What next?

2- The time man's best friend betrayed us

"Guys, what is that?"

***

Oak, Cross and Mere all formed a line to block mine and Piper's view of the...I don't know what it is. Cross stood in the middle, with Mere on the right. Both of them had straight black hair, though Cross' was cut short and Mere's fell to her shoulders. They even had matching hazel eyes. The two of them always argued over who was taller, but today Mere was slightly shorter. Oak was on the left, shorter than both of them. Her wavy blonde hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, bangs tucked behind her ear. She regarded me through grey, slitted eyes.

"Why didn't you stay where you were?"

"Why didn't you come and get us?" I snapped back. Best not start an argument though, I can count the number of arguments I won against Oak on one hand.

I fell to the ground as Piper let go of me. A loud crunch came from me falling on the dead leafs; it was late summer but no one must rake here in the forest. I wanted to yell at her since my legs were dying from my own weight and open cuts stung from being soiled. She dashed up the wooden steps, through the large opening of the red metal container, and tried to peer over through Oak and Cross.

"Move! Lemme see!" she commanded while trying to pull up on Cross' black-clothed shoulder to see over her. Cross laughed and looked down at her.

"In what world do you think you'll make it through me?"

Piper smirked, and opened her mouth to sing. Cross' eyes went wide and she clamped her hand over the brunette's mouth. Piper stumbled back slightly from the sudden impact; though stopped trying only for a moment before she wore a half-visible evil smirk. Mere leaned over and whispered to Cross:

"She WILL lick your hand. You know that. Not that I have anything against that..." Almost immediately Cross retracted her hand, with a look of disgust on her face.

"You will pay for that," she muttered, wiping her hand on her jeans. Most of us laughed as Piper looked exceptionally pleased with herself, a grin reaching both of her purple eyes.

"Hey! I'm still here!" I shouted from the bottom of the stairs, where I still couldn't move. Everyone looked down at me, disappointed that the fun ended. "I'd love to know what in god's name happened last night. And what happened to my legs. And whatever's behind you, since you're treating it like Satan's son or something."

Oak opened her mouth, hopefully to answer my questions, before Cross burst in:

"Aha sucker! I didn't get hurt at all!"

"We all knew that," I retorted. Cross' mutation is being virtually indestructible, with unbreakable skin. However, Mere is an expert at how to get under it. I looked at Oak expectantly.

"That thing behind us chased us right out of camp last night. And by the looks of you, did quite a bit of damage." she tried to stay serious but I knew she wanted to laugh at me. Cross beamed. I rolled my eyes. Oak continued, "We all got out and ran here but you were half-asleep. Mere started carrying you-"

The blonde-haired girl was cut off by Mere giggling. At a time like this.

"S-s-sorry...Its funny now for me but- I dropped you right in the campfire..." She continued laughing. Despite the pain and situation I was in, I smiled since that is a little funny. Oak picked up as Mere started calming down.

"Like I was saying," she glared at Mere, "Mere was carrying you but you had to get handed off to Cross when we were running here. You got handed off again to Piper-"

"Am I part baton or something?" I noted how many times I got 'handed off'.

"OK, EVERYONE, STOP INTERRUPTING." Oak sounded slightly annoyed now. Thay was an understatement. Everyone gave her the classic "fiiiiine" look before she kept going. "Long-story short Piper brought you wherever she thought was safe and we ended up here. The thing that was following us had no brains because when the rest of us piled in here, it kept smashing its head against the metal once we shut the door. It stopped and we dragged it in here since it knocked itself out. Thought it could give us some answers."

Me and Piper, the two who had missed out on all this, looked at Oak, extremely confused.

"That thing can TALK?" we shouted in union.

"Wanna see why?" Mere asked excitedly. Oak tried to imply we shouldn't, but Pieper was already all over the opportunity to find out what they were hiding.

"Um, yeah, if Cross would move," she said, again trying to push her way past the girl. Cross quickly stepped to the side and Piper stumbled forward but caught herself before she fell on the...thing. I would have laughed with everyone else but I was too busy being shocked.