Don't You Come Crying When They're Rippin' Out Your Throats (Sequel to AsHollow)

16 - All I Am Is What You Left Behind

"Where's Laurence?"

"He fucked off," Jim said, coming up and wiping his fringe from his eyes with a sigh, "Took off into the trees and that was that. Away up there," he pointed up a small ledge in the forest that had a few footprints pressed into the soil.

I frowned slightly, "He wouldn't just take off," I mumbled, looking around in the direction Jim was pointing before running up and standing on top of the mound. But even as I got up there I saw no sign that Laurence had even come this way.

"Maybe it all just got too much for him to handle..." I heard Falkor say quietly, but before I could even attempt to back him up, Luke got there.

"He wouldn't just leave! This means too much to him for it all to just be abandoned, and you're a fool for thinking anything wrong about that man." He growled and begun to follow me but froze when Drew spoke up.

"Where's Rose?"

He turned round and so did I as we looked round the trees for any sign of her. Luke had guided her behind some trees to keep her from any harm, and I'd seen her hiding when we were fighting, but after a while I couldn't figure out where she'd gone... I couldn't even remember seeing her after about half way through the fight when I properly thought of it. Did that mean she'd gone missing like Laurence had? They must have taken her, the same as they would have done with Laurence.

My eyes flickered over the broken bodies on the ground as I searched for Gilbecc, only when I came up with no sign of him I knew he'd escaped and that was where Laurence and maybe even Rose had gone.

"Great, so we're missing two people from the party," Nico groaned, rubbing his temple lightly before he drew out a cigarette, lit it then took a long draw.

"Those things are bad for you," Drew murmured quietly so as Nico wouldn't hear him as he came up to join me and continued down the other side of the small hill.

I smiled a little and followed after the Timid, his other coming up and following behind me as we made our way down and through the trees. I wasn't too sure what we were looking for other than any sign that Laurence had been here, but that could take a lot of time, and use up the daylight that we needed in order to get to the city. It didn't look good.

Drew was watching the ground, looking for any footprints pressed into the soil that could have been Laurence's while I was looking at eye level. I don't know what I was hoping to find - a bit of fabric that had been torn off his shirt when he was running, a broken branch... I wasn't sure, but I wasn't for giving up either so I kept on going.

Taking a quick glance behind me I saw that everyone that was still here had joined our little trail and were following solemnly on, no one really speaking - Luke looked a mess and it was clear that he was having a small battle internally with himself over losing two people at once, both whom he cared about. I felt sorry for him, everyone else in the line just seemed to be on more alert as they walked around, clearly not wanting to be caught like we had been again. Crilly had his hand constantly on his sword, ready should anything suddenly change in what was going on.

I turned back to the small path ahead, watching as Drew scouted the ground for anything and everything, looking up every so often. I opened my mouth to speak to him when he jumped back up.

"Here!" Drew suddenly called out, darting to the side under a group of overgrown trees and running out of our sight.

I dashed after him, determined not to lose him from my sight and him to just go missing like the others, but he hadn't gone too far - I almost tripped over him when I turned the corner and he was crouched on the floor.