May 19th,
When the first beam of light appeared from the golden morning sun, I shook Emily to wake her up and sprinted with her through the woods.
"Where are we going," Emily asked through her sleepy eyes. "Is something wrong?"
"Don't worry about it," I folder her without glancing back. "Just run!"
Those footsteps I heard last night. Who the hell was that? Why didn't he try to get our attention.
Whoever that guy was, he definitely didn't have any good intentions.
*FWOOSH!*
A dark figure suddenly dropped down from the branch of a tree. He wore a grey cloak with a painted mark of a pentagram on the left shoulder.
I turned around and tried to take off the other way, but I was suddenly met with a ring of them who blocked us from leaving.
"Stay close to me Emily." I whispered to her.
She shyly nodded and gripped tightly onto my hand.
"Who are you?" I asked the dark figure, trying to sound intimidating.
I was actually shaking where I stood.
The hooded figure said nothing. He just stood there with his head down.
"*Ahem!* We're know as The Polygon," someone from the ring said. "We live freely in woods for free instead of being corrupted by the government. Unfortunately, the government tried to catch us after we went resided in private property, so we had to end our lives before they captured us."
Are they some kind of cult? If that's the case, then I need to get Emily far away from here now.
"Alex?"
I turned back around to the dark figure in front of me. He wasn't looked at the ground. This time, his eyes were locked onto me.
He started to remove the hood from his face. Black hair gelled backwards, dark green eyes that shined like emeralds, pale white, wrinkled skin.
He was the same man that took me on all of those camping trips years ago. The one who taught me how to tie a rope.
"Well, this is...awkward." My dad said.
My dad led The Polygon forward through the woods, keeping me fright beside him. I kept my gripped on Emily's hand.
"What are you doing here," my dad asked. "Do you know what this place is?"
"I do," I answered. "I'm trying to get Emily and myself out though."
I had no intentions of helping my father out of this place. He decided to run away from his family, so he can help himself. Besides, it looks like he already has his own family to take care of.
"Why did you leave us?" I asked him.
I at least wanted to know that much.
"My father, your grandfather, was the head of the Polygon and the one who organized the cult," my father said. "I was a part of it as well when I was your age, but then I left after I turned 18. When he died, I was sent a letter from them saying that I needed to come back and lead them. I wanted to decline, but they threatened to hurt you and your mother if I didn't comply. I had no choice, so I left."
Looking back on what my dad was like back then, he didn't exactly seem to be the type of guy who led cults.
"You could've at least written a letter or whatever you cult people do," I said with a pout. "You were gone for 4 years."
"I'm sorry," he said, scratching the back of his greasy head. "How's Lily doing?"
"Terrible," I said. "She was completely traumatized by what you did. Now she doesn't even want me to leave the house."
"Hehe. Well, she was always like that," dad said. "Always felt like she had to have control over everything."
"Always?"
"Yeah. When your mother and I first met, I could definitely tell that she was always dating. She also seemed a little shaky on our first date. I decided to give her a chance and went out with her a little longer."
"What made you fall in love with her?" I asked him.
Dad shook his head and stopped smiling.
"I was never in love with her."
"..."
I couldn't say anything to that. I couldn't even process what he just said to me without having at least one or two questions pop into my head.
You never loved her? Why did you keep dating her? Why did you marry her? Why did you have me with her?
"It turns out, she grows really unstable when she's left alone for more than an hour," dad said. "She drinks a little after half an hour, but then she starts to down whole bottles of wine and starts to cry. She then starts to freak out and scream random words at the top of her lungs. Our neighbors even filed a complaint a couple of times because of her screaming. She said it was over a video game."
"Why was she like that?" I asked.
"She told me that back when she was a kid, from when she was born, to right before she moved out, her parents would, as punishment, would lock her in the basement with the lights off for hours depending on what she did. One time, she said that she got home late at night and was locked in the basement for a whole week. She was never allowed to have a boyfriend or even friends for that matter. She was always alone."
I wish I had known that. Maybe I could've helped mom a little and try to help her get over her trauma. I just thought that she hated me. It turns out, she suffered more than me.
She forced to be alone, while I just chose to be.
"You're lying," I said to my dad. "There's no way in hell you don't love her."
"What makes you say that?" He asked me, looking a little confused.
"If you didn't love her, you never would've decided to keep going out with her. You knew what she had to go through, and yet you still decided to stay with her. You even left us so that you could protect us. If that's not love, then what is?"
"She would never believe me," dad said. "No matter how much I apologize, I know that she won't forgive me. Hell, she probably won't even look at me."
"It's worth a try," I told him. "Whether she forgives you or not, at least you came back and told her the truth."
My dad didn't say anything to me after that. He just continued to look forward and walk through the woods. I could tell that he was enjoying the scent of maple and cinnamon.
"You forgave him so easily." Emily whispered to me.
"I could tell, from the way he looked, that he really was sorry," I whispered back to her. "He protected us, so I can't really be mad at him."
"If I were you, I wouldn't have forgiven him. We should just leave him Alex. He's not worth saving."
"Emily, what the-"
Emily's grip on my hand tightened.
"Please. Let's just leave them once it's late in the night." Emily whispered.
I wanted to tell her off for what she said, but I still remembered what Emily told me yesterday. She had a terrible father, so I guess she doesn't trust my father either.
"Emily, my father isn't evil like yours," I said to her. "And if you're right, then we'll run like hell away from them. I promise."
Emily looked like she had more to say to me, but she kept silent and nodded.
I felt my father's hand on my shoulders.
"We're running away at the first strike of dawn." He whispered to me.
"What?" I whispered back.
Dad suddenly turned around and, in a grand voice, said:
"WE'RE STOPPING HERE TONIGHT, FOR THE GODS HAVE GIVEN ME MY ORDERS! LET US FEAST THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!"
Everyone in The Polygon cheered with a roar of "YEAH!!!"
I could only think of what my father had whispered to me as we feasted on different kinds of meat. Why are we running away? What are we running away from?
I, then, remembered what my father said about this cult. Everyone around me, all these people feasting happily on their food. They all were the ones who took my father from me.
Their the ones who we're running away from.