Perfection.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Six

W e d n e s d a y. . .

We rush through the darkness of the trees. I nearly run into a few of them, but Dominic makes sure to keep me on trail. We nearly stumble into Logan. He's crouched down over something. His grey shirt barely stands out in the dark.

"Logan, what's wrong? We heard a yell." I say, but then I notice what he's looking at. Ramian lies in the patch of flowers.

"I...I don't know what happened.We split up...f-for just a minute." He struggles. I sit next to Logan and peer at Ramian. I lean over him and put two fingers against his neck.

"His heartbeat is faint. What happened?" I ask.

"I don't know, I..I wasn't here. We decided to split up to search better and he...I heard the yell. When I got here he was passed out in these flowers." Logan stammers.

I stare at Ramian for a moment. Then I notice something else. I lean close to him, my ear near his face. I stay quiet for a few minutes before panic floods through me. I sit up quickly.

"He isn't breathing." I say.

"What?" Logan asks, his face going paler than it already was. Dominic sits next to me and peers at the flowers.

"I know you're a photographer, but it's not the time to admire the flowers. We need to find out why he isn't breathing." I say.

"These are poppies." Dominic says silently.

"Poppies?" Logan asks.

"Wait, those flowers that make it hard to breath?" I ask.

"Yes." Dominic says, panic slowly showing in his face.

"We have to move him." I say. Logan and Dominic share a glance before each of them move to one side of Ramian. I hear footsteps and turn to see Raven and Kate make their way over to us.

"What's going on?" Kate asks. I open my mouth to speak, but then the Earth rumbles. We all stumble onto the ground.

"What the heck was that?" Raven says, but before any of us can answer it rumbles more. I curl up into a ball waiting for it to stop. When it finally does I sit up slowly.

"Is it over?" Logan's voice reaches my ears.

"I think s-" Dominic is cut off by the rumbling again, but then a loud ripping sound is heard. I sit up quickly and look around in the blackness. I don't see anything for a few moments. Then someone lets out a scream. A large worm like thing rises out a hole in the ground. The hole covers where the patch of poppies was. I scramble to get away from it and bump into someone. I spin around. Dominic sits there and looks down at me. He grabs my arm and helps me up. We stumble away from the large worm. I look around for my friends, but it's too dark to see them. Suddenly, the large worm lights up with bright orange mushrooms. A large opening cracks and teeth, razor sharp, stab out of what I think is its mouth. It lets out a deafening roar.

"Time to go." Dominic says and yanks me out of there.

"But Ramian. He's still out." I say yanking back. Dominic looks at me, then back the way we came, and then back at me. He lets out a sigh.

"Stay here." He says and races back towards the glowing worm. I can see it clearly from where I stand, but I can't see anyone else. I wait impatiently, hoping everyone is okay. The anxiety strengthens and I know I can't just stand here. I race back towards the beast. I spot Logan trying to drag Ramian away from the creature as it slithers out of its hole. Logan cries out as the worm lays on his leg. He starts to tug on his own leg. Raven and Kate stand further away, too shocked to move. Dominic is trying to distract the creature. I rush in towards Logan. The beast screeches at me and I duck before it knocks me out. I notice a weird gas-like substance oozing out of the mushrooms coating the worm.

"Don't breathe!" I yell at Logan suddenly.

"What?" He asks.

"The mushroom, poppy gas!" I exclaim. He glances at the body part that's stuck on his leg. His eyes widen and he looks away taking a deep breath of fresh air. I crouch and try to move quickly to Logan. I begin to help yank his leg from out under the worm. We finally manage to free his leg. Raven and Kate have finally moved over to us and are trying to shove the worm back into the hole without getting bit. I struggle to help pull Ramian away from the worm.

The worm lets out the loudest screech yet and shrivels back to its hole. A small sense of relief floods through me, but then in a quick movement, before any of us can move, the creature drags Ramian down with it.

"No!" Logan yells out. A gasp escapes me as the ground closes after the worm is gone. Logan scrambles to where the hole was and begins to dig, "Give him back! Give him back!"

I stumble over to Logan, tears filling my eyes, "He's gone." I mutter, but Logan keeps pounding at the ground as he sobs. I hold onto Logan, trying to calm him. He turns to me and pulls me into a hug. He sobs silently as I hold him tightly.

"I'm so sorry." I murmur as tears flood down my cheeks. This is too much death. I can't handle it. Why hasn't Dominic changed the world yet? Why can't I remember any of this from before? What is going on?

Dominic, Kate, and Raven stand near us in silence. None of us move for a very long time until we really can't see anything, but glowing orange mushrooms lighting up areas of the forest.