Monsters in The Dark

4

"Isn't that a good thing?"

Our classmates were officially confused. "No, that's not a good thing. And before you bombard me with questions about why, the short answer is that the game makers love to screw with all of us and it's very deceptive seeing as it's the hardest mode ever." I looked at my best friends. "You know what we have to do right?"

"Unfortunately," Sam sighed.

"We should probably arm ourselves before we run to our dooms." Jonas looked at everyone else. "Does anyone have any wooden pencils that are sharpened or anything silver or heavy?"

"I have a bunch of pencils in my pencil case," one girl said.

"Are you okay with it if we use them? They probably wont get back to you. Speaking of which, those things Jonas listed, only give them to us if you're okay with the very real and likely chance that you wont get them back." Well, Sam definitely wasn't beating around the bush. At least it would save us from the awkward 'hey yea sorry we lost your supplies and jewelry'.

After we received a generous (and by generous I mean barely enough to keep us alive until we can get to a shop) amount of pencils, a few of the hardcovers we had to read for LA, and one (possibly) silver ring, I asked, "Who wants to come with us?"

I was met with dead silence.

"C'mon guys. Don't you want to be remembered as the heroes that saved the world? I'm in," Sadie said. To be totally honest, I expected nothing less. She was one of those "Do it for the vine" people.

Jack volunteered to join us. Sam, never one for actually doing things, said, "Maybe I should stay back... just in case."

She had a valid argument. I said, "Okay then. Sam is staying back to help you guys, me, Jonas, Sadie, and Jack are going to find and rescue Ann. Any objections or more volunteers for joining us?"

The silence that followed. You'd almost think that no one cared about what happened to them or each other.

I had Jonas and Jack boost me up so I could get through the window. They helped Sadie up, and we helped pull the guys up.

After we got in, Sadie and Jack headed straight for the Sweet Fluffy Bunnies portal with no hesitation whatsoever. Me and Jonas, on the other hand,  hung back long enough to share a look that said 'what did we get ourselves into'.

We followed the two into the level and regretted it almost immediately.

We were ambushed by twelve Creatures. Sadie and Jack started freaking out and tried to run, but were caught. I grabbed a weight and started swinging at them.

We (and by we I mean me and Jonas) defeated the Creatures pretty easily. I looked over at Jonas and could see we were thinking the same thing. "What? What's wrong? We defeated the monsters, right?" Jack asked.

"Well... there are usually more Creatures than that. And did you notice that they were tired?" I asked.

"Does that mean," Sadie paused, realization dawning on her. She gulped and finished her sentence, "that Ann was attacked?"

"We think that's what happened. She was probably really hurt in the fight, so she can't have gone that far," Jonas said.

"Follow us. We know this game like the back of our hands," I told them.

They grabbed a weight in each hand and followed me and Jonas as we led the way.

We wandered around the labyrinth of allies and back roads. "Why is this like a city?" Jack asked.

"The game is set in a city for this mode. It's set in a suburban area in the medium level and a farm town type place in the easy version. It makes it more difficult to navigate the game in the maze of roads and ally ways," I explained as we walked down a narrow ally.

After a few minutes of silence, Jonas grabbed my arm. I jumped into fight stance and almost punched him in the nose with the weight in my fist because I didn't realize it was him at first. He held a finger to his lips and mouthed "Listen," to me. I held up a hand to signal to Sadie and Jack that we were stopping. My eyes widened when I heard it.

The near inaudible sound of someone muffling their crying.

Knowing fully well that this could be a trap, I took off running toward the sound. "What are you doing?" Jonas hissed behind me. "Don't you know this is probably a trap?"

"And if it isn't?" I shot back. That shut him up for the time being.

I turned down a dead end and stopped short.

The others came rushing behind me. Sadie gasped. Jack whispered,"Oh God." Jonas was silent.

We found Ann.

Or, what was left of her.

There were bloody rags in the corner. Yes, rags. As in strips of her clothing. I crept closer to see what was there and what wasn't. One of her eyes was open and the other was missing. I gently reached out and closed it. She was missing her limbs. She had deep claw marks in her stomach, to the point where I could have sworn I saw her spine through one of them. Probably the most useful clue was that her hand with her watch on it was lying next to her.

"What could have done this?" Came Jack's horrified whisper.

"If I had to guess, Shifters. The claws are things they always have, regardless how good of a job they do to hide them. Do you see how one of her hands was left?" I pointed to it. "Shifters hate silver. Remember how proud of her watch she was, and that it was pure silver? Well, they didn't touch the part of her that had the silver. The only other thing it could've been was a bunch of Creatures, but they don't care about silver."

We walked in dead silence to the opening of the ally. We got to the main road and I motioned to everyone to have their weapons at the ready. I turned the corner and almost hit Sam in the face. What was it with my best friends sneaking up on me?

"What are you guys doing here?" Sadie asked.

"Wait. We need to make sure they're really our friends and not more Shifters." I held up Ann's watch, which I may or may not have snuck away when the others weren't looking.

"You guys were taking so long and we couldn't wait any longer they came into every room and started getting really agitated when they couldn't find you guys so we decided to get the hell out," Sam explained.

"And you chose to follow us instead of going through the easiest mode possible?" Jonas asked.

All ten of our classmates that followed nodded their heads.

"Idiots," me and Jonas said.

A/N: This chapter comes to you while I was listening to Imagine Dragons  XD I hope you liked it I'll try to find a way to update regularly, I'll let you know. Just so you know the regular update will probably be once every two weeks cuz school