Hideous chapter32
Oliver was walking along the lonely pathway that lead to the massive school block, carrying his old brown backpack. He was heading to the old library on the ground floor of the building to meet Felicity. Lately, after he returned from New York, the both of them have been using the old library as their private study space, since their the only ones that would come there.
Oliver was moving along the pathway when all of a sudden, he heard a sound; like the voice of a person, coming from the thick woods beside the track. At first, he ignored it, knowing fully well that one hardly even pass through that path, not to talk of entering into the woods, but then he heard the voice again, this time it came as a long piercing scream.
At that moment, panic flared up in Oliver's eyes. He stopped and listened carefully to be sure of what he was hearing. The voice sounded like that of someone who was in serious pain, and like the voice of a young person, probably a fellow student. Oliver was so worried that whoever this person was, he or she might be in a very bad state, maybe with a fatal injury, or worse.
There was a sense of urgency in the tone of this unknown person. Oliver had a strong conviction that he or she was in immediate need of help. He wanted to raise an alarm, but looking around him, he realized that he was the only person on the path. He quickly scanned through the courtyard, the very few people he spotted were at very far distances, and no matter how loud he calls them, they wouldn't hear him. He also reasoned that going to call a teacher or a senior student might as well be a bad idea, as the victim might be running out of time.
At that moment, Oliver realized that he had to do this all by himself. He quickly walked straight into the woods, after making sure that there was no one watching from afar. Following the audible grunts and lengthy moans, he went further and further into the shadows. He knew that the person was close by, yet he couldn't discern the exact position he was in. The sound of the voice gradually reduced.
"Hello... Hello...!!!"
There was no response. The loud moans had dwindled completely. Oliver could hear nothing else except the continuous reverberation of his own voice, resounding throughout the shady woodland. The entire hair on his foreskin had suddenly risen in alarm like porcupine quills.
"Hello!! Can you hear me?!!" He echoed.
Still no response.
"I'm coming to help you, please say something so I can find you quickly," he said.
There was still no response.
So many thoughts began to run through Oliver's mind as he wondered why he could no longer hear the voice of the unknown person who was initially shouting for help. He was starting to worry that he might be too late.
As he cautiously went further and further into the woods, something caught his attention. He spotted a series of deep claw marks on the hard surface of the tree trunks. The lines were really deep and about ten to twelve inches long. Oliver felt an ice-cold chill run down his spine. He knew that the strange claw marks didn't belong to any regular wild animal, and he had never heard that any dangerous wild animal like a bear, likely of having such claws, was living in the woods.
Oliver took in a deep breath as he continued going deeper.
"Hello!! Are you alright?!!"
He was starting to feel uneasy. He was beginning to sense that something wasn't right about the woods and that his own life was also at risk.
Oliver was moving slowly now. He was trying to be more cautious of every little thing that surrounded him when he unexpectedly caught sight of something extremely bizarre.
"Oh my god, what on earth..." Oliver muttered to himself in shock.
It was a long trail of footprints, but the strange thing about this was that the footprints were unusually large, even those of a grizzly bear were not as large compared to them. The footprints had a great resemblance with that of a dog, only that it was outlandishly outsized.
"What kind of animal could this be?" he muttered to himself, suppressing a shiver.
Oliver had every reason to turn back now, but he saw no use in that, having gone this far. Oliver clearly had no idea where he going, as he was no longer hearing the voice. Also, he had seen enough proof that there was a dangerous creature lurking in the shadows. That alone was enough reason for him to retreat, but he didn't.
Even now, lined in front of him was a trail of giant dog footprints, but instead of redirecting his steps away from it as soon as possible, he began to follow the tracks. He had a feeling that this strange creature might have been what attached the person whose voice he heard, and by following its track, there was a high tendency he'd find the person.
Carefully, Oliver followed the track and went deeper and deeper. At a point he stood still, gazing around suspiciously.
"The voice..." he gasped.
He followed the low grunts and weak moans that sounded from the corner close by. Behind a line of trees, he found an open space. Lying helplessly there on the floor was a boy about the same age as Oliver.
As soon as Oliver saw him, panic seized his brain, and his jaw loosely fell open. Terror had stolen his words right from his mouth. The abdomen region of the boy was totally covered in blood, and he was breathing laboriously, forcing out sharp gasps at intervals.
Oliver sensed that the boy's statue was familiar, so he looked more clearly.
"Alex?..." Oliver muttered in shock.
The victim was Alexander Humphrey; the boy caused him a serious head injury weeks ago. Oliver knelt beside him.
"P... Please, h... help me," Alex muttered shakily, breathing in an abnormally fast and laborious rhythm, and grasping Oliver tightly by the wrist.
"Worry no more, I'm here to help you," Oliver assured him.
Oliver raised his hand that he had unknowingly placed on Alex's lower abdomen, only to find it soaked in red. Alex was bleeding nonstop, and the soaked area of his shirt had several lines of cut. Oliver carefully raised the shirt. As he saw the wound, he gasped out in terror, and his eyes widened the more.
The wound was three long deep claw scratches, similar to the ones he had spotted on the barks of several trees earlier.
"So it's real," Oliver muttered to himself, "And it's here," he added with a whisper, as he looked over his shoulder.
He had heard a swooshing sound like something passed around the corner. At that moment, dread gnawed at his insides.
"We need to get out of here, real quick," he said, with raw panic in his voice.
Oliver was acting hurriedly, right now. He quickly took off Alex's shirt and used it to bind the wound, temporarily stopping the intense bleeding. He was knotting it tight when he looked and found out that Alex's irises had almost cleared out totally, and his breathing had changed to a more abnormal rhythm. Oliver's panic increased.
"Come on, stay with me, buddy," Oliver said, as he tapped his sides continuously.
Alex's breathing was getting worse and worse. Oliver was so worried, but he struggled not to get frantic with fear. He had this inherent attribute of maintaining a calm composure in the heat of chaotic situations.
"Stay with me, Alex, I'm gonna take you out of here, I promise. Calm down," Oliver assured him, but the situation seemed to be getting more worst. Alex had lost so much blood already, there was nothing else Oliver could do but hope.
He was still bounding the wound when he suddenly began to hear the sounds of approaching footsteps, with the rustling of dry leaves and snapping of dry branches. Oliver could clearly hear the throbbing sounds of his heartbeat.
"Oh no... this is not good," he muttered, with his voice thick with dread.
Greater fear that he had never felt before took hold of him. He could feel the end approaching; his life, flashing before his eyes. Who else could it be, except the mysterious clawed creature, he thought.
The steps kept getting closer and closer. Oliver quickly turned to see what was coming. As he did so, what he saw was more shocking and astonishing than what he expected to see. He did see someone coming, but it wasn't the horrifying colossal beast he had imagined, It was Jasper.
Jasper came forth from the innermost part of the woods, looking wild and tattered, like someone that had just climbed out of a trash heap. His clothes were covered in dry leaves, his hair was ruffled in a very untidy manner, and his face was layered with a mixture of sweat and dust. Jasper was panting uncontrollably, like someone that had been running for miles.
Oliver was frozen, momentarily, as he stared at his friend as he had just seen a ghost. A lot of questions He was caught up in an irrefutable state of puzzlement.
"Oliver... Whoa! That is so much blood right there," Jasper exclaimed as he saw the blood from Alex's wounds. His eyes widened in panic.
"What happened... Is he gonna die?!" he sputtered, sounding frantic.
"He was attached by some wild animal, I don't know for sure," Oliver managed.
"Thank god you're here. Come give me a hand, let's take him out of here," he told Jasper.
The two boys worked together in carrying the unconscious body mass of Alex out of the woods, to the concrete pathway. They were able to raise an alarm, and shortly, the medical team arrived with a stretcher.
Oliver couldn't stop thinking about all that happened inside the woods. Almost everything was a mystery, all pointing toward one direction. He thought about the claw marks, the paw prints, the strange claw scratches on the body of the victim, and Jasper just showing up out of the blue, from the innermost part of the forest, looking like a mountain caveman.
As Oliver walked down the path, tons of questions ran through his head, all centered on Jasper. He felt it wasn't a coincidence that Jasper was also there. Right from the time he came to Melrose, several incidents seemed to be repeatedly interlinked to Jasper, like pieces of jigsaw puzzles, making each one seem almost impossible to have occurred by chance. He kept on wondering; what was Jasper doing inside the woods all by himself, and why was he covered in dust and dry leaves like a wild animal.