"Treasure Series" Book 1: CURSE [[CURRENTLY EDITING]]

Chapter 19: Sam - Cabin Of Secrets

As soon as I heard the screams, I knew something was wrong. First of all, I hadn't even really trusted Anonymous to come at 11:00 and meet Gwen. That's one of the reasons that I hadn't wanted her to come in the first place. Second of all, it looked like someone had been living in the cabin Tanner and I were scouting out. If Anonymous was the one living here, then he could have seen us coming and could have waited for Gwen to be alone, so he could kidnap her. Well, that's where I'm guessing the screams were coming from anyway.

Tanner began to hear the screams, too, and before I could put down the magnifying glass I was using to investigate the cabin, Tanner was already sprinting to the door. He raced across the living room, scuffing his shoe on the oriental carpeting and almost tripping as he did so. He wrenched open the door with one hand, such brutal force piled into his grip that the door almost flew off its hinges in the process. I watched, amazed, as Tanner bolted out of the cabin and ran in the direction of the woods. This moment of mine was short-lived, though, because I knew I had to help Tanner find Gwen and hopefully save her from Anonymous.

By the time I made it outside and began darting across the choppy grass, Tanner was already making his way through the edge of the woods. I desperately tried to catch up to him, so that he wouldn't have to face whatever was out there alone, but he was literally running with super-human speed and I probably wouldn't catch up to him. I didn't stop, though. Even if Tanner reached Gwen before I did, I still needed to eventually get there.

As I pulled back thorn bushes and prickly weeds, I saw Astrid making her way through the woods just twenty-five feet across from me. I shouted out to her and we ran through the woods alongside each other. I tried to keep thorn bushes from whipping her legs and she helped me move through the woods faster. We were a team again. A team. I savored that single thought in my head as I continued to move through the woods.

The trees were in close proximity to each other at this point, and this just made it harder to run in-between them. Although, it did make for good hiding spots. You could easily hide in the midst of the trees, especially when it was dark outside. Maybe that was why Anonymous had been living in that cabin. I mean, he probably knew that we were going to set up that trap in the woods, so he could have been spying on us that night without us even knowing. Then, he would've seen that David hadn't been with us and...how could we have not known? We were so ignorant to think that Anonymous hadn't been one step ahead of us. But, that was why it was called being one step ahead of someone. They're not supposed to know.

As the woods turned into a forest trail, it became a hell of a lot easier to cover ground faster. I picked up some speed, but then I noticed that Astrid wasn't running alongside me anymore, but someone unexpected was standing in front of me just twenty feet across the trail. The moon's light reflected off the woman's hair deeming it a light-gray color when it was actually pitch-black in color. Based on her body posture and her build, I could see it was Gwen. But, that made no sense. Where was Anonymous?

Before I could get a chance to finish my thoughts, she started into a sprint. I didn't suspect this to happen, so it took me a moment to start running as well...except I was running after her this time.

Since I was currently a player on the Dark Falls High football team, running was like a third nature to me. Winning football games was second nature...or was it something else? Well, I didn't really know. I quickly caught up to Gwen, but it wasn't quite enough to catch her.

It seemed Gwen had super-human speed and it never wavered, where mine definitely did. Eventually, I ran out of breath and had to stop, even though by doing so I wouldn't ever be able to catch up to Gwen. I held onto a tree trunk for support, my chest heaving and my heart hammering against it.