Notes

CHAPTER THREE: Pursuers


"Emma! Here it is! This is what we've been looking for!" We all made our way to what seemed to be some sort of plant, "Uh, what is this?"

"Water!" We were all visibly confused, "They're mentioned in the book-" I said the first word I thought of instantly, "Anemones," Lewis remembered where he heard that before, "Hey, isn't that in one of William Minerva's books?" I smiled at the old memory, "Yeah, the one we read together!"

"The point is, they store pure water, watch," he used a scalpel to cut the plant, and put a jar up to it, water came out of it and into the jar, the kids watched in amazement.

"This things obviously aren't real anemones, but if we keep following what the book said, this water should be drinkable, we wont have to go to the river each time to get water." The rest of the time was just them teaching the kids about survival, it was really boring.

We started moving and most of the younger kids seemed to be leading the group as Emma and Ray were behind, talking about something, suddenly there was a sound, like loud footsteps- actually more like stomping, and the ground shook, it felt like an earthquake.

We all turned to face this gigantic, wild- I think 'monster', behind us, "RUN!" I noticed Evelyn was too busy crying to run, 'I swear this kid is going to get us killed', I ran over to her and picked her up on the way, "Eve, why weren't you running? We trained for this!" All she could make out between tears was "Sorry..."

"RAY! WHAT'S THAT THING?! IS THAT IN THE BOOK TOO?!"

"NO THERE'S NOTHING! THIS MUST BE A... A DEMON!!" We were all shocked, the demons Sal saw were said to look like people, with masks, and the ones I remember were like that too, "A DEMON?!"

They started describing the demons they've seen, Sal mistook them for people, and I remember them vaguely, they did seem more like people than gigantic uncontrollable monsters.

The groups split, and I ran behind Don's group, separating me and Evelyn from Lewis and Angel, "Rosa, I can run on my own, I promise I'll be okay," I nodded and put her down. I just ran from a wild demon while carrying a kid, so I was too tired to run any faster, if I did I'd probably run out of energy and collapse, I go any slower I'm dead, so I had to keep up this pace.

At some point I couldn't continue running, so I did something stupid, I hid behind a tree and sat down for a second, if I kept running I would've definitely died right after, a few seconds passed, and I realized I was all alone, I ran, and ran, but I couldn't find any of them, "Found them." I hid behind a tree close to me.

"We will bring them back at once," I took a small peek, they looked exactly like what Sal said, and like what I had seen before, except when she saw them, it was in a dark hall, now that I get a clearer view of it, they looked absolutely terrifying, "Find anything?"

"This thing hasn't eaten. I don't smell any scent of human from his mouth, it hasn't eaten a single human." I flinched at the thought, being eaten by that thing, "Are you hiding over there? You can come out now." I thought they had found me, but I followed to where he was facing, it was a different tree, could it be one of us was there?

The demon kept talking and I was worried about the others, until some words took me out of my trance, "Where are the others?" So me and whoever that is behind the tree are the only ones they found, that's good, I had to protect my family no matter what, Angel was right, I am reckless and unreasonable, but I can't let them die, I got out a scalpel and cut through my arm, making stains of blood on my clothes, 'that should be convincing', I tried to work up some fake tears.

'Even if I run, it'll make noise and they'll chase me, not to mention they're amazing sense of smell', I walked out of where I was hiding, "Hey," I waved at them, the demons instantly turned their attention to me, "You're a bit too late, we got chased by a wild demon, I saw them die in front of my own eyes, and after a few seconds in hiding, that thing chased me, thanks for killing it but..."

I glared at them, "I'll never forgive you for what you did to my family," the demon chuckled, "Well, you should understand why we did it, 91194, I would've never guessed you of all people would lead this little revolution of yours, I thought you wanted to become a Mother?"

"It's funny, you know, we lived all our lives thinking we were in a happy orphanage, you deceived us all, and now I did the same to you, demons really are incompetent, is that why we were all able to escape? Your security system sucks, you can't stop us i you want the children to grow up being healthy and happy, and what are the caretakers gonna do? Chase us?"

I let out a small laugh, "You really are something, for someone who watched her whole family die, you seem quite happy," I glared at them, "Please, I've seen kids die for like, 5 years now, you really think loosing more family members would change anything?"

"So then if the death of others is so meaningless, become a Sister, or even better, a Mother," I smiled, "I would say yes, but I don't plan on taking the same path Sister had to a long time ago, oh- how about a game?"

"A game?" I hummed in response, "I'll become a Mother for you, but...."

"...You'll have to catch me first," I sprinted off running, my plan was to drive them in the opposite direction of where the others had gone, I felt a presence next to me, "You idiot, why would you do that?!"

I turned to look at him, "Ray?! Why are you here? Shouldn't you be-" I then remembered the demons behind us, I couldn't let them know anything, "-dead! Shouldn't you be dead? I mean- I saw that demon and-"

He played along with the act, "I ran away, now keep running, I have a plan," we continued running and I followed behind, we made many sharp turns, but I was getting tired, and before we knew it they surrounded us. "It's over." We saw an opening and Ray ran towards it but tripped on the roots and fell, "RAY!" I was getting tired too, I could barely keep my eyes open.

I remember seeing a strange hooded man, a hand reached out towards us, and that's the last thing I saw before everything went black.