He awakes to a bright light flashing in his eyes, and he squints, using his hand as a shield from it. It felt as though his head was being pressed in by a car's wheel, and he could barely take it. As he tries to remember what happened before he ended up back in bed, only bits and pieces come back to him, none of which help him retrace his steps. He hears commotion downstairs and attempts to get up, but some strange feeling overcomes him and he immediately rushes to the bathroom across from his room, hurling over the toilet.

He felt miserable, a feeling he'd never felt so intensely before in his life. After he flushes down the mess that came from him, he slowly goes back to the bed, practically falling into it. His vision was blurry and he couldn't trust himself to safely make it down the stairs, so he stayed laying there, wondering what brought on such sickness.

Footsteps eventually come up the stairs. Jonathan walks in the room, smiling pitifully at Branden, crossing his large arms. "Hey, how ya feeling?"

"Worse than shit." He puts a hand over his face, sighing.

"You've been sleeping for a while. Do you remember anything?"

"Basically nothing. What happened to me?"

"After you finished working you said you felt a bit cruddy and went inside to rest. I haven't bothered you too much since then, but I wasn't expecting it to get this bad. Can I get you anything? I have tea."

"Tea would be great, thanks." Branden gets under the blanket, resting his head on the pillow and attempting to get some rest. He falls asleep for a few hours, awaking to a mug of cold tea on the bedside table. The sound of a mower comes from outside the window he never closed, and he takes a sip of the tea, which tasted more like iced tea from how long it was sitting for.

He stays in bed for the rest of the day, falling asleep on and off until Jonathan brings him chicken soup, the only meal he would have all day. After he finishes eating, he falls back asleep once more, not waking up again until 12:30 PM the next day.

*****

He groggily gets out of bed to use the bathroom and decides to go downstairs to see what Jonathan is doing. As he walks in the kitchen, he sees Jonathan, sitting at the table and eating a sandwich.

"Hey," he says, rubbing his aching head.

"Oh, hey! Wasn't expecting you to be up. How are you doing?" Jonathan asks with a concerned tone, putting his sandwich down and taking a sip of water.

"A bit better. My head is killing me, though. Do you have any Advil?"

"Yea, there's some in my bathroom. It should be the first thing you see in the medicine cabinet."

"Ok, thanks." After taking a glass of water with him, he heads back upstairs to get the medicine. As soon as he opens the cabinet, he notices it and takes a couple of the pills from the half full bottle. As he is about to leave the bedroom, he notices an odd looking key on the nightstand that brings back a faint memory of him sneaking in the barn and finding a door with a matching keyhole.

He quickly grabs it from the nightstand, walking out of the room and shoving it in his pocket. He gets back in bed, scrolling on his phone for a couple hours before falling asleep and waking up at dinner time. The Advil has kicked in and he feels a bit better, well enough to eat dinner with Jonathan and talk with him for a while.

Branden retires to bed a few hours before he normally would, wanting to wake up extra early to investigate the barn. Jonathan is going out to meet with some of his friends from church and will likely be gone for several hours, so he'll have plenty of time to look around.

*****

The next day, Branden wakes up way later than he was hoping for. It was nearly 1PM and though Branden was feeling better, he still needed to hurry if he was going to get to the barn on time before Jonathan returned home. After getting dressed, he headed downstairs and found a note left on the dining table.

Hey! Hope you're feeling better. I should be back at 2.

All the food in the kitchen is yours for lunch, I'm eating out.

If you could, give the dogs their lunch at 12:30. Thanks!

-Jonathan

Branden looks outside, where the dogs impatiently sit at their food bowls. He quickly feeds them, and heads back upstairs to get the key. He checks the time on his phone, which reads 1:19. He should have enough time. He goes outside, bringing his flashlight with him and opens the door, just as a spider scurries away into the darkness. The horses are in the same spot as before. He flashes the light near the hidden door, dusting away the hay.

He inserts the key into the lock and it fits perfectly, and as he turns it, he wonders what could be inside. Maybe he would find nothing, and this would all turn out to be pointless. Or maybe he'd find something worth asking about. As the shackle come undone, Branden's heart begins to beat faster. He opens the door, and inside is a tight space, similar to a crawl space. It stretches out to about half of the barn, dirt and bugs covering all of it. Just as he was about to shine the light further into it, he hears a car drive over to the house, and quickly rushes outside, after slamming the trap door and barn door shut. He worries if Jonathan will notice that he didn't lock it. Jonathan's car is about to park as he gets back inside, heart beating faster than ever. He attempts to compose himself before going outside to greet Jonathan, who steps quickly up the wooden steps.

"Hey!" He says, stepping out of the way for Jonathan to enter inside.

"Hey! Feeling any better?" He asks as he unties his shoes, placing them on the rug at the entrance.

"Yea, my memory is starting to come back too."

"Oh, great! What do you remember?"

"Oh, just little things. Nothing too important." He replies, subtly eyeing Jonathan.

Jonathan scratches the back of his neck, smiling. "Well, I'm gonna head outside and feed the animals. You're welcome to join me."

"Alright, I'll be out in a bit."

*****

They do a little bit of work before having dinner and dessert, which wasn't as enjoyable as it used to be. The conversations were more uncomfortable and neither had much to add to it, and they both went to bed suspicious of one another.

*****

The next morning, they had breakfast separately, and worked apart from each other. The day felt longer than usual because of the loneliness. Birds chirped and wind blew while they worked, making the trees around them creak like a door as they bent. The barn sits ominously in the center of the property, calling for Branden to enter. Bits of fallen paint reveal the brown wood underneath the dull red. The sky was gray, the sun nowhere to be found.

The screams hadn't happened since Monday, and Branden was starting to wonder if there was even anything to worry about in the first place. The foxes were clearly done bothering them. As the day came to an end, Jonathan said that he needed to go out to run some errands, that he would be gone for a couple hours. He told him that he should stay inside since there were sightings of coyotes around and that he didn't want to risk anything. Branden agreed, even though a small part of him thought he might be lying. He wasn't sure where these suspicious thoughts were coming from.

As Branden walks inside, small drops of rain fall on his arms. He looks up at the sky, which is covered with gray clouds. As he gets inside, the rain comes down more quickly, and within minutes it is pouring, banging the roof and disrupting his sleep. He decided to wait for the rain to pass and watch TV, but as he sits down on the couch, he sees something strange in the corner of his eye.

Through the window, a blur that, from Branden's perspective, looks like a girl running. That makes him stop in his tracks to peer out the window, despite it being pelted by raindrops, it is still clear what Branden is looking at. Her hair is mid length, just below her shoulders, and her clothes, a pair of jeans and a plain blue shirt, are covered in dirt.

He attempts to rationalize what he is witnessing, but can't. He rushes to the back door and out onto the porch, watching as the girl struggles over the wire fence.

He attempts to get her attention without scaring her, but fails.

"Hey!" he yells in the least aggressive tone he can muster, but only scares her further. She turns over briefly, allowing him to get a look at her face. She seems young, no more than eighteen. Her hair is blonde and disheveled. Branden can't help but think she looks similar to someone he's seen before, but isn't sure who. She turns back over, jumps over the fence, and rushes into the forest. He considers running after her, but decides against it, instead grabbing his phone to call 911.

After reporting what he saw, two officers and two search dogs arrive at the property about a half hour after his call. He explains once again what he saw and they both go into the forest with the dogs to search for the girl. They come back nearly an hour later, reporting that they found nothing.

"We'll come back tomorrow with more people to do a more thorough search, but please call again if you see anything else," one of the officers says.

"Okay, I will. Thanks for coming."

"No problem, sir. Have a good night," The other officer says before getting back into their car with the dogs and driving off. A couple minutes after the cops leave, Jonathan returns home, running inside and covering his head with his hands. He gets inside, wiping his boots on the indoor mat and heading into the living room, where Branden is watching TV.

"Hey! I'm back," he says, and Branden turns over, smiling at him.

"Hey! Was wondering when you'd get back," he says, laughing.

"Man, was I really that long?" He replies, chuckling.

"So, I assume nothing terrible happened while I was gone?" He jokes.

Laughing again, Branden replies, "Well, actually, something pretty weird happened."

Frowning, Jonathan asks, "Hm? What happened?"

"Well, I was about to watch some TV, but I saw this girl run into the forest. She seemed really scared and didn't look too old either. So, I called the cops. They came and searched a little but couldn't find anything so they're gonna come back again tomorrow with some more people. Pretty weird, right? It probably won't lead to anything else though, so they won't bother you too much."

Throughout the entire conversation, Jonathan had a look of shock on his face. His eyebrows raised and eyes slightly widened, he asked when this happened.

"Around 7:30, I think."

"Oh, okay. Well, I'm gonna go shower and head to bed. See you tomorrow." He walks off, still with that look of fear on his face.

Branden goes to bed soon after he leaves, and falls asleep confused. He wonders where that girl went.

___________

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Bye (: