GRAVE DANGER

Grave Danger Chapter 9

"Raven." Martin says softly.I don't respond. I hate getting up in the morning, no matter how many times I do it. "Raven," he rubs my arm. "You have to wake up."

I moan quietly and open my eyes. The sky is very light blue. I can tell it's morning, but much earlier than I would like to be awake. "We have to get going now." he brushes my hair off my face.

The first thing I think of when I look at him is how insufferable I've been. I've been horrible to him. Why haven't I apologized? I don't want us to be awkward around each other, especially if we're about to die. We've only got so much time left, I don't want to spend it foolishly. I grab his hand as he pulls it away, we make eye contact. "I'm sorry." I say. "I know I'm hard to deal with."

He opens his mouth, hesitates, then closes it again. Before I can stop myself, I blurt out "I'll go along with whatever your plan is, even if you don't tell me." No going back now. "I promise."

He smiles. "Thanks you... I'm sorry too."

I drop his hand. He doesn't seem very moved... Maybe he's just been waiting this whole time for me to say something and feels like I owed it to him. That's probably it. I can't say I blame him. He looks away from me. "Let's get going." I say.

He nods, I stand up.

We eat a couple granola bars, I put on the backpack and we hit the road again. My legs are still sore from walking all day yesterday, the bottoms of my feet hurt like crazy and I have blisters on my heels and pinky toes. The last thing I want to do is walk all day again today, but I know we can't stop.

There's no road beneath our feet anymore, we had to leave it some time yesterday to stay on course to Whitewood. It was easier when we first did it, but now we're going over steep hills and avoiding pits and holes.

FRUMP

I step on what looks like grass, but my foot falls through. Something sharp sticks into my foot. "Aaagh!" I let out a horrendous cry.

"Raven!" Martin exclaims, dropping to his knees beside me.

The hole is much deeper than I expected--the ground is at my thighs. I push myself upward with my knuckles, but my foot is pulled down by whatever's stuck in it, making me wail again.

"What is it?!" he asks.

"My foot! There's something in it!" I cry.

Suddenly, a masked person pulls Martin to his feet. They pull out a large serrated knife and hold it against his neck. "Nio!" I scream.

"Don't worry, Raven." Martin says, still sounding impossibly calm.

"Get the girl!" The masked person shouts. Four more masked people appear seemingly out of nowhere. Two of them run at me. I look at Martin, he narrows his eyes at me and mouths the word "promise". I'll go along with whatever your plan is, even if you don't tell me. I promise. Seriously? This is his plan?! I breathe in deeply, trying to relax. Something hits me over the back of the head and everything goes black.

I open my eyes, but everything is still black. My head hurts like crazy. I'm lying on a cold hard floor in a room I can't see. "Raven." Martin says quietly, his voice is hoarse. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I whisper. "Where are you?"

His hand lands on my wrist, I jump. "It's okay," he says quietly. "We're the only ones in here."

"You'd better tell me what's going on. I know I promised I would--" he claps a hand over my mouth.

"Stop." He whispers. "I can't tell you here, they'll hear us."

I nod and he pulls his hand away. I push myself up to a sitting position--my foot feels like it's being ripped apart. I stop, trying not to cry out again. Suddenly a light turns on above me, practically blinding me. I shut my eyes. As soon as they adjust, I can see I'm in a small concrete room. Martin is sitting beside me, he has a bruise on the side of his neck and a black eye. He doesn't look at me. A door opens on the wall in front of us, I grab Martin's wrist. A tall man walks into the room, he has a black bandana tied around his face and a hood hiding his hair.

A second guy walks in behind him, he has dirty blond hair and green eyes--a bandana but no hood. He looks about my height, and couldn't be older than 19. "Sorry about your leg," the first guy says. I look down at it. My pant leg is rolled up to my knee and my lower leg is wrapped in bloodstained bandages. "He was supposed to land in the spires." He glares at Martin.

I narrow my eyes at him. "Better me than him." I mutter. "You're not taking my inheritance."

He scoffs. "Is that right?"

"Yeah, it is." I say. "You have no right to do something like that." Martin squeezes my hand. I look up at him, but he keeps his eyes trained on the hooded man.

The hooded man laughs again. "You think I care at all about rights? You're so immature. So naive." I feel my face burning. "I guess I sho0uld expect nothing less from someone like you."

"Someone like me?!" I push off the ground again, but fall before I make it to my feet. My leg is screaming at me to stop moving.

"Yeah, someone like you. The spoiled only child of two rich, proud parents."

I clench my fists. Martin squeezes my arm harder, shifting his grasp from my hand to my wrist.

My parents did not spoil me. They were not proud, they loved me. They took pride in what they did for me and what I did for them, but of course they would. They were my parents. This man--he's the one who killed them. He's the one who took them from me. And now he's trying to take everything I have left from them. He sits here mocking them and preparing to kill me.

I'm not going to let him. I'll hurt him like he hurt me when he took them away. I would rather die than lose this now.

"You know, don't you? I'm the one who killed them." Martin squeezes my arm again, I grab his hand hard. "And now what?" I ask. "You're just going to kill me too? Petty." He raises an eyebrow. "Then what?"

He doesn't respond.

"Hmm? Then what? Just go collect my inheritance like it's some prize you earned for senselessly murdering a family?" Martin's grip loosens, I can tell he's confused.

The hooded guy cocks his head to the side. I pull the key out from under my shirt. "Take it."

He stares at it for a moment. The guy behind him gives me a bewildered look, then shifts his gaze to Martin. The hooded guy takes a step forward, a wild look in his eyes. The dirty blond jumps forward and smacks him over the head. The hooded guy falls to the floor unconscious.

"Don't just sit there, come on!" the bandit says. Martin scrambles to his feet.

"What?" I ask no one in particular.

"Come here," Martin helps me get to my feet. "This is the plan."