The journey was tense. Draven and Leo had not said a word to each other, while Lara and Diane seemed to be getting along—if Diane scowling at her for several times in a minute was considered getting along with one another. None of them rode on the mountain bear as they had not yet concluded their arguments. Leo would not speak to Draven until he had made it clear if Diane would be staying or not, and Draven on the other hand didn’t know how to send her away without revealing his secret.And so they continued to walk in silence until Diane stopped the bear in front of a flower field, forcing the rest of them to stop too.“I’m just going to feed baby boo so she doesn’t doesn’t find any of yall attractive,” she explained to them.Draven saw this as an opportunity, however a slim one. If he could convince Diane to feed the bear and catch up to then later, then they can use that opportunity to escape her.“You’re feeding him grass?” Lara suddenly blurted. “He eats grass? You should have to
“What are you doing here?” Draven asked harshly.Diane shrugged as she approached them. “I followed, why? Although I must say that the change of route was unexpected. Whatever for?”“We were running from you,” Lara admitted.“Running?” She shook her head regrettably. “You guys, am I some monster to run from? Although those attempts are futile because I have this beast with me. She can smell you from a mile away.”“You said she’s dying,” Draven chipped in, eager to remove the running away rumor. “What could she be dying from?”Diane stared directly at him. “I heard you guys discussing a moment ago that everything here is dying. I guess now that everyone is noticing these changes, I don’t need to keep it a secret anymore.”Leo stood up from his spot. This was it. This was the one thing he knew that wasn’t right.“What aren’t you telling us, Diane? Are you responsible for the silence in the forest?” Leo laughed. “It’s got to be way more than that.”“You’re right; it is way more than that
Timothy Sinclair laughed. He turned away from the screen and looked to the three other people in the room—two executives and the game changer. He gestured to the screen as he spoke to them.“Can you see that? She’s plotting ways to kill me.”One of the executives coughed self consciously. He was a man in his late thirties and he had better things to do than sit and watch his boss prowl over and fold over some girl.“Why don’t we just let her be, huh?” he asked. “She has proven time and time again that she’s dangerous… and powerful.”Timothy laughed. “Are you saying I’m not the powerful one?”“I’m saying that you’re obsessed with her. It’s unhealthy. We don’t need to destroy everything we’ve built just because you want to fish out some girl.”Timothy looked back to this screen, his hand in a fist. Diane had found new puppets that she would play with, it seems. Did she think a couple of guys would stop his wrath? Ha. What a joke!“I cannot it go,” he said to the room. “Henry, I want you
Diane was lost in her own thoughts. When she roasted the cubs that Lara had so happily given out, she fazed in and out. Sometimes she was back at home in her bed and other times she was at that cave with Timothy, torturing him. Poor Timmy. He probably didn’t understand why she needed to do all of that. When it had first happened, she was elated with happiness. She thought for sure that she had sucked someone from the outside realm, not knowing it was just on the outskirts that she had brought him from.“Did you ever imagine seeing humans with such power?” she asked him then. “Imagine if we have thinsg like this in the real world.”“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” he’d replied, and then he called her a “Flight bird.”Diane was furious, as usual. She thought he was insulting her. Whatever he said didn’t bother her, all she knew was that she’d found the perfect person to use in her experiments. He was defiant, which challenged her even more. There was nothing Diane liked more than challeng
She pushed away from him and saw that she was drenched. Diane looked around in confusion. She was in a shallow stream and was probably brought out from there. It was so shallow that she could see the sand underneath. Draven, Leo and Lara gathered around her, fluttering about.“What’s the matter with you?” Draven hissed. “Are you begging for death or something?’Diane looked up at him. He was sort of holding her up. She saw that his legs and hands were drenched too, which told her that he had been the one who pulled her out of the water. He was looking at her now with the kind of judgmental eyes people looked at those who were selfish enough to kill themselves.Diane shook her head adamantly. “I didn’t do this, I swear!” she said desperately. “It was Timothy! It is all his doing!”“Who’s Timothy again?” Leo asked on a side note.“He’s the one haunting her; the owner of the game,” Draven responded.“Ahhh, the one who built this game,” Leo smirked as he looked down at Diane. “You tried t
“You do know that none of this is our business,” Leo said as they began their journey. “I know we agreed to help you, but this is as far as our help go. No one is staying awake just because you can’t sleep.”“He can perforate you guys’ dreams!” Diane argued hotly. “I’m trying to protect you, don’t you understand? I’m trying to protect all of you!”“It is your dream that he can come in, not in ours. You’re just trying to make everyone as miserable as you are,” Leo said.Before they could start arguing, Draven raised his hand in the air.“Guys, let’s not start. We’re all going to sleep… except for you, Diane.”She grunted in frustration. “Ugh, what do you guys think this is? Some child’s play where anyone can do whatever they want?”“We know it’s not a child’s play,” Leo said. “We’re just not trying to be actively involved in your fight with this guy.”“You’re traveling with me! You’re potentially now a part of my crew—”“This is our crew, Diane. You just came out of nowhere and joined
The search spanned into midnight. They searched and searched and searched, but Diane was not satisfied with the couple of materials that they came up with. She wanted more, and so they moved to a couple of other different locations.Draven did not fail to see how each location was a little darker and quieter than the last. They were all exhausted from moving too much, but she didn’t seem to mind. She wanted more, wanted to check out so many spots, wanted to see a better quality of crystals.“I know a witch’s lair around here,” she said at last, when they got to the last location and didn’t come up with anything reasonable.Draven grabbed her hand and drew her close to him so no one would hear. “Why do I feel that you’ve been leading us by the tail since morning?” he asked.“Why would you even think that I’ll do that?” Diane asked him. “You’ve been sincerely helping me despite our past relations, so I won’t want to spoil that by playing you guys, would I?”“Good, because if I suspect a
Draven and Diane ran in with hands full of stones and valuables needed for the ritual. When they reached Leo, they dumped everything on the floor and tried to attend to him.“You were three minutes late!” Leo yelled, and then shifted.Everyone stood still. There was Lara, twitching so hard that it started the beast. The bear shifted away from her, whining into the midnight as her skin burned the grass underneath. Her body was so red they could practically see it burning.“What the fuck is happening?” Diane asked, scared.“Damn it if I know,” Leo shouted. “I just came here and met her like this.” He touched her skin and then pulled back, biting his lips so he won’t scream again. “Fuck, she’s burning.”“It’s Timothy,” Draven suddenly realized. “He’s the one. Just as you predicted, Diane, he got into our head.”“He got into her head and she’s asleep,” Diane corrected.“There’s no time. Is there anything we can do to draw her out of that nightmare she’s obviously on?” Leo asked desperatel