CHAPTER 6

WE BOTH CRASH to the floor and roll in the dirt. I manage to come out on top and without thinking, I start to pound whatever is below me with my fist.

"Henry?"

I ignore it and just keep punching.

"Henry!" It calls again. "It's me, Jeff."

"Jeff?" I still keep punching.

"Get off me, punk!" His voice snaps at me, and I finally stall. He throws me off and stands up. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He glowers at me.

"I thought you were someone else," I say sheepishly.

"You disappeared!" He says.

I get up to my feet. "We need to leave this place now. I saw something, it looked dangerous."

"You disappeared!" He says again like he did not just hear what I said.

"Are you listening to me?" I ask. I groan. I'm done talking with this dumb-ass. I start to walk down the street in the direction I hope will lead me out.

"No, you are not listening to me!" He yells from behind me. "I said you disappeared. I thought you were just a few doors away from me, imagine my scare when I looked around and didn't see you."

"You were scared, huh?" I ask, smiling.

"Of how we would explain to your mother that you got missing on a field trip. Yes." He snaps and then adds in a low tone, "And hearing the barking dog almost made me crazy."

I stop in my tracks suddenly. Making Jeff bump into me from behind. "Can you still hear it?" I ask.

He listens for a while and then shakes his head. "No. It has stopped. Wow."

"That's nothing to 'wow' for," I mutter under my breath. "We need to leave and never come back." I break out into a slow run.

"But why?" Jeff asks, easily matching my pace.

"Because this village is creepy!" I say.

"Hmm," He nods. "I feel it too. There's no one here. All the houses are locked. I started thinking maybe they all went on a holiday."

"An entire village doesn't just go on holidays," I say. "They don't."

"So how would you explain it?" He asks.

Thankfully, we passed the wooden sign board. We are out of the village now. I know this this going to be a bad idea, but I clear my throat and say, "I, um, saw a little kid."

"What?"

"I saw, like, a little kid," I repeat. "That was why I disappeared. I followed it into the woods."

"So there are other people there," Jeff stopped. "I knew I was not running mad."

"There was no other person there," I say. "Come on."

"We should go back," Jeff says, more to himself than to me. Then he yells it out. "We should go back!"

"No, we should not," I stop and turn to look at him, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"If that kid you saw was part of a larger community, they could be able to help us," Jeff says. "And if he is not. It's not safe for a kid to be alone in the woods. Even if he had a dog."

I must admit; Jeff does have a point.

"I don't know if it was a child I saw," I say.

"Bullshit!" Jeff snaps and brushes past me, bumping my shoulder. "I am going to get the others, and we are going to go back to the village. Either we find the child, or we find where it came from." He pumps into a fast run.

Remember when I said I was not the most athletic kid on the block?

I can't catch or even keep up with him. After a few minutes of running alone, I see the bus, standing alone in the middle of the road. It has a forlorn look around it.

I sigh and get inside to see that Jeff is already telling the others how I had left a child to die in the woods.

"I didn't leave any child to die in the woods, Jeffery. Shut your mouth," I say as I walk in.

"Henry!" Tristen call. "We all thought you were dead."

I chuckle. "Thanks for the confidence."

"Hey, don't blame us," Tristen says. "When he came back here without you and started talking about dead children and woods. What else could we think of?"

"There are no children. Dead or alive," I reply. "The whole village is empty and creepy. We should never go back there."

"So the bartender's stories are true," Grace says.

George gives his sister a dirty look and says, "I do not want to hear any more talks of this bartender and his stories and rumors about cursed towns."

Grace nods at her twin brother and keeps quiet.

"But you said you saw a child," Jeff says to me. "And you said it led you into the woods."

"I don't know if it was a child I saw," I almost yell. "When I shine my torch on it, it disappears. When I put off my torch, I see it standing a few feet in my front. I did not have a clear look at it."

The bus went very silent.

"Speaking of my torch," I reach into my bag and bring out my phone. I toss it on the chair and they crowd around it.

"Damn, man," Lucas laughs. "This phone is toast."

"Yeah, no shit," I reply.

"What happened?" George asks me.

"The 'child' – in quote – disappeared," I tell them. "Literally. Like it was there this second, and not there the next second. I ran and crashed into a tree. The phone fell on a rock."

"Oof!" Tristen says.

"That village is creepy, guys," I say, still trying to dissuade them from going.

"Remaining on the road here is dangerous," Lucas says. I can immediately tell that he just wants to do the opposite of whatever I am saying.

"Maybe a car will pass and we can flag it down for help," I say.

"You guys were gone for one hour, and guess how many cars passed since then," Lucas counters. "Let me tell you, None!"

"Lucas has a point," George says. "We can't just remain here."

"Because it's night," I yell. "During the day I am sure the road will be busier, and if it's not. We can go back to the first village."

"That is not possible. We are not welcome there anymore," George says.

"Thanks to somebody," I snarl, pinning my gaze on Lucas.

"You got something you want to say to me?" Lucas asks, standing up and returning my gaze.

"Guys!" George snaps.

I sigh and rub my eye sockets. "I saw something else," I say.

"Huh? You did?" Jeff asks.

I nod. "Yeah. I didn't want to say anything about it before but since your minds are made up on going back…"

"What is it?" Grace prompts me.

"I saw a hole –"

Lucas cut into me and burst into a loud laughter. "We should be scared of a hole."

I ignore him and continue, "It was shrouded with a thick silver chainmail."

"Those things that Roman soldiers wore to battle?" Emma asks.

I nod. "Yes. Those things. Except that this one was thicker, it was pegged to the ground and cemented. And it has been like that for a long time."

"How do you know this?" George looks at me.

"Because the cement was breaking apart. It was already like sand but with a different texture. It has to have been like that for at least 100 years," I explain.

The bus had become quiet now.

"You, uh, left it just as it was, right?" Jeff's voice is a little above a croak.

I look away. Unable to answer the question.

"You left it as it was, didn't you?" Jeff asks again.

"I broke off a little piece," I mutter and get the piece of silver from my bag and toss it on the floor.

They all scatter away like the silver had a contagious disease.

"For fuck's sake, guys!" Lucas snarls. "This is one of those stories that he reads. He is just trying to prevent us from getting help, can't you all see it?"

Jeff clears his throat. "How did you break that off? It's metal isn't it?"

"Old silver is quite soft and easily pulled apart," Emma's small voice replies.

I nod at her gratefully.

"I still call bullshit!" Lucas snaps.

"Uh, guys?"

"Oh yeah, then go there. Whatever you see is on you!" I snap back.

"There will be nothing to see except people who can help us, " Lucas counters.

"Guys… guys…"

"There is nobody there," I yell. "Are you not fucking hearing what we've been saying? Tell him, Jeff! I can't deal with this doofus anymore."

"GUYS!"

We finally keep quiet and look at Carmen who points out the windshield. We all look in that direction.

Maybe it was my imagination or the moonlight playing shadow tricks with my head, but I saw a whiff of silvery black flash into the side of the road before my eyes could process what I had just seen.