*A/N: So... I am sick, at home and utterly bored... And somehow I have gained a lot of reads today o.O Which I'm really happy about!! :D So yeah, here's a chapter
:3 And of course the handsome dorks at the side <3
I groaned as light filled my room and a random, as it seemed, song started to play quite loudly. It took me some time to comprehend that it was my tone for getting a message.
Once I did though, I sat up immediately and grabbed my phone from my nightstand, unlocking the new gotten message. I didn't even bother to look at the time, though I had no idea what time it could be, and waited not so patiently for my slow phone to open the message.
"Hmm, whatya doin'?" Ashton mumbled sleepily from next to me, obviously woken up by either my phone or me.
"I got a message." My voice was rough and it was barely a whisper, but it was clear enough because not a minute later, as my eyes were scanning the first words, Ashton shot up.
"What?!" I read the message completely, before dropping the phone in Ashton's lap and jumping from my bed, running to the bathroom to start changing. I changed into the simple sweats and sweater that were on the edge of my bathtub and ran back into my room, to see Ashton still reading the message.
"Ashton, get up! I'll go and wake Mike and Cal." I told him, before running off to their rooms. I banged on Calum's door, shouting something along the lines of "Get up we have to go.", before moving on to Michael's door and doing the same, ignoring the feeling like it was 3 AM.
"Whaaatt?" A sleepy Calum asked me from his door.
"I said; WE HAVE TO GO." I yelled, running back to my room to retrieve my phone. Once there I saw my phone on my bed and no Ashton. I grabbed my phone and took off to the hallway to put on my shoes as the boys were doing whatever.
"MICHAEL GET OUT OF BED!" I heard Calum yell, before Ashton came jogging into the hallway.
"Laylay, what are you doing?" I raised my eyebrows as I got up.
"What does it look like?"
"No, I won't let you come. It can be dangerous and I don't want you to get hurt or anything that way."
"Ashton! I know you don't want that, but I'm perfectly fine with looking out for myself! I survived three rescue missions so far, nothing is going to happen." I told him, as I got up. I made my way back into the living room, where Calum came stumbling in as he was putting on his shirt.
"I hope you do realize it's only half past three." A half asleep Michael grumbled as he entered the living room in some sweats and a shirt.
"I don't care!" I told him, even though I somewhere did because I was starting to feel tired and jittery, something I always had when I had to get up this early, which didn't happen often though.
"Where's Ash?" Calum asked, as he made his way to the hallway. "Never mind." He then called.
Michael followed and then me, watching as the boys quickly put on their shoes.
We left the house not too long after and I immediately walked to the car.
"Wait, where do we have to go to?" Calum asked, before unlocking the car and getting in.
"The woods." I told him, as Michael and I got in the car as well, in the back.
Once we were all settled, Calum drove the car away from the house and to the woods.
"Why do we have to get up at half past three in the morning to go to the woods?" Michael asked, as he rubbed his eyes.
"I got a message and it said that we had to go to the woods and we would get our first hint there." It sounded as vague as it did when I had read it for the first time.
"First?" Calum asked, looking briefly at me through the rear-view mirror.
"Yeah?" I asked, unsure what he meant.
"So, there are gonna be more hints?" He then asked, now only looking at the road in front of him.
"Oh..." I mumbled as I realized what he had meant. Yay.
"Don't worry. We're gonna find Luke, no matter what." Ashton ensured us. I simply nodded, as Calum still concentrated on the road and Michael seemed to be drifting in and out of sleep.
~*~
The car ride, which hadn't been long, had been silent, no one really knowing what to say as we were slowly approaching our destination. Once we reached the small parking lot near the woods, Calum quickly 'parked' the car and we all got out.
"Maybe we should split up." Calum immediately suggested, as I was helping the half asleep Michael out of the car.
"Then I'm with Laylay." Ashton said as soon as possible and leaving no room for argument.
"I'll go with Michael then and we'll just... Go left and right?" Calum said, as I patted Michael on the shoulder before walking to Ashton, who was already looking left.
"Let's go." I said, walking left.
"Wait!" Calum yelled, before jogging a little closer and tossing something to Ashton. Ashton then took something from his pocket and tossed it to Calum. Calum then walked back to Michael and soon enough they were going the other way as Ashton and I had taken left.
"What did he toss to you?" I asked Ashton, looking up to him as he was walking beside me, now with a flashlight in his one hand. He held up a familiar walkie talkie with his other hand and then hooked it on his sweats.
"Do you know what we are looking for?" Ashton asked me, as he scanned the surroundings, shining here and there with the flashlight.
"Well, you read the message as well so you know it didn't say more than just 'there you will find a hint'." I told him, looking around me as well in the hope to spot something.
"Guys? Can you hear me?" Calums voice asked from the walkie talkie. Ashton grabbed it immediately and we stopped walking.
"Yeah we hear you. What's it?"
"We found this paper and... well, it looks like it is a part of a map. I don't really know."
"Where did you find it?" Ashton asked, as he looked around him, copying my actions.
"It was pinned to a tree." It stayed silent as I bit my lip while scanning the surroundings. "Wait. We found the other part! Okay fine, you found it Michael, whatever."
"Calum?"
"Yeah?"
"It doesn't matter who found it, what we want to know is what's on it." Ashton said, briefly looking at me before gesturing we should walk a further.
"I told you, it looks like a part of a map. Both do."
"But what kind of map? Like, what for?"
"It looks like a lot of trees, so we're guessing it's the map of the woods here." It sounded weird and logical at the same time, I mean, maybe it would somehow lead us to Luke. I grabbed Ashton's hand to talk into the walkie talkie.
"Calum, does it have any directions on it or something? Anything that can tell you where to go?"
It took a moment before he answered, "No, only the woods with some open spots and stuff."
"Make sure you know where on the map you are Calum, don't get lost, this could help." Ashton told him, before hanging the walkie talkie on his sweats again.
"Do you think we will find anything here?" I asked him, as we continued to walk around the woods in the direction we had been walking in already.
"I'm not sure, but it could be." He answered, grabbing my hand and continuing to look around as we continued the walk in silence.
It didn't take too long before I spotted something in a tree. I pulled Ashton towards the tree and pointed up. He let go of my hand and walked around the tree, looking up and probably figuring out a way to get the thing without hurting himself.
"If you would give me a boost I could reach it." I told him, standing near the tree now and looking up.
"Are you sure? I don't-"
"Yes Ashton, now come on and give me a boost. No one will get hurt." I said, as I lifted one foot up already. He took a deep breath before lowering and placing his hands underneath my foot.
"Ready?" He asked me and I nodded, before feeling weightless as he lifted me. I grabbed onto the first steady branch that was near me and pulled myself on it, as it was large enough to hold me.
"Please be careful!"
"I will Ashton, now don't make me nervous." I told him, as I slowly got up with the help of the trunk. I steadied myself and made sure my hand never left the trunk, as I reached for the small white piece of paper that seemed to be pinned to a branch above me. I could just reach it and ripped it from the pin, before letting myself sit down on the branch again.
"I got it!" I told Ashton as I looked down. I immediately felt my fear of falling come up and looked at the branch in front of me as I muttered, "Oh dear."
"Great! Now come back down please?"
"It's... It's kind of high." I told him, not taking my eyes off the branch in front of me.
"I can and will catch you Laylay. You know that." I took a deep breath and looked at Ashton. I couldn't really see him that well since it was quite dark, but I knew our eyes were locked.
"Just jump or let yourself fall." He told me and I took another deep breath, before swinging my left leg to the other side of the branch and letting myself slide off the branch, right into Ashton's arms. I let the deep breath go and hugged Ashton briefly as I tried to get rid of the shivers that were running down my spine.
"Thanks." I told him, as we let go of each other and I took a look at the note in my hand as Ashton shone on it with the flashlight. "I don't get this; K12."
We both stared at the note in silence, before Ashton suddenly grabbed his walkie talkie. "Calum? Do you hear me?"
I frowned as I watched Ashton and waited for Calum to reply.
"Yeah?"
"The map, does it have numbers and letters on it to indicate a place or something?"
"Yeah like an atlas has. Why?"
"You have to go to K twelve." I suddenly got what he meant and started scanning my surroundings again, hoping I might find another paper.
"On our way!" Calum answered, before Ashton hooked the walkie talkie to his sweats again and looked at me. I just looked back, unsure of what we had to do.
"We're there, now what?" Calum's voice suddenly said.
"That's fast." Ashton answered.
"We were nearby. Now what do we look for?" Ashton looked at me and I shrugged.
"We have no idea. Probably a note or something." It stayed silent again, while we could only assume Calum and Michael were searching for something like a note.
"So... What do we do?" I asked Ashton, not really liking the silence. He only shrugged though, as he looked around once more, shining with his flashlight at some trees.
"We found something!" Michael told us through the walkie talkie, which was immediately in Ashton's hands.
"What is it?"
"Well, Calum is currently in a tree and grabbing it, but it seems to be a note."
"It's in a tree?" Ashton asked, as he looked at me again. It wasn't coincidence then, was it?
"Yeah. Wait... Calum, be careful! Yeah okay... Calum is coming down." Michael told us, before silence settled in for a moment again.
"It says; from where you found the note that lead you here, continue into the woods until you find a deer."
"And how are we supposed to find a deer?" Ashton asked them, but probably me as well.
"Maybe you shouldn't take it like a real deer. Maybe it's a metaphor or a drawing or something."
"I think Ally is right Ash, just go and look for it, we'll make sure we know where we are and all."Calum told us, before we told them "okay" and walked into the woods.
It was creepy and dark and all I could think of was that creepy game Michael once showed me. The name had 'man' in it and it was just really creepy, no matter how fake it looked. I knew that thing didn't really exist and couldn't jump from behind a tree or something, but I still felt the need to look around me at all times.
Ashton let out a sigh as he shone on all the trees and stuff while still walking. "I really wonder what we are looking for."
"A deer, or just anything that seems like it. Try to keep that in mind." He let out another sigh after I told him that and it was kind of discouraging. I didn't say anything though, I just kept scanning the surroundings in the hope to find a deer. Or anything like a deer. Great.
"Wait a second." I stopped and turned around to see Ashton standing a few feet away, looking at something on his right side. He squinted his eyes and starting walking the way he had been looking, slowly.
"Ash..." I quickly made my way towards him, afraid to lose him, again, and followed him as he made his way towards some light. It was a very small and vague light, but Ashton had seen it.
As we got closer, it got a little brighter and once we arrived where the light was, we saw a huge mass of leaves, probably covering whatever was giving off this light. Ashton started pushing the leaves and I quickly helped him, eventually revealing a deer made out of light, like one of those you put in your garden around Christmas.
"Guys, I think we found the deer." Ashton told the others through the walkie talkie. I looked at the deer, in the hope there would be a note attached to it, but no such luck.
"Great! And now?"
"It doesn't seem to have a clue."
"It talks?" Michael's voice asked us in surprise and I had to laugh softly.
"What? No. There isn't a clue here by the deer."
"Oh." Well, that sounded a little like someone was disappointed.
I looked at the deer and let my hand go over the lights it existed of, from its back to its nose. The nose was bright red and it was a little weird I only saw it now. As if on cue, the red nose turned off and stayed off. I frowned and stood in front of the deer, inspecting its nose. It seemed to be a normal light, only a little bigger than the other lights and red instead of the normal soft yellow.
"Lay, what do- I found it!" I looked up to see Ashton walk past me. I turned around and saw he ripped a note from a tree that was not too far behind me.
"Guys! I found the note! It says M nine." Ashton told the other two boys through the walkie talkie.
"Got it!" Calum answered, before silence overtook us again. I yawned and sat down on the grass, not sure what else we were supposed to do.
"I'm not sure how long this is going to take, but I don't think we should stay here." Ashton said, looking around.
"We don't really have a choice if you ask me. I mean, we don't know where we have to go to and it could take ages for them to reach nine M." I said, lying down in the grass and looking up to the trees that were filled with leaves.
"Is it okay if I check the nearby area a little?" I looked at Ashton, who stood next to the deer and was looking at me.
"As long as you don't wander off too far and come back when the boys found something." Wow, that sounded quite mother-like. He gave me a small smile, before walking to the path we had come from. I focused my view on the trees above me again, this time locking eyes with light blue eyes that seemed to give off light. They also seemed familiar, but I couldn't think of where I had seen them before.
The screeching of an owl scared me a little, but I soon found out the blue eyes belonged to an owl as they had disappeared while the sound of wings clapping spread through the air above me. I never knew owls could have eyes like that. They were beautiful though.
I somehow ended up dozing off in the not so cold night, to be woken up by a little worried looking Ashton. I sat up immediately, looking at him and waiting for him to explain why he looked a little worried.
"Are you okay?"
"Uh, obviously? Why are you asking that?"
"I saw someone near you, I thought they had knocked you out or something." My eyes widened a little at the thought someone could have done anything to me when I had been sleeping and I frantically looked around me, even though there was no one but Ashton and me.
"It's okay Laylay. I think I scared them off, whoever it was." I looked at him and simply nodded, not sure what else to do or say, once again.
Ashton helped me up and then took the walkie talkie in his hand.
"Calum, can you repeat what you just said? For Alaya."
"Sure. It said; Go back to the straight path you were following until a field tells you what to do." Calum's voice told us from the walkie talkie. I nodded, mostly to myself, before looking at Ashton. We didn't have to say anything, we just started walking back to where we had come from to continue down the straight path we had been following so far.
"What do you think we will find?" Ashton asked me. I shrugged as I looked forward, hoping to see a field appearing already, but it probably wouldn't for a little while.
"A field. Flowers. Probably trees." He chuckled and shone the light in front of us. I looked up to see the sky was still as dark as when we had left the house.
"Calum told me there was an open spot not all too far from where he thinks we are." Ashton informed me, flashing the light to his right quickly as if he had heard something, while continuing to walk.
This day, for so far it was a day of course, seemed to be long and quite boring. Oh, and exhaustive.
We walked quite some time, in silence, before we found a quite large field to our left. It was a nice field with mostly tall grass and some flowers here and there. And the best thing was when you looked up, you could see the starry sky.
I breathed in the air that seemed just a little fresher here and let out the deep breath I had taken. It was really a nice place.
"Okay, we're here, what do you think we should do now?" I bit my lip as I scanned the surroundings, though I didn't see too much.
"Just look around for something?" I said with a shrug as I started to walk through the field, looking down as if there could be something in the grass. Ashton walked to the side of the field and looked at the trees, probably hoping to find a note pinned to or in a tree again.
I suddenly, and actually a little randomly, thought of something. The first note I had found, was in a tree, quite high. Then Calum had to get in a tree as well to get a note. Later on we found the note lower on the trunk. Did they too?
"Ash?"
"Yeah?" He turned around to look at me, his head tilted a little.
"Where exactly did the boys find that last note?"
"On a tree."
"Like, on the trunk? At eye level or higher?"
"Uh, I don't know?"
"Can you ask them?" He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment, before obliging and asking the boys through the walkie talkie where exactly they had found the note.
"On eye level." He told me after one of the boys had answered. I nodded and continued to look in the grass. The notes had gone from up in the tree, to eye level and probably to even lower now. So if my theory was right, the note would either be in the grass, or just really low on the tree.
"Ash, try and look at the ground." I told him as I continued to look at the grass.
"Why?"
"Just do it." He didn't respond to that so I simply assumed he continued to look for a note, just like I was doing.
By now I already had had about half the field, or maybe a little less since it was quite a big field, and Ashton had checked a quarter of the trees surrounding this field.
I let out a sigh and was about to sit down in the middle of the field and just pluck at the grass, when I looked at a tree left from where we had entered the field and saw something white poke up against the trunk and just above the tall grass.
"There!" I exclaimed as I ran towards the piece of paper pinned to the lowest part of the tree. Ashton followed me and soon enough we were both reading the letter and number on the note.
"Guys! Go to M three." Ashton said into the walkie talkie, getting an 'ok' quite quick.
"This is getting a little annoying." I admitted. We already had had five notes by now and all we were doing was going deeper into the woods at two sides of it.
"I know, but just keep in mind that we're doing this for Luke." Ashton told me.
"I know..." I said as I let out a sigh and we both sat down in the middle of the field. I plucked some grass and let the soft wind blow it from my open hand.
"And you do know everything is going to be okay, right?" I didn't look up as I felt Ashton's eyes on me.
"I know..." Wow, I sound hopeful.
"Laylay, come on." He grabbed my hand, the one that hadn't been plucking grass and letting the wind blow it away, making me look up slowly. "Everything will be okay. Nothing will happen, you will be fine. You already saved three of us, one completely on your own. We, and mostly you, can do this."
I let out a sigh and scooted over, wrapping my arms around him in a tight hug. He hugged me back just as tightly.
~*~
"Ashton? Ally?" We both sat up and Ashton grabbed the walkie talkie.
"Yeah?"
"We found the note! It says; Continue straight on again. Be like Alice and find the rabbit hole, but also be the rabbit and don't be too late."
"Well, that sounds promising." I said, getting up and wiping the grass off my sweats, as Ashton did the same.
"Let's just jog this time and look as good as we can. A rabbit hole won't be easy but also shouldn't be that hard." I shrugged as we walked back into the woods and onto the 'path' we had been following so far. We started jogging in the opposite direction of where we had come from, while we looked around for rabbit holes. You had to look good to see a rabbit hole and the flashing light Ashton held, didn't help a lot. I looked mostly left and Ashton mostly right, as we just continued to jog in silence. Once again, this was quite a boring day...
"How much further do you think we have to go?" I asked Ashton, as I hoped the answer would be 'not too far', but obviously we couldn't know.
"I hope not too far." Well, close enough.
"Wait." We both stopped immediately as Ashton shone the light to his right, walking a little closer.
"Is it a rabbit hole?" I asked him, stepping towards him and looking over his shoulder. There, in the ground, was indeed a rabbit hole.
"Yeah, but there's no note here."
"Maybe... You know... In the hole?" Ashton raised his eyebrows for a moment, before reaching into the hole. It was quite the funny thing to see.
"There's nothing in- Ouch!" He quickly removed his hand from the hole and held it in his other hand.
"What happened?" I asked, looking at his hand, where you could see a small wound on one of his knuckles.
"I think a rabbit just bit me!" I bit my lip, trying not to laugh, as I inspected the wound.
"It doesn't seem like much."
"Pff. I don't like rabbits anymore." Now I laughed. I didn't stop myself and didn't exactly stop when Ashton pouted at me. That actually only made me laugh more.
"Ugh, I'll just go and find another rabbit hole." He mumbled, continuing to search the area near this rabbit hole. My laughter died down and I followed his actions, searching for other rabbit holes.
"Here!" Ashton exclaimed. As I reached him he held up a note, which seemed a little dirty.
"Great! Now, what does it say?" Ashton grabbed the walkie talkie and held it up.
"Guys! We got the note. It says; Currently you're in E three, but you have to get to I five. Find your way."
"Where are you?"
"E three."
"Okay. And we had to get to?"
"I five."
It stays silent for a moment, before Calum speaks again. "You guys just go right and walk straight on until you find us."
"Right from where we came from?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, see you soon." Ashton hooked the walkie talkie on his sweats again and we started walking towards where we were supposedly meeting the boys.
~*~
"Ally! Ash!" I looked up from the ground to see two very familiar boys making their way through the bushes towards us.
"Hi guys." I smiled as they reached us and hugged us both quickly. Even though we hadn't been that far away from each other, I had kind of missed them.
"So, where do we go to now?" Ashton asked them. Michael held out the map and we all stood around it.
"Well, we're about here," Calum told us, pointing to the box that was I3, "And we have to get to here," He then said, pointing to the box that was I5, "So all we need to do, is walk that way and look for some sort of note or something." He finished, pointing some way.
"Well, let's go!" I said, walking the way Calum had pointed, soon followed by them.
"So, did you really had to get the note from a rabbit hole? Or was it near a rabbit hole?" Michael asked us, as we walked in a line of four, me and Calum in the middle since we didn't have a flash light, Ashton next to me and Michael next to Calum.
"Yeah. And Ashton got bitten by a rabbit!" I told him, grinning.
"Really?" Calum and Michael both asked Ashton, their eyebrows raised.
"Well, I don't like rabbits from now on, okay?" The two boys chuckled, shaking their heads. We continued the walk with some simple small talk, mostly about what we were supposed to find, though our guesses went from a note to ice caves (no idea how), so yeah.
"I think... We are in I five now." Calum told us, studying the map and then looking around.
"I'd say check the area." I said and soon enough we were all checking the trees, ground and anything that was there to check.
"Bingo!" I heard someone yell. I quickly made my way to Michael, who held up a white note. Seriously, how many more notes where there to come? This was like... Number eight?
"What's on it?" Calum asked, as he arrived.
"Uh... Congrats, you're almost there. Now the easiest clue so far: follow a straight line down the map to the open spot."
"Couldn't they just lead us there without having to walk for I don't know how long?" I exclaimed, not really happy with knowing we had taken a complete detour. This dude was seriously getting on the very dark side of me and once I knew who this person was, I would unleash everything I could to hurt him as much as possible.
Wow. I sound quite evil...
"Well, let's hurry!" Ashton told us, taking off to where we probably needed to go. The three of us soon followed, all jogging towards the 'open spot'.
It wasn't even that far, which made things somehow worse, and I was relieved when we found it. We all entered the open spot, seeing that the sky was getting lighter which made things a little better to see.
"What now?" Calum asked, looking around. There was nothing special to see here, except for tall grass and trees. But those weren't special, so yeah...
"There's nothing here." I mumbled, wanting to kick something. We seriously-
"Wait! Guys, come here!" Ashton stood a little further down the open spot, looking at the grass.
"What is here to see?"
"Look at the grass here. It looks like someone has been lying here." He pointed to the flattened grass that seemed to form a figure, which seemed quite human.
"Do you think..." I started, not sure if I even needed to finish it.
"Definitely. There isn't another explanation, right?"
"But then, where is he?" I asked as I looked up to the boys. It stayed silent, all of us simply looking at one another and the flattened grass. We all looked around us, probably all hoping Luke would just come out from behind a tree or something, but it wouldn't be like that.
"Is that..." Michael started, walking off to a tree. My curiosity got the best of me, so I followed Michael.
"Is this blood?" Michael had stopped walking and was looking at something not too far away from him. I looked to where he was looking and saw a dark red liquid smeared on the trunk of a tree and a puddle of the same liquid on the grass at the bottom of the tree. And to make it even worse, from where we were standing, you could faintly smell what it was. And it definitely was blood.