Don't Get Eaten

Chapter Seventeen

"Do you know who she was?" I hear Lacy's voice ask.

Zared lifts his head to look over to them as I turn mine to place my ear on his beating heart, listening to the thumping rhythm it made, reassuring me that he was indeed still alive. My vision faced the group as I listened to their conversation.

"No, I didn't know her by name. But I do recognize her from my party that night." Seth says to her as he had stood up and was looking down at the young girl that I just now realize was lying on the ground not moving and covered in blood.

Guilt hits me as I soon come to the realization that while I was acting like a crazy lunatic for being upset at Zared, that I didn't even bother to see that there was someone who was lying dead on the ground. Like her life and what had just happened to her wasn't important at all.

"What happened?" Lacy asks next as she crouches down to the girl and examines her body without touching her.

"Well, we came back to the school to get Jinsen's hat, like I promised that I would," I squeeze him more, closing my eyes hearing him say that. "And we found her on the school grounds. She was acting a bit..." He frowns at the body.

"Crazy." Seth offers.

"I guess you can put it that way."

"She came at us crying and jumbling her words. Her eyes were all wide and crazed. You can tell her night was filled with horrors, that's for sure." Jacob sighs sadly.

"Zared was already over the gate picking up the hat when she came out of nowhere and started getting all dramatic. And because of that, the creature suddenly came at us, he grabbed her first and we tried to save her, but we weren't able to get to her in time." He continues.

"The damn thing bit down right into her shoulder, we manage to kill the thing and get her free. We dragged her out as fast as we could, but by the time we were able to rest here she was already gone." Seth finishes.

"We were just discussing on burying her when Jinsen showed up all pissy looking."

I lift my hand in his direction and flip him off with a scowl on my face. I wasn't really mad, just slightly annoyed. But I didn't care as long as they were all safe and unharmed.

"Did you tell them?" Lani asks Jacob.

"I was going too but didn't get the chance." He walks away as he looks around the area, we were now in.

"Tell us what?" Zared asks, his voice rumbling through his chest and straight to my ear.

"That there is no point in burying the dead. They'll get eaten either way." Lacy gets up and starts to walk back in the direction we had come from.

"What do you mean?" I ask, finally pulling away from him.

My body felt cold and exposed as we separated. I should have felt a little embarrassed for the way I acted, for the way I had just clung to him. But I didn't as I was coming to terms with how I was feeling.

"We tried to bury the dead before, but the next morning their graves would be dug up and their bodies gone." Jacob says as he readjusts himself and walks over to us, still looking around.

"We need to get going. Her scent is attracting the ones that are more likely nearby." Lacy states.

"So, we're just going to leave her to be eaten then?" I ask as Zared takes my hand and starts dragging me away from the area.

"If we take her along, we'll be allowing them to follow us and we'll all be in danger. There's nothing we can do."

"Why don't you just burn her body?" Seth asks, hesitating to leave her there.