Fusion Bay: Prologue (Part 2)

“Holy hell, George, that was incredibl-” Ben stopped himself when he realized the state I was in since I had just fallen to my knees in pain. “Jeez, George. Lemme.. Let me help you, man.” Ben pulled off his sweatshirt, revealing his white PlayBox shirt. He hesitated, but grabbed the knife and cut off his sleeves of his sweatshirt, and tied it around my left arm, as a makeshift sling. He helped me up, and I slightly groan, but I manage.

We looked down at the knocked out body of the robber. “So.. what should we do now?” Ben asked, a bit shaken from what happened. Given the fact that he was at knife point by someone who broke into my house, and he’s deadly afraid of sharp metal objects being cut into him, I think he has a right to be shaken up.

I looked up at the clock, it read 5:15 am. “My parents are sleeping upstairs, we should tell them what happened. They’ll know what to do.” He nodded in agreement and we both left the kitchen and walked up the stairs to my parent’s room, “Also, what was that about you pretending to be me, and giving out all my personal information? Like what the heck man!”

“Hey, I had a knife to my throat. A knife! I have a red mark from it, I had to think of something.” Ben exclaimed as we walked into my parent’s room, which I was surprised to see empty. The covers look to be pulled back like they both got up already, but they were nowhere to be seen.

We both looked at each other, first confused, but then realized what might have happened. We tried not to think about it. We turned around and started down the stairs.

I started to think out loud, “Why would this guy come to my house, and steal photos out of family photo albums? It doesn’t make sense.” Ben agreed and didn’t have an idea of what was going on. We walked into the kitchen once again, and I inspected his body.

“Should we do something with him?” Ben asked, with his hands in his sweatshirt pockets like usual, “I mean, what if he wakes up?” I knelt down the best I could with my sling, which by the way still hurt. I picked up the photo and examined it. My heart sank. It seemed to be a family photo that we took at my sister’s graduation, though it seemed to be drawn on with a red pen. My Mom’s, Dad’s, and twin brother’s faces were X’d out. I showed Ben. He didn’t seem to happy about it either.

It was when I flipped the photo over that I saw a weird symbol drawn with the same red ink as before. It was a pentagon with a single eye which was slightly closed. It had five pupils as well, and there seemed to be five seed-like shapes that were all connected in a ring surrounding it. Though I thought I saw that symbol before. I looked up and saw that the same symbol was on the man’s black hat, and even more to my surprise that the man was getting up, holding his head.

I quickly looked at Ben and simply stated, “Follow me, now!” I shoved the photo in my jean pocket and bolted out of the room, with Ben following behind me. It took me a second to get up with my injury, but as soon as I was up, I wasn’t stopping.

As soon as we got out of the kitchen, we heard the man, “..Huh..? Hey, get back here, you brats!” We ran down the stairs and practically slammed the sliding patio door open. I quickly ordered Ben to shut it and we raced down my backyard. Nearly a few seconds later we heard the sliding door open and he swore. Suddenly we hear gunshots, and with whatever energy we had stored up we jumped over the fence and booked it into the woods. We didn’t stop running until we knew we had lost him, and even then we ran a bit longer.

Exhausted, Ben and I stopped to take a breather, and the first thing Ben said didn’t surprise me, “I’m never… running… again.” He rested on the trunk of the tree, putting his hands into his sweatshirt pocket. I panted as I held onto my arm. Ben’s sweatshirt sleeves seemed to stop the bleeding, but it still stung a lot. I didn’t tell this to him, however, we had other problems at the moment.

“Why did this guy steal my family photos?” I pulled out the photo, “What does this symbol mean? Where are they keeping my family?!” My mind was almost racing as fast as my heart was, which thankfully it was starting to slow down.

Ben grunted, obviously not happy with the state we’re in, “We got bigger problems. It’s dark. We’re lost in the forest. There’s some guy with a gun after us. And worse of all, I’m tired.” Something about what he said struck a nerve with me.

“Excuse me?! For your information, my family has been kidnapped! All I know, they could be dead! Now if you could please help me figure out what’s happening, that’ll be much appreciated.” I shouted, unable to believe that’s what Ben had just said.

He took his hands out of his pockets, and stood up from the tree, “I’m sorry, but in case you forgot, I was at knifepoint a few minutes ago! I’m gonna have a scar on my neck!”

“You’re gonna have a scar? Look at me!! I’m gonna have more than a scar! I’m probably gonna need a blood transfusion if we get outta this. Also, do I need to remind you that I saved your life back there!”

“Saved?!” Ben hollered, “Because of what you did, it pissed off the very guy we’re trying to avoid!!”

“Then why on God’s green earth did you wander into the kitchen, the very place the guy was at!?!” I argued, getting fed up with this conversation.

“Well, I don’t know” Ben exclaimed, “Maybe I was trying to find out who he was!”

“Why would you care about that?!”

“I don’t know, get off my back!” Ben snapped, turning around, “I’m going for a walk.” He started to walk deeper into the woods.

I yelled at him, “A walk?! And where on Earth would that be?!!”

He barely turned when he responded, “Away from you!”

I clenched my fist in anger, as I shouted, “…Well, you better return with wood for a shelter!!”

“Maybe I will!” He announced loudly.

All I could muster up was shouting, “Fine!”

“Fine!”

I watched him walk into the distance in his sleeveless navy sweatshirt until he disappeared. When he did, I sat down on a nearby stump, and my eyes started to water. I held my face in my hands as I silently wept, something I haven’t done since I was a little kid.

(Continued in the next chapter…)