Chapter 53

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We walked through the forest, fear pumping through our hearts as we walked. Who knew if Malachi was seeing me right now, waiting to strike us down with his magic wand? But as I looked around, it seemed that no one was out there and he wasn’t anywhere in sight.

As we walked through the forest and trees started to get thicker, I realized that it was starting to get dark out here. We were almost halfway to the cave now but I couldn’t help but feel like we were going the wrong way.

Maybe I was being paranoid.

Darkness came over the arena, and it became pretty hard to see. It wasn’t pitch black; there was still light out there from the sun. But it still was hard to see because we were so deep into the forest and it was so dark in here already.

I had been worried about us getting lost in the forest before, but now that we were here, it was actually a blessing in disguise for us. We could use it to our advantage, maybe it could help us in any sort of way to get ahead in this competition, even if it was just to keep us from getting lost in the forest.

Nikki was walking beside me, looking back at me every once in awhile, and sometimes even laughing at some of my funny comments she heard me make. I laughed with her every now and again as well, but it was clear that we both were getting along with each other. Maybe isn’t wasn’t gonna be so bad after all?

We continued through the forest, walking until it was getting closer to night time. The sun was starting to set and the sky was becoming darker and darker by the minute. The forest had become completely quiet and dark around us, except for the sound of my own heavy breathing.

Soon enough, we saw some sort of cave, which was just an opening in the side of a huge tree in the middle of nowhere. It looked like a small opening compared to the size of the tree that it was connected to. There was no other trees near it though. Maybe that was why it was able to stay hidden so well?

Could this be the cave all our weapons are in, or is this just a coincidence? We don’t really know what this place looks like right now because we haven’t really explored it yet; so it could be a trap for us. But as I looked around I didn’t see anyone here, so hopefully this is just what it looks like...

.....

We all got close together, looking into the opening as we waited for our eyes to adjust to the darkness. We needed to make sure we weren’t going to get ambushed before we even tried to go in there. As we got closer to the cave, we could tell that it wasn’t big at all. It didn’t have any walls, or a roof or anything.

Ours had a roof, and I could tell based on the detail of the walls, but this one had nothing. I guess we should just be careful not to step on anything because there were no floors or walls or anything inside there. The only thing inside the cave was a small hole at the top that led outside of the cave, but there were no stairs leading up to it or anything else for us to use as a ladder.

“Let’s search around, maybe we can find something,” Tisiah said, as we looked around at our surroundings. There was nothing here but an opening into the tree and then nothing but empty space above us as well. But we still had hope because there were no signs of anyone being here before us, so that was a good sign.

We walked around, looking for anything that may have been hidden here. So far, we hadn’t found anything besides the tree and the small hole in the top of the tree that we were looking at. It was starting to get darker out here, so it was starting to get harder for us to see, even though the area we were in was pretty well lit by the sunlight shining through the tree from the other side of the cave.

“Jeez, what is it with these caves?” Tisiah said while looking around, “Are we just going to be wandering around this dumb place for the rest of our lives?”

Nikki laughed at him, “Yeah, that would probably be nice if we could do that.”

“Well, if we didn’t have Malachi searching for us, then I’d be okay with just wandering around forever,” I said with a laugh as well.

We heard a rustling coming from one of the trees behind us, and we turned our heads towards it to see what it was. Nothing moved for a while after that.

I walked over towards the tree that it came from and put my hand on the tree, feeling something soft and smooth on the tree. It felt like it was leathery but I couldn’t quite tell what it was until I touched it and I felt the smooth surface on my finger.

I pulled my hand back quickly and looked at what it was I just felt on the tree. It felt like I just touched leathery skin and some sort of muscle or tendon. “I hope this wasn’t from a human,” I said. Tisiah shook his head, “Definitely not.”

We searched for about a few more minutes, but we didn’t find anything else except for what was on the tree. Then we heard some rustling coming from another tree near us and turned our heads towards it quickly. But there wasn’t anything coming out of that tree.

It was just as dark as the other tree was though, so we couldn’t really see anything past the opening of it anyway.

“Okay, we gotta get out of here,” Tisiah ordered, “We’ve been looking around for too long. It’s time to go back and grab those wands before they do.”

Nikki nodded and started walking out of the cave. I looked back at her, watching her walk back towards us with her hands in front of her eyes. “I can’t see anything, is there something in my eyes?” she asked, sounding a little annoyed with herself.

“I don’t think so,” I said, looking into her face as she walked closer to us.

But before she could get too close to us, she tripped over a log that we hadn’t noticed before and fell flat on her face. Tisiah somehow bawled in laughter, while Nikki just looked down at herself as she started to get back up onto her knees. She wiped her face off with her hands and got up again. She walked over to us, still rubbing her face with her hands.

“That’s hilarious!” Tisiah said through his laughter. “I needed that.”

But all of a sudden, we heard a number of voices in the horizon. “Oh, no, we need to hide quick!” I shouted, as we all ran around the tree and into the cave. Nikki started to climb the tree but fell back down after a couple of seconds because it was too big for her to get up there.

We heard the footsteps getting louder and louder as they got closer to us, but they stopped when they got to where we were hiding in the cave. I couldn’t see them, but I could tell someone was near us by the footsteps they were making. But there were no voices anymore.

“Whoever you are,” Tisiah said in a low voice as he looked down from the tree top, “We aren’t going to be so easy to kill.”

There was no response from whoever was out there. “Maybe we’re hearing things,” Nikki said, looking at me for answers.

“No,” I said, “I know what I heard.”

We heard footsteps coming towards us again but they went around the tree that we were hiding behind. They kept walking towards us slowly and we heard them stop about five feet away from us. Sweat rolled down my face, as I held my breath tightly. But then all of a sudden we heard some footsteps coming from the other side of the tree that we were hiding behind. They got closer and closer until we finally saw who it was that was approaching us.

It was Malachi and he had a couple other people with him. I felt like screaming but I was too frozen in fear to do so, but I could hear Nikki whispering under her breath, “I’ll kill him.”

They came closer and Malachi looked over at us with his head tilted slightly downwards and his eyes squinted. I felt a sense of dread come over me as I watched him and his group approach us slowly. “Hey, do you see Connor and them?” Malachi asked.

“Who are they?” someone asked.

“The ones we fought!” Malachi hissed, and he was even closer now, “They were in that forest where we were before.”

The other three people with Malachi looked around but then they turned their heads towards us as well. Malachi had a wand in his hand which the tip shone bright in our faces.

He didn’t see us though, but he was going to soon enough, and he wasn’t going to let us get away again without a fight this time. As he started to take another step towards us, I realized that we didn’t have much time before he could see us if we stayed where we were. I took a chance and grabbed Tisiah’s arm as hard as I could and pulled him close to me and Nikki as I got down on the ground on all fours. I covered my head with my arms, hoping he wouldn’t see us with my body blocking his line of sight.

“You can come out now,” Malachi said loudly, “I know you’re here.”