Its way past midday and in a few hours we should already be heading back to the hotel given that we didn’t think to hold our weapons with us in case of anything – that is a point to consider for next time

Against our better judgment and courtesy of our dear Willow, we are hiding behind a tree and tall grasses watching the dead body and waiting for strollers

He may have asked us to leave him if we weren’t going to wait. To be honest, I did try to leave but I cannot just leave him here not with all he knows

I may have not considered the fact that he might be working on the other side and is leading us into a trap maybe – but I have a pact with not listening to my doubts

Tony grunts beside me adjusting his kneeling position for a more leveled ground. He would have left if I didn’t turn back. The things I make him do

I hold his shoulder and squeeze wishing I could tell him something comforting but apparently Willow still has the guts to give us a vow of silence

Tony squeeze my hand and pecks it. My heart warm, it feels nice to see he is not really mad at me – less guilty to be accurate

Willow rolls his eyes at us and focuses back on the body. Why would someone comfortably look at a dead body for hours, I am literally close to puking and Willow just seems to be so concentrated at getting a new information on the shadows that he couldn’t care less about glancing through the body every now and then

Me on the other hand have safely fixed my gaze on the nearby tree scared that if I move my iris, I just might see it and throw up. Tony is not even looking again, instead he is grunting now and then brewing with passive aggression

“he should be back by now?” A young male voice drags our attention. Looking through the grasses, we all go still listening from where the footsteps is coming from

“he wasn’t told to take this route. He never learns” says an older male with a not-so-deep voice. The grasses make way and they both come out of the bush into the path where we had dumped the body. The older one nods with a heavy breath and the younger one went still, looking at the body in disbelief

“we need to hurry so no one sees us” the older one says but the younger male still doesn’t say anything

“we were doing ok before our boss decided to do this crazy game concept” the younger says in terror

“shut your trap and get over here. This is a common path damn it” the Older male shuns him

“I am just saying, first it was Shan and now him?” the younger one is sounding like a child with dramatic gestures and terror imprint on his face

“they got careless and if you don’t want to be part of them lets get moving” the older one almost barks at him.

He is still standing firm at one spot and not saying a word. The older man walks up to him and pats his shoulder “we need this front so when word gets out we can all go scot free. All we need to do is to be more careful. Our clients will soon place their orders and then all this will be over”

“I want out after this” he declares in breaking voice

“you know the only way out is death. You signed the contract” the older male says as he strolls back to the body waving off the few flies that had begun to cluster. the younger one swallows hard and follows him.

They both lift the body and wrap it in a huge silk cloth they brought out from the younger male’s back pack and they lifted him to they shoulders and stumbled away

Holding our breath we waited for them to go far enough before we break free from the grass leaves

“oh my God” I say, with my palms on my crown. My breath grew unbearably heavy and my chest tightens “tell me I interpreted that wrongly”

“apparently not” Tony walks towards me but I flag him off, my vision grow blurry – did I just hear that this whole game was a front so they could go scot free? So the only thing people are going to remember about this place is that some twin demon tormented the villagers and somehow wiped them out.

What about us, I am pretty sure that my mother will notice I am gone and she will make a fuss. Last I checked, Rose has a few million followers who will ask questions and the rest of us, we all have people that saw us the day before

My course mate will notice I didn’t come back to school, they will question my Ex – I did tell them I was going to His for his birthday. They all have to know we are gone and they will be looking for us right?

“Bella!” Tony’s voice breaks through my thoughts and my once foggy vision grow clearer till I can see him and for some reason I am on the floor and he is trying to hold me up.

I break free from him and sprints away from them leaving them to call after me as they chased me

I have a lot of future out there. I want to graduate from college, I want to visit waterfalls to cure my obsession for them, I still want to live long enough to make money

I need to appreciate my mother, she has worked so hard to put me through school. She will never get over losing her only child

I am such a fool, I fucking signed up for a creepy weird ass game and for some reason I didn’t think it through. I could have known that I was kidnapped when I woke up in the cab.

What kind of evil person is behind all these and how the hell do they maneuver this shadows thing. Oh God! I will never leave here alive. I was doomed the moment I crossed that rod gate

Tony’s arms wraps around me and pulls me to his chest, I struggle to break free but he holds me still pinning me to his body

I give up fighting him and break down in tears. For the first time I am actually scared, I couldn’t be optimistic about anything. It was obvious what situation we are all in and for some reason he has the upper hand, the manpower, the creepy shadows and we are just little pets in the middle of nowhere wait for our doom

“Bella, its ok – we will find a way out. I promise” Tony’s calm deep voice penetrates because my breath lightens and my chest loosens but my tummy grumble violently

From the moment I saw the man die, the hours I stared at the body decay and flies arrive one after the other and everything those two said

Even the image of the woman flashing through my head. I push Tony away and thrust the unsettling contents from my stomach onto the brown soil

I wasn’t done yet, more liquid gushes out from me onto the ground and Tony pats me on my back till my breath calms finally

The sense of relief afterwards followed by intense hunger is exactly what I needed to get by today.

Willow eventually catches up with us “you sure know how to pick a race Bella” he pants a little and his gaze stops at my vomit “Ewww… I would have appreciated a warning” he says throwing his face away from me with a disgusted look

“but you can look at a dead body for hours…” Tony says

“I wasn’t looking alone and she is the one throwing up. that makes two psychopaths” he pats Tony on his shoulder still avoiding to look at me “we should head back”