Caught in the Middle- Chapter 1

Sam


Sam sighed as put on his glasses and looked at his phone. The light from the screen was blinding at 2 AM, but it woke him up with all its buzzing. He knew something must’ve happened. In fact, he had a pretty good idea of who it involved too- The same two idiots as always.

When he looked at the messages it was a series of texts from all his friends. Lexi, Tristan, Ian, Ryan... Heck even Sarah had messaged him a couple of times. They were all saying the same thing.

Ben and Josh got into another fight .

He groaned, but put on a sweater anyways. Looking at the texts, he found out that they were at the abandoned skate park in the forest. That place always gave him the chills. He hoped they didn’t kill one another again. Reviving was quick but it did leave a mark every time you did it. And lately those two had been dying a lot.

The saddest part was they were best friends once.

As Sam drove to the outskirts of town where the arena was, he wondered what went wrong. They were so close before. Sure they were a bit competitive with each other, but never like this.

Something changed the summer after they ran off together. Nobody knew exactly what happened, but Sam had his theories. Just like everyone else. Even if they did say they’d never tell the story, it was pretty obvious they had a romantic getaway. But something else happened too. And that was what kept him up some nights.

He stopped thinking after he got to the forest. He grabbed a lantern and a water bottle from the trunk and walked to the concrete graveyard.

“Benjamin! Josh! Where are you guys?!” He yelled into the night. No answer. He shivered. He’d have to go inside to find them.

Luckily the lantern gave off enough light so he wouldn’t be completely terrified. There were animals out here. He wasn’t prepared to deal with spiders or raccoons. If a bear showed up, he was dead

“Ben? Josh?” he asked again as he walked through a hole in the side of the white quartz wall of the arena.

When he stepped inside he saw someone sitting by one of the crumbling ramps.

“Oh! Sam, you made it!”

He ran over to where Ben was. He set the lantern on the ground.

“Dude! Where’s Josh?” He asked as he looked around.

his expression dropped and he looked away. “I dunno. Probably revived back at his house. How am I supposed to know?”

Sam sighed. “You killed him again?! Why?”

He rolled his eyes. “He was being a jerk again. I couldn’t not fight him.” Ben looked back at Sam. “How did you even know we were out here? Thought you were fast asleep by now.”

“I was.” Sam answered as he crossed his arms, “Got a million texts from the others saying you two were out here that woke me up.”

“Why didn’t one of them come out to stop us then?” Ben chuckled.

Sam was getting frustrated. Then he stopped to think about it. Why was he the only one everyone texted to stop them? He wasn’t even the closest in proximity. Ryan lived closer to the forest than him.

“I don’t know!” He answered after a moment. He handed Ben the water bottle. “But I wasn’t about to let you two kill each other again. Although clearly I was too late for that...”

Ben gulped down the drink and smiled. “Well at least you came and saved me. I was about to faint and forgot to bring caffeine.”

“What?!” Sam asked. Ben nodded. “Yeah. If a Bear or something attacked me I would’ve been dead too. And then I would’ve lost this...

He smiled as he pulled out Josh's prized pocketknife out of his pocket.

“What the heck, Ben!?” He yelled as he snatched it and put it in his own pocket. “You know how much that means to him!”

The taller guy scoffed, “Well I gave it to him, I can take it back too.”

Sam couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“No!” He yelled as he grabbed his hand and began dragging him back to the car.

“No what?” he asked as he followed Sam.

“We are going to Josh’s place. I’m giving this back and you two are going to apologize to each other.”

Ben pulled his hand away. “What?! No!”

Sam turned around. “Why not? I’m sick and tired of you two fighting all the time! You two were best friends, what happened?!”

He didn’t answer the question. Instead he glared and pulled out a knife. “Don’t move, Sam.”

He froze. Was he really going to kill him for asking a question? He didn’t want to die! Even if he would come back. Ben ran at him. He closed his eyes and braced for the pain.

But it never came. instead a shriek came from behind him, and he turned around to see a raccoon scurrying away.

“Wh-wha-” Sam began to say.

Ben put away his knife

“There was a 'coon.” He explained.

The shorter man nodded without saying a word. They walked the rest of the way to the car in silence.

When they got in he put the key in the ignition and started the car. Ben leaned back in his seat.

“Alright. Back home!” He exclaimed, “I’m tired out.”

Sam shook his head. “No way. You can’t go to sleep yet. We’re going to Josh's house.”

This time he didn’t fight. He just groaned.

“You can’t make me apologize.” He muttered.

Sam sighed. “Maybe not. But you’re still coming with me to return his knife.”

Benjamin huffed. “Fine. You remember how to get there?”

Sam nodded. “Yeah.”

And with that, he turned his car around and went deeper into the forest.