Chapter 7

"Ethan! You should-" A voice tinged with urgency interrupted them.

They pull away from each other. The newcomer added, "Sorry, um, something happened. You should see,"

"Anara, you're gonna be okay?" Ethan checked on her and she turned to him with a smile and nodded, "yeah, yeah, go ahead," He was sweet for trying to take care of everyone. But, she could see the tension in his shoulders and the bags under his eyes like he hadn't slept well in a while.

She let him run with the kid who had come to call him. A part of her wanted to see what was happening, but she still needed a minute to gather herself. So, eyes on the dark, silent woods, she stood alone hugging herself.

She was staring into the void until she thought she saw something move between the tree trunks. The darkness of the night and her exhaustion made her want to believe it was the wind or her imagination, but the truth was, there had been no wind in this strange forest since they got here. And yes, maybe she was tired, but not enough to start hallucinating. She became sure there was something or someone in the woods when she saw the shadow jump from one tree to another. She took a step back instinctively toward the bonfire and the community.

She was a lot of things, stupid was not one of them. She was not going to confront whatever it was alone just because she had a gun that had refused to work on the beast earlier.

She was distracted by the commotion and turned to see Ethan carrying a teen around the age of Elle with a bloody leg toward a makeshift tent. She rushed to them. She needed to know what had happened and to let him know about whatever she had seen in the woods.

"What happened?" Anara asked as she entered the tent and Ethan looked up, "Nothing to worry about, just a scratch," he gave her a reassuring smile that people give to kids instead of explaining complex ideas to them. That irritated her a little.

"Her leg is bleeding, that's more than a scratch, Ethan. What happened to we are all trying to survive?" She said, sounding more annoyed than she felt.

"Ooh, who is that, Ethan? I like her." The girl, Anara guessed, Nicole smirked through the pain in her leg, which Ethan was in the process of cleaning and tending to along with the green skinned woman whom Ethan had delegated to take care of Elle.

Ethan sighed as he looked between the three girls, Nicole, Anara, and the green skinned woman, who titled her head at him almost maternally, "Go, she'll be fine,"

Ethan stood up instantly, "Come, I'll explain," He turned to Anara as he wiped the blood from his hands.

She followed him out quietly, until he walked over to a stream nearby, where they had set the camp for fresh water. He washed his hands and Anara finally let her dry lips have a drink.

Ethan stood patiently, watching her drink until she stood up and wiped her chin with her sleeve. She turned to him expecting answer and he raked his hand through his hair, "When we got this community set, we had rules. We have rules." He started counting, "No wandering outside community perimeters at any time of the day, you've seen how weird the woods are. No going alone anywhere. And whatever happens, make sure more than one person knows, so no one is isolated," He tried to lighten the mood unsuccessfully, "That's how most characters die in horror movies,"

But, when she didn't smile, he cleared his throat, "Um, Nicole thought she saw a rabbit. We haven't seen any animals here since we got, but she sounded sure. And followed it. Ended up in a hole in the ground not far from here."

"What's a random hole doing in the middle of the woods, deep enough to make a girl's leg bleed like that?" Anara's detective brain got activated.

He shrugged, "Nothing in this place makes sense, I have stopped questioning. There are people depending on me." He spoke like he was carrying physical weight on his shoulders and Anara felt a twinge of regret at sounding irritated with him earlier, poor guy was just trying to keep everything from falling apart alone.

"I should check on Nicole," He turned to leave and Anara added, "I don't know about rabbits, but I am sure I saw something, big, jumping around in the trees earlier. It was too dark to make out any details, but it was as big as you if I have to make an estimate,"

Ethan stopped. He didn't ask her if she was sure, just nodded and left like I will take care of it thanks for informing.

She stood by the stream for a second before her analytical curiosity won. She looked at the community before she found herself headed in the direction Ethan had told Nicole had fallen into the hole. She knew she should tell or take someone, like Ethan said, but what if something happened during the night. Something worse? She trusted her intuition.

"What is this place?" She muttered to herself as she went away from the community, guided by her sense that made her follow serial killer trails at work.

It was dark, damp, and eerie in silence the farther she went from sounds of the running stream. But, she didn't stop, she needed to see the hole as if a part of her knew it was not as ordinary as Ethan was making it sound like.

"Ah!" she gasped as she slipped suddenly. Losing not just her footing but also the ground under her foot. She felt her foot tangle in the roots at the walls of the hole until she was hanging upside-down in the dark, cursing herself for not doing this during the day, "Fuck!" She exclaimed.

But, she was not a quitter. And more importantly, she was used to workout due to her job. So, she was in good enough shape to try freeing her ankle using pure core strength.

Until, she felt a mechanical whirring from the wall right beside her ear. She thought it might be blood rushing to her head but no, she had been hung upside-down before. These were definitely mechanical sounds like a computer getting heated by overwork and its fan trying to cool it down.

"Need help, Kizha?" A familiar charmingly deep sound cut the quiet of the night mixed with her heavy breaths from hanging upside-down.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She called irritated at herself for being in such a position than at him, though she convinced herself it was the latter.

"Knew you were trouble the moment you shot that beast, couldn't stay away. Sue me after I help you out," She could practically hear his smirk and it made her want to wipe it but for that she'd had to accept his help.

She gritted her teeth, she hated being helpless. Worse, she hated being at mercy of flirtatious strangers.