It Lives In The Woods [BxB]

XVIII

Seven

I stare, wide-eyed, at the forest-line where Dan stands, watching at us with intimidatingly amber eyes. The wicked smirk never leaves his ghastly expression. All of use stand paralyzed in fear.

"W-What do we do? We can't just hurt them, they aren't dirt monsters or anything, these are real people!" Lily stutters. Tom and Ben's faces contort into twisted humor as they grin at us.

"Please don't hurt Tom...make Andy sad," Tom's distorted smirk sends a cold shiver down my spine as him and Ben slink into the darkness behind them, Mr. Cooper soon following suite a moment after. Dan soon stands alone, the grin never leaving his face. 

"Dan, please don't do this. We don't want to fight you!" I plead with him, though a loud cackle is all I receive in response.

"No fight...just come to play," And with that, he slithers into the woods behind him. I turn to everyone, who's still shaken up by the experience. 

"Well, what do we do now?" Stacy frowns.

"Nothing changes, we still have to save Andy," Noah answers.

"We just need to stick together," I announce, they all turn to me in attentiveness. "I know things seem bad right now, but no matter what happens, we need to watch each other's backs now more than ever. Even if he manages to separate us, we'll find a way back to one another," I look to see everyone give a nod one by one. Hilda's head brushes against my hand as she gazes up to me, barking in encouragement. Cerberus paws at the ground in boredom. I take a breath, before steeling myself into the foggy woods.

Thick mist circles around our ankles as a chilling breeze winds through the atmosphere. Twisted child-like laughter can be heard within the depths. 

"Be on your guard, everyone," I warn them. We hear footsteps circling around us intimidatingly, Stacy lets out an exasperated noise in anger.

"Why don't you come out instead of sneaking around!" She yells in the darkness. 

"Sneaking....more..." I see Ben's figure peeling through the trees, his teeth glinting through the pitch-black night. "--fun" 

"So, how far are we going to take the pacifist route on not killing any of them?" Ava asks.

"Ava, we can't just kill them..." Lucas gestures to me as I hand him my bat. "Though, that doesn't mean Ben can't walk away with a few lost teeth, it is self-defense after all," Ava gives a wicked smirk at his response. 

Dan suddenly flanks behind us, perched up against a tree and accompanied by four wooden hounds. 

"Play nice..." He whispers darkly as the hounds rush at us. I swiftly unsheathe my katana and swipe at the one closest to me, the sword cuts deep within the head of the beast. Stacy clobbers one next to us and gives me a smirk. 

"You're a natural with that thing!" She compliments. I give a smile as I clear out the waves of dogs around us.

 Ava digs her long blade into another, while Noah pelts a few with pebbles. I find myself back-to-back with Lucas, he turns to me with a grin as he grips on the bat.

"Not the kind of after-party I was expecting," He says as he roughly swings the bat, beheading a beast within sight.

"You complaining? This is more fun!" I laugh loudly as my katana strikes against the last remaining hound.