.

“What do you want, Easton? Do you know how late it is?” he quipped. 

I still couldn't really breathe from it all, much less have a coherent conversation. So all Well got was my labored breathing, as I cried silently. 

“Easton? Why aren't you talking, by now you'd be talking my head off with whatever you had to say and hung up. Is everything alright? Are you okay?” Well asks, seemingly more worried than before.

I try to talk again and something finally comes out, even though it doesn't make much sense.

“..help, please..Well, I can't….” I rasped. That was all I was able to get out before I gave up and passed out because of struggling to breathe.

The last thing I heard was, “Okay, I'm coming East, it'll be okay.”

Ha, East, he never calls me that…