Chapter 18: Chapter 18

She stopped walking fast, bending on her knees on the granite floor, and cried into her palms, as she still could not believe what Danni said to her.

After few minutes of crying, she continued walking to the other house, and opened the door; the smell of dust hit her nose strongly, so she coughed.

Pointing the torch around, she took a deep breath, "OK Anjali, you can do this,” she told her herself speaking Hindu.

She entered, pointing the torch around to find the meters.

Inside she heard a sound like someone dropped something on the floor, and ignored the sound. The woods creaked behind her, when she looked behind her but saw no one; she shrugged it off, before she found what she was looking for and saw a wire had loosen or cut either way, that showed why the light went off.

She dropped the torch on the floor so she could fix it, checking she figured out how to adjust the wire. On fixing it and the lights came on.

Cheering herself, she said, "I'm a genius."

As she was about to leave, she noticed a shadow like figure running in front of her, and jumped back.

"That was fast, Danni, Stacie" she called out but received no answer.

"Its not funny and I'm still mad at you," she said.

Turning around she saw the four out of eight unusual people standing in front of her, and wished the ground would open up to swallow her; she would choose that over this hungry dead eyes.

Frightened, she walked backwards some inches away from them, turning around she ran fast, just as she was about to open the door to lunge outside, another figure held her neck and hit her head on the door.

Thus she lay on the floor unable to move or speak, blood trickled down her forehead, running down the side of her face and her neck, and it stained her white top. Death faced her and no one was there to save her, and she thought of everyone she'd loved truly including Danielle. Tears formed in her eyes, concussed eyes closed she fell into unconsciousness.

"Ivan! Ivan!! Ivan!!" Patrick called out on top his voice, they've walked deep into the forest, pointing the torchlight here and there, they all stood in front of the flower Ivan had admired and plucked before.

Ezekiel called out his name once more, the name reverberating through the forest, Ivan heard, he recognized the voice at once, he shouted his name too, they heard, this time they called his name together.

Ivan tried to trace where he heard their voice from, he ran to the direction his mind led him on, and kept on running screaming their name, hoping he could use it to find his way.

Louie understood what Ivan tried to do, so he told his friends not to move away from where they were instead, they should keep calling his name.

After calling his name for only the heavens knows how many times, Ivan busted right in front of them, breathing heavily.

"Thank you guys," his voice merely came out as a whisper.

"You fucking scared me, how could you?" Patrick said, after his palm had connected with his face.

"I'm sorry, I was just taking a stroll," he explained, his cheeks still stinging from the slap.

"Let's go home, you'll settle it when we get back to the house" Ezekiel told Patrick and Ivan.

“Why is she not back yet, the light's been on for ten minutes now and the guys are still not back yet.” Stacie said. She felt uneasy about what had transpired, and would not have acted stupid, if she had gone out with the rest.

They should be back by now. It was getting late. Stacey Stood in the middle of the living room, folding her arms over her chest. Danielle on the other hand had sat down, still feeling bad.

“ Let's go look for her," Danni said looking outside, the unusual people are not there instead she saw the guys heading over to the house.

"They're coming!!!" She screamed and ran out, Stacie following her behind. They hugged one another bombarding Ivan with questions.

"I'm fine Danni" he would reply.

"Where's Ruth?" Jasper asked with a stern tone.

"Err" Stacie stuttered, she explained to the boys what had happened including what Danielle said to Ruth and how sorry they were.

"Seriously Danni, seriously, how could you say such things?" Ezekiel asked and was angry.

Louie hissed and put his hands on his waist, stopping Stacie from coming any closer to him.

Jasper didn't wait to hear anymore, he ran towards the barn house, the rest of their friends ran after him. Opening the door he found his girlfriend on the floor, in blood and they couldn't stop him from screaming.

He knelt down holding her "Baby!" He called, placing his head on her chest, and she was breathing faintly. Feeling her pulse, he exclaimed, "She's still alive."