"We need a plan," I stated after getting a hold of myself. "If the ghost isn't bluffing, which he probably isn't, we don't have much time. We need to get to town hall like now." Before either of the others could answer, Rita's mom burst into the room.
"Are you kids alright? I need you to come downstairs, so I can keep you three safe. I saw that thing's message. You kids are going to be alright. Your parents will sneak over as soon as they can," she said trying to comfort us. We all gave each other a look as if to be wondering how we could get out of this situation. There was no way I could sit still when my best friend was out there in pain, and we could die along with all of our friends in less than twenty-four hours.
Rita came to the rescue soon enough by saying, "We'll be down soon Mom. We're fine, so you don't have to worry."
"Alright then dearie. Please come down soon." There was a hint of suspicion in her voice but all of us ignored it. As she headed back downstairs, Richard grabbed a notebook and pen from Rita's desk.
"I say we have ten minutes to get out undetected. If we need a plan, we need on right now," Richard whispered in case Rita's mom was listening in.
"We can go through the attic or bathroom window. They both lead to the backyard." Rita chimed in. "Give me a minute to pack a few things that we might need." She grabbed a small backpack and shoved random items from around her room inside.
"How long is it to get to town hall?" asked Richard. "We should also probably put on darker outfits. We aren't dressed right for sneaking around, especially if we don't want to get caught."
"It's all the way across town from here," I answered. "It's about a ten minute drive but a long walk," I answered.
"I feel like you're targeting my sweater," Rita huffed from where she was digging in her drawers. "I'll put on a darker one, don't worry."
"Thank you."
"We can make the rest of the plan on the fly. It's gonna to change a lot anyway. We are on the run for our lives after all," I stated. "Now let's go through the bathroom window, so we don't have a super long when to go."
"How much do you bet the ghost gets stronger the darker it gets?" Rita joked darkly.
"At this point, that's probably reality," I replied before grabbing a few things Rita asked for. Richard quickly scrawled out a note to tell our parents what was going on, knowing they wouldn't be able to stop us in time.
- - -
Around ten minutes, one fall, and two slips later, we reached the backyard and scaled Rita's fence to reach the front without her mom seeing us. The creature thing had deeper into the neighborhood as evident from the faint screams that sounded. We hid and watched my parents sneak into the house, followed by Richard's parents right after. After the door shut, we gave each other a nod before taking off down the street, not wanting to be caught before the adventure (if it could be called that) began. It was only minutes before they would find out anyway. We ran until we reached the trees across the road from the snow covered entrance of the neighborhood. Richard hurriedly looked around the area, panting, before giving us the all clear sign.
"We should walk through the trees as long as we can, so the monster things don't catch," Rita stated as she got her breath back.
"Good plan," I said looking around. "We should probably grab a weapon or two to protect ourselves before we get going." The other two nodded. We all grabbed a stick or some sharp rock that could do some damage if they were attacked. It took a while to sneak through the trees around the edge of town. We were able to reach a small shopping area before being forced to leave the safety of the trees.
"We should probably go get something from the grocery store over there. We need a lot of energy if we want to fight an actual murderer," Richard said as we scoped out the area. As we prepared to run across the street, Rita quickly stopped us.
"Guys," she hissed, "look over there." She pointed over to show us one of the monsters crawling down the side of the building. Before we could hide again, it saw us. It didn't take us long to get ready to fight with our makeshift weapons. Rita pulled out a white crystal from her bag and shoved it into one of Richard's hands.
"I read somewhere that crystals like this deal with angels or something, so you can see if it helps in any way," she explained quickly.
"You know I have no clue of what I'm doing right?" Richard asked. Before Rita could respond, the monster was on us. Rita took a step forward to confront it. As she did, the thing started to change. It sounded like bones breaking and popping as we watched the monster become an insane-looking doctor.
"H̸̩͈̄͑̈́e̵̲͗l̵̝̬͙̓l̶̘̠̓ỗ̵͕ R̶̩̍̀̚i̷̙̰̳̍͋͝ẗ̶͓́͜ă̵͜ S̴̻̯̉̈̇a̶͖͒͠n̴̢͕̠̂d̴̛͉͐͗e̷͍̪̿̈̂r̴̥̓̉͂s̷͇̫̦̈́o̵͖͉̓n̵̨̤͘.̷̭̈́͂͝ I̷͈̐̆̊ a̷̯͋͠ṁ̶̪̈́ y̵̖͓͛̀̊ō̶̱͘ù̸̧͕͕̄̚r̵͈̝͚̀ w̵̘̝̑o̷̡͝r̸͓̊͋͆s̸̰̕t̵͔̝̯̑ f̵̟̫̿è̴͕ͅa̵̞͋́r̶̫͂" Its voice was distorted heavily as it targeted Rita who stood frozen in place. Fear was written all over her face as it slowly grew closer to her. "M̶̧̠̫̉̉͂ḁ̸̔͒͠s̶̘̯͂̕͘͜t̷͚̂̓̎ȩ̵̗̮̈́̊r̷̜͕̄ ẁ̵̙̯̾i̷̢͂l̸̘̕l̸͓̱͆̑̾͜ b̷͔̎ḕ̶̯ p̴̞̎͑͆l̵̢͎̥̆̚e̵̟͝a̶̘̥̫̓̒s̵͎͈̒̕e̵͖̥̊̍d̵̢̝̻̈́ t̴̡̬̾́̆h̶̛̻̥͊a̷̱̯͝t̴͍̽̋ Į̵̓̈ͅ ḥ̶̯̖̎ă̷͈̜̆͜͠ṿ̵̪̍̉͜e̷͎͐̅͘ b̴̗̔r̵̖̹̬̄̓́ó̷̹͚̝͗̔u̷͍̫͕͆͛̚g̵̰͎̈́h̴͉̻̬̀̋t̸̠͉̊̕ y̸͊͌͗ͅo̷̯̗͘u̴̼͗̀ t̴͖̤̪̓̃ŏ̶̭̲ h̸̢͎̅͋̑͜i̶̤̯̬̊̄̀m̵̖̙͊̍ͅ.̶̢̭̈" The doctor suddenly lunged after her with Rita barely diving out of the way in time.
Quickly dipping into the fight, I stabbed at the monster-doctor to give Rita time to stand up. She was able to stand up and get her balance back while it was distracted, so she chucked a rock at its head. While it was stunned, we all attacked with our weapons. Rita was able to hit one of its eyes as it tried to grab her. The blood-like substance that dripping out of the socket was goopy and black, slowly dribbling down its cheek. As I threw myself in for another attack, it slammed me back into a tree. My head collided hard against the tree causing me to black out.
The next thing I knew, someone was touching my face. A small grunt left my mouth as I forced my eyes open. Rita was in my face while Richard was crouched down beside her.
"Are you okay?" I think Richard asked. It was hard to tell with everything out of focus. I tried to answer but nothing came out.
I tried to speak and this time words actually came out. "Head... hurts." Rita quickly dug into her bag and pulled out a small vial of green liquid.
"Drink this. It should help," she said as she placed the vial against my lips. I opened my mouth slightly and le the bitter-tasting liquid run down my throat. After a minute, the dizziness and pain I had felt had disappeared as if nothing was wrong. "Better?"
I gave her a small nod. "What happened?"
"What do you remember last?" Richard asked.
"He was about to attack Rita but attacked me instead. I hit the tree, passed out, and just woke up."
"So you missed Richard's awesome attack?" Rita asked excitedly. I gave her another confused nod. She nudged Richard and motioned for him to speak up.
"A little after you hit the tree, the monster doctor thing grabbed Rita while I was trying to get the crystal to work. When I heard her scream, I chuck the crystal at it. Somehow, it glowed gold and cut the creature. Whatever the thing was turned into a normal looking guy. He told us a bit about our ghost villain before disappearing."
"What did he say?" I asked, standing up with their help. We began walking over to the store we originally were heading to before Richard continued.
"The ghost's name is Sirius. About two hundred years or so ago, our ancestors were the cause of his best friend's death. It seems like he went insane from the grief and began to kill other people. Three people were killed before he was hanged. From what the man said, the victims were all strangled to death. He also mentioned that the crystal was important if it wasn't obvious already at this point."
"Just like the marks on Corvus' neck when we found him," Rita chimed in as we crossed the parking lot.
"He also mentioned that the crystal is important if it wasn't obvious already," Richard finished. We all let the words roll around in our heads, trying to get what they all meant and how they were important, as we entered the store.
The lights were flickering oddly around the building. All of the isles were empty as we headed around to grab a few things to get our energy back up for the final battle we all knew was coming. When we reached the back of the store, someone called out to us. We turned to see an employee beckoning us over to the employees only room, the door open wide which revealed a handful of shoppers who were hiding in the room. Other employees hid in there too, trying to protect themselves from the darkness outside.
"What are you doing out there?" hissed the lady, her name badge showed the name 'Callie.'
Rita beat us to an answer, "We kind of need to get some energy back, so we came here. Sorry we don't have money right now, but we'll pay you back later if that's okay."
"The food really doesn't matter in this situation. I can't let you stay out there. It isn't safe," Callie whispered.
"We know, but we'll be fine. We can take care of ourselves, I promise. Thanks for the concern though ma'am," Rita said as we walked away from the others, so we could head to town hall. As we reached the front door, I noticed the storm had grown in strength. Sleet slammed down against the pavement. Three sets of footsteps echoed from behind us.
"Miles?" asked a familiar voice as the footsteps behind us stopped. "What's going on? What are you planning to do?" Turning around I made eye contact with the one and only Irene Mancon.
"What do you mean?" I questioned praying that she and the others wouldn't want to come with us.
"We were all in the room when we heard Rita. Why aren't you coming to hide? It really is not safe out there," she stated, eyes flicking around the room in fear. "What-what happened to Corvus? I saw the video, Miles. Why the hell was he there? No one else recognized him, but Eveline, Megan, and I could, and you seem to have a whole bunch of answers about what's going on."
"You won't really believe it until you see it, but that thing is definitely not Corvus. Sorry but we really need to get going. We are losing time that is very important right now. I have- no, I need to get my friend back." My voice had a desperate tone by the end as I walked outside to meet back up with Rita and Richard. We carefully began to walk out into the sleet covered roads. We were a couple buildings down when someone shouted for us to wait. I believe it was Megan who called out. We all turned around to see a group of five coming towards us.
"We're coming with you," Hayden declared. "Corvus is our friend too." The three of us gave each other a worried look but nodded anyway. We all knew that if we spent any more time arguing when peoples' lives are at stake as well as our own.
"Grab something that can be a weapon and let's get going. To town hall we go."