Mansion in the Forest

But Can You Kiss Her Though?

They all set when the sun rises, giving them light and motivation; to kill all the monsters and fight for their life just to get Herlie safe and unharmed. They needed the kid in order to live outside the forest or hoping to live outside the country where they can be who they want and don't need to hide.

The government, the monsters, Uncle Sam and Sakura are their enemies but one of them is relevant in their lives from now on. Lexi still pretended that she didn't know Sakura's plan and she still communicated with her just like before.

"Are you guys ready?" Lexi asked, looking over her shoulder.

"Do we have any choice?" Iris snorted.

"Are you sure you can fight?" Jisu asked Chantelle who seemed to be fine after having a complete sleep and enough food and water.

"Yes, relax. I got this. I won't let another monster take away my identity."

"Good, because I'm not going to introduce a monster to my parents as my girlfriend."

"Here we go with lesbianism." Blake scoffed.

"Can you just shut up?" Jazen sneered at him.

"What? I'm just stating the—."

"Okay, that's enough. I asked if you guys are ready to fight the monsters, not to fight each other." Lexi rebuked them. Her hands reached for the metal knob and let out a sigh before pulling it open.

They all stepped out from the small house, heaved a deep breath to have some fresh air and exhaled simultaneously before laughing together.

"I'm scared, should I back out?" Lexi joked and they laughed even louder.

"Let's just go, we can't waste another day." Trevor said as he wrapped his arm around Lexi's shoulder but Jazen slapped his arm. "What?"

"Can you give her some space?"

"What do you mean?" Trevor asked confusedly.

"If you're going to put your arm on her, how could she fight those monsters?" Jazen rolled her eyes at her girlfriend's best friend.

"Just say you're jealous because I can do anything with Lexi." Trevor mocks her with a smug smile.

"Oh yeah? But can you kiss her though?"

"We did, a lot." Trevor shrugged his shoulders, his smug smile growing wider.

"How dare you!" Jazen gasped, glaring at the guy.

"I love this drama." Blake whispered to Denver who just laughed.

Lexi suddenly turned her heels, walked back to the house and shut the door. The other teenagers were just looking at the closed door with confusing eyes as to why Lexi went back inside.

"What is she doing?" Siena asked.

"Because all of you are stupid." Iris snorted as she uncrossed her arms and followed Lexi. She kicked the door open and walked inside. She then grabbed Lexi out of the house. "Let's go back to where everything started."

"Is everyone done fighting though?" Lexi asked while she's letting Iris drag her ass towards the main door of the mansion.

"Just ignore them, you can't stop everyone from bantering." Iris said as the mature one in their squad.

"Move, I will shoot the chain." Jazen stepped out in front while the others backed away. She fired her shotgun and broke the chains, then Blake and Denver removed it around the door and threw it away.

They all looked at each other, and nodded, as if that nod was their cue to open the door and so the two pushed it open, it created loud creaking sounds, vibrating at the whole mansion.

"It looks like a haunted mansion." Denver commented.

"It is, dumbass." Siena retorted. "But not with ghosts."

"We have to go down to the basement and blow it up." Blake suggested which is the easiest way than fighting all of them inside that dark basement. "We can use those explosives outside."

"We can't, Herlie is with them."

"How sure are you that those monsters didn't eat her yet?" Denver asked, looking at Lexi.

"Because she is their princess and will take their queen's position." Lexi replied. She unsheathed her sword as she walked towards the hallway that leads to the basement while everyone was on her heels.

They light up the lantern and torches they brought with them but when they reached the final hallway, Lexi stopped when she couldn't hear anything inside, not even a snarl or growl or even shuffling sounds, nothing but an eerie silence and rotting stench.

"Give me that." She held out her hand and Jisu gave her the torch she was holding. "Wait for me here." She said then walked alone to the hallway until she reached the door. She leaned her ear to the wooden door but still no sounds coming behind it. So she decided to open it and was surprised to see nothing but bones of those people they killed ten years ago. "They're not here!" She shouted.

"What did she say?" Iris asked, particularly to no one but herself.

"They're not here." Jisu answered the question, then when she realized what Lexi had shouted, they all scurried down the hallway and saw Lexi inside the room, alone. No monsters or Herlie.

"They're gone." Lexi said. She's confused as everyone else inside the room, who were expecting the monsters but they saw nothing.

"Where did they go?" Jazen asked even if no one knows the answer or where they might go after taking Herlie.

"Do you think they already leave this place since they have what they need?" Trevor tells them. It was really obvious that after they took Herlie, they suddenly left the mansion. They waited ten years for this to happen, and now they have no reason anymore to stay at the mansion.

So the question is, where did everyone go?

"We have to find them or we're all gonna die." Iris ran to the back door, the way where they were supposed to exit before but it was locked outside.

"I have to inform Sakura that—."

"Don't!" Jisu stopped Lexi from calling Sakura. "If you do, then she'll know that those monsters already have Herlie and we'll have no chance to blackmail her to help us escape this country."

"She's right." Trevor agreed to her, he shook his head to Lexi as if telling her not to inform the Queen.

"Okay then." Lexi sighed and she shoved her phone inside her pocket. "Now we have to find those monsters."

"There's no chance that they would go out of this forest so we have to search this mansion first." Jazen suggested so they split up again and start searching the whole mansion. They took half a day to search it but still no monsters were on sight, even in every secret room.

They all meet up in the living room and decide to search in the forest. First destination is in the cave, where they left Uncle Sam's body.

"Careful." Lexi warns them while they are all walking inside the cave, but there's still none, even Uncle Sam's body wasn't there, just a trace of his dry blood.

"Now what?" Denver asked, looking at Lexi again, as if she became their leader and the one who's in command of the next move they will do.

"Let's just walk around, I’m sure they haven’t gone far yet."

"Then let's go." Trevor said as he led the way.

Jisu was trying to recognise all the paths they were walking to as she needed it once they wanted to leave the forest. While they were all searching for the possible place where the monsters were heading, Jisu saw the hill with the weird sculpture that the monster was referring to.

"Wait." Jisu stopped them then she turned to Blake. "Can I borrow your dagger?"

"Uh what for?" Blake asked but he already unsheathed his dagger and handed it to Jisu.

"I just need to leave a mark in this tree." Jisu replied while leaving a big arrow pointing east at the body of the tree so once she saw it again, she knew where exactly they needed to run. "Here you go. Thank you." She handed back Blake's dagger and they continued to run again.

It's been two hours and yet, they still couldn't find any other cave aside from the first cave they saw. They are all thirsty and hungry, good thing Jisu always has food in her big backpack.

They started to eat but they didn't stop searching. Wasting time wasn't on their list now because they know that it'll be harder to search at night.

"Can we just take a rest for a minute?" Siena was panting hard when they reached the waterfall. They all sat at the rock formations near the water, taking the opportunity to rest their tired feet.

Lexi walked to the edge of the lake and watched her reflection from it. There is a power and a brilliance in the tranquility, a place of stillness even in the roar of the water, but those who fall in the plunge pool are often retrieved by the divers long after they've expired.

She dipped her hand into the water and felt relaxed. So she decided to find a rock where she could sit and dip her feet on the water. As soon as she found one, she sat there and removed her shoes, dipped her feet and play them underneath. But as she was busy enjoying the cold water in her skin, she noticed a shadow near the waterfall and she smirked when she had a glimpse of bloodshot eyes through the roaring falling water.

"I found them."

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