My Best Friend's Brother

“How do you like the view Jesse?” I asked my brother as we sat on a cliff overlooking a gorgeous scenery. We could see the many tree tops of the forest, rivers and ponds, meadows, and we could also see the misty mountain tops very far off in the distance.

And to make the view even better the sun was in the perfect place to make the forest and everything in it glow with a slight warm gold color. I

took a bunch of pictures and Jesse and I had a picnic on this perfect cliff. But the sun was going to set soon and I wanted to get back before it was too late and the sun set.

“Come on Jesse we have to get going.” I told my brother who was observing as ant colony who he gave some bread too so he could watch them carry it away.

“But I don’t want to go yet.” He whined pouting in my direction

“I know Jess I don’t want to leave either but if we don’t leave we will be stuck out here if the dark all night.” He thought about it and decided to help pack up.

“Can this be our secret place Am? I mean a place where just the two of us could go to hang out?” Jesse asked looking up from the paper plates and plastic forks he was picking up from our picnic.

“Of course Jesse, a place just for us.” I told him smiling at his idea. I glanced down at the map to trace the path back to the main trail and back to where our car is.

We started walking and looking around for land marks.

We saw a few but we haven’t come across any in a while. That was weird because we were marking off land marks ever few minutes when we were coming up so we wouldn’t get lost. But we hadn’t seen any in like ten minutes.

I stopped and Jesse bumped into me.

“What’s wrong Am?” He asked clutching my leg and looking around for danger.

“Do you remember the last land mark we can across?” I asked him looking up at the darkening sky.

“Yes it was the weirdly shaped tree it looked like someone was thrown into it.” He said.

“Right, do you remember which one came after that?” I asked glancing back down at him.

“Um no sorry” He apologized following my gaze up to the sky. I turned around to face the way we came and started walking back. After a while we still didn’t see the strange tree and I started to get a bit worried. I checked my cell for service but there was none. I sighed and hid my worry from my brother so that he wouldn’t freak out.

I didn’t notice the change in the ground level and my foot fell into a ditch and twisted into an unnatural angle and I heard a snap. It took a second to register the pain that shot up my legs and brought me to the ground biting my tongue to hold back a deafening scream.

Jesse rushed to my side panicking “AMETHYST ARE YOU OK? OH NO YOU ANKLE LOOKS BAD! CAN YOU WALK? WE ARE GOING TO DIE OUT HERE!!!” he cried.

I grabbed his arms roughly and hissed through the pain “Jesse please calm down”

He immediately stopped wailing and looked at me. I took a few deep breaths again and sat up right trying to ignore the almost unbearable pain throbbing in my lower leg.

“OK we have to get help or we could be in a lot of trouble.” As soon as I said that the bushes by a tree a few yards away started to move and I could see the front paws of a black bear. Things just get worse and worse for us right now.

I pull Jesse close to me and tell him to be very quiet and still. The bear stepped out into the clearing but paid no attention to us. It ate some berries off of the bush and started to leave.

I still held Jesse close and had my hand clamped over his mouth as we watched the bear walking away. When I thought it was far enough away I sighed happily but then one of the worst things that could happen at that moment happened.

My phone made that high pitched shrill noise that happens when you had a lower battery and scared the bear. It turned around and charged at us. Jesse screamed and clung to me.

“RUN JESSE!!” I yelled pushing him away and grabbing the long bladed pocket knife I always carried with me.

Jesse ran and hid behind a nearby tree and I watched the bear as its large paws got closer and closer to me. At the exact moment it lifted its heavy paw to attack I rolled underneath it and stabbed it in the chest where its heart would be and dragged the knife across its chest and stomach. The animal’s blood squirted all over me but I didn’t stop until the now squealing animal slowed down.

It stepped back and cracked my already injured leg. It was losing a lot of blood fast and now it tried to crawl away from me but it dragged myself over to it and cut its neck killing the bear quickly and putting it out of its misery.

I was breathing heavily because the pain of the bear stepping on my already injured leg was becoming unbearable and I started to see dark spots in my vision.

“Jess?” I called to my whimpering brother who now ran to my side crying uncontrollably.

“Jesse you have to calm down and get help.” I told him softly as the darkness continued to try and bring me down.

“How? I don’t know where to go.” He whimpered holding my hand even though it was still covered in the bear’s blood.

“I know but we have to get out of here” I whispered almost blacking out. He could say anything he just looked up and whispered to someone

“Please help her” I didn’t have the energy to look at who it was but I heard a soft familiar voice say “Of course” just before the blackness took over.