The Freaks | Sally Face

Chapter 114: The Maze

River's POV:-

We stayed hidden for a while and thankfully, the sounds we heard weren't an immediate threat to us. When we knew we were safe, we emerged and regrouped realising we had to get away from this area before any cultists arrived. 

"I say we take the book and run. There must be some sort of map inside for us to better navigate this shit" Travis rolled his eyes. "Plus, they can't perform any rituals until they have both books..."

"But what if they send everyone to look for us? We have no chance then?" Larry frowned. 

"Then they might believe my dad has the book. They've already jeopardised themselves by leaving it out in the open, who's to say they won't think someone is studying it for the ritual?"

"I see your point," I stewed on the thought for a moment. "However, I think I'm with Larry here. We can't take it and risk being caught. We have to find Sal, Henry and Axel. That's our main mission right now". 

"I get that, I really do" Travis paused, trying to get me to change my mind. "But we're just going to be aimlessly walking around this place with no clue where anything is. It took us ages to stumble on this place, how can we find the others with no options?"

"Do we try and contact the others?" Larry turned to me. "What if they've found something? They've been silent since we left them..."

"But what if that puts them in danger? The walkie talkies aren't exactly the most quiet of inventions" I shuddered. "Could we give them a signal without directly speaking to them?" 

"We could just tap on the thing? Hopefully their volume settings are low enough for only them to hear..."

Countless options but yet, I had no clue what would be the best outcome. Both of the boys made really valid points, but I just couldn't decide how to play this. On one hand, if we take the book - it could guide us better and delay the inevitable for a bit longer however, that could lead to them sending everyone on a wild goose chase. Then came contacting the others, what if they had found something but were not in the position to give us any leads? If we tried to speak to them, it could expose them and that could lead to more of us being locked up by the Devourers. Each option we had could have catastrophic endings and right now, I didn't want to be the one who made the call. 

"I honestly don't know what to do" I sighed, feeling extremely pathetic. "Whatever we do could lead to more problems. We're lucky to have gotten this far without alerting the cultists that we're here. What if this was all part of their plan?" 

"What do you mean?" Larry's thick eyebrows bunched. 

"Think about it," I walked over to the book. "Like Travis said, they've left this out in the open - almost wanting to force someone to take it. What if it's a cover? A fake? If someone comes into this room, we've essentially told them we're here. Why would they leave such a valuable asset just here for the taking?" 

"She does make a point..." Travis scratched his chin. "It does seem almost too obvious now that I'm thinking about it". 

"But then again," I continued. "They could simply almost have too much faith in this place. I mean, no one has seemingly known this place exists. It's no where on the map of Addison Apartments and this cult have been operating for years. No one has found them and the ones that do know of their existence have probably been paid off or silenced". 

"Seems like whatever we do, we'll have to face them at one point Riv" Larry sighed. "We either take the book and run - hoping to get to the others or, we keep the book here and try and contact Ash, Todd and my mom". 

I had to make the call. Whatever I decided now would eventually determine the remainder of our quest. Like Larry said, we will have to face the cultists at one point or another - it was almost too easy getting this far without running into a single person. Granted, we thought we had heard something but nothing had come up against us. The only thing that we had seen was a demonic presence... it was almost too good to be true. I looked to the boys, trying to gauge how they were feeling and it seemed whatever I would decide would be the opposite of what the other wanted to do. In a sense, we had to take this book. Whether it was a fake or not, we couldn't risk them having it in their possession and potentially losing Sal, Henry and my Dad before we had the chance to stop them. It may be a risk but down here, we were already risking everything we had.