||What Lies Under|| - Salvis

Chapter VIII

         Sal slowly stands, the rose still in his hand, red and vibrant. Phillip takes a glimpse at Sal, a subtle shake of his head disapproving of his actions. "Cmon, Philly, we should go check out the woods." Sal says, a fake tone of enthusiasm in his voice as he holds his free hand out.
        Phillip takes his hand, standing up with him and fixing his backpack on him. Sal copies him, turning around slowly to the entrance and pulling Phillip out of the bridge. "This place is very nice Philly, we should come back more often." he says, deciding it's best to keep talking, keeping the shake out of his voice.
       "Yeah, of course. We can come back with Trav or Larry some time if you'd like." Phillip responds, continuously glancing behind him in the direction of the bridge, as if he would find who, or what, was watching them prior.
      He shudders before turning back around, walking ahead of Sal and to a trail in the woods, decorated with tiny colored rocks. He smiles at the colorful trail, remembering how he had made one to add to the trail with his family. He had added a blue and red striped rock to the collection numerous summers ago, when he was only a child, while his parents helped scrub off all the paint on his hands and face. He relaxes his shoulders, calmer and finding a gap in the rocks. "I guess this is where Trav got lost and went off the trail, huh?" Phillip mutters, pausing to pick up a rock and place it back on the trail.
        "Yeah, this is around the place I found him," he hears from his far right, sal no longer waiting for him and continuing to walk along the trail.
       Phillip stands, looking up and freezing when he sees a box waiting against a nearby tree, a book beside it. He makes sure Sal isn't too far ahead before walking off the trail, saying nothing and keeping his footsteps light so Sal doesn't notice. He looks at the book, though the inside content only containing plant remedies and a section with non-english words. He puts the book back on the grass, grabbing the box and hearing his friend's voice ring out. "Philly! Come on, let's go!"
      He stands up with the box, yelling back a "I'm coming!" before shoving the box into his backpack so it isn't seen. He runs back onto the trail and over to sal, by the time he is beside him out of breath. "What took you so long?" Sal asks, his eyes narrowing.
      Phillip shrugs, avoiding the question and walking through the forest. "The other side of this isn't too far from the addison apartments, right? I can just drop you off at home, that way Lisa and your dad dont worry too much." he says instead, seeing the sun close to setting. "It will be dark soon."
       Sal nods, agreeing and understanding that Phillip also needs his alone time, and he continues to walk with him,humming quietly under his breath as he walks. Phillip stays oddly silent, eyes down and watching himself putting one foot in front of the other, set on taking Sal home as soon as possible. Sal doesn't notice, nor does he realize the very box-shaped thing in phillips backpack, too much in front of him to think about much except for going home and talking to travis again about everything. It's been a hectic few months, going through notes and documents and such secretly, trying to figure out everything with the cult and the figures. They need to stop them. That is all that it comes down to. He thinks back to the other day, when he had been talking with him, remembering how Travis had been freaking out. Since his father was in jail now, he is forced to be in charge of the church mostly, as well as subbing in for his father for the cult as well.
"Look on the bright side, this way you'll be able to gather more information!" Sal says, watching Travis frantically go through the notes, obviously panicked.
"You don't understand, Sal! They aren't going to trust me, they might turn against me if anything!" Travis protests, trying to figure out something, and quick.
Sal doesn't answer that, a crow going through the window and standing at the edge of Travis's notebook. Travis glances up at the crow, breathing heavily and letting himself take a sharp inhale before getting a grip. He raises his hand, out straight and to the side for the crow to sit, and the crow gets onto his arm as he puts the notebook down. He has always been able to befriend crows, flocks of them still come by often for his company. "It will be alright, you know we will figure it out before it gets to that point." Sal breaks the silence, making Travis look up at him, clearly worried.
He relaxes, finally giving a subtle nod to him. "We need to figure out how to keep it just between us for now though. I don't want to endanger anyone else with this." he says.
"Even when the whole world is in danger either way?" Sal jokes, his smile quickly dropping and his hands going up in defeat when Travis glares.
"Pip is getting too deep in exploring, i think it's best if you or i accompany him for a little while when he wants to go on another adventure." Travis mumbles, dropping his glare and seeing Sal physically relax.
"Okay."
       Sal sighs, tugging at his hair before getting out of the forest on the other side, the Addison apartments in view. "Hey Philly?" he asks, looking at Phillip.
       Phillip finally looks up, as if he was broken out of a trance, and he nods for him to continue.     "If you want to go on another adventure, lemme know. I'll join you." Sal finishes, and Phillip finally agrees, walking him home.

Word count: 1008 words