The Next to be Taken

Chapter Twenty-One

Sitting up high in a tree, hiding in the leaves. I waited. I heard echoes of laughter off in the distance and the sounds of foot steps getting closer and closer by the minute. Out of boredom, I picked at the bark on the tree, scraping some off. Falling all the way down and off the tree. I leaned back on the branch, breaking some bark of the tree in two, in my hands.

I kept breaking them into little pieces and letting them fall down until there wasn't anymore in my hands. I wiped my hands off together, brushing the dirt off my pants. Then I heard something from beneath me.
"Where is she?" Dylan asked a little too loudly, looking over the area. I looked down at them, watching them from high above. Finding the two twins, Carter and Dylan at the base of the tree, completely unaware of me.

"You didn't find her yet?" Riley ran up to the two little boys.

"No." Carter groaned. "Where else can she hide?"

"How far do you think she went? we should have been more clear on the range we can hide." Dylan stomped his foot, looking all other possible ways.

"I can't find her!" Elijah ran up to the group to join in.

"How about Maddie?" Carter asked.

Elijah shrugged his shoulders. "I can't find any of them."

I smiled widely, covering my mouth to hide a small laugh. As quietly as possible, I slid off the branch and onto the next one, working my way down as stealthy as I could.

"Where else is there to hide?" Carter walked around the tree, going up to a fallen down one and looking under it.

"Well, Mavis knows this area so she might know a million hiding spots." Riley brought up.

Aw, he does know me. But no, I did not go to a special hiding spot. I'm just not on their level.

"Well do we even have time to keep looking for her if there's really anywhere she could hide?" Carter pointed out. "I mean, I don't know when will they want to go back home, we should just find them and end the game."

"Yeah, I guess they win.." Riley mumbled.

Now on the lowest branch, I sat down and hung upside down from it. Now level with the group of boys. "Now that's what I wanted to hear."

"Whoa!" Dylan jumped back.

Riley looked up at the tree. "Were you really up there the whole time?"

"Yeah, you should really start looking up more. I was right under your nose.. Well, more like above." I grabbed the branch to help get down.

"That's an awesome hiding spot! I didn't expect that." Dylan exclaimed.

"Do you know where Maddie is? She's the last one." Elijah stepped up.

"No, I haven't really seen her." I shook my head in response to his question.

They all started walking out of the Forrest, looking around to try to find signs of the young girl.
"Knowing her, she wouldn't really run far into the Forrest. It scares her too much." Riley said.

We were now in sight of the giants. Kent leaned back, with his hands in his grey hoodie. He stared at the sky or doing anything else to distract himself. Dash glanced at us, the returned to looking at his phone.