Mansion in the Forest

ARE THOSE BOXES IN THERE LAST NIGHT?

The cold night expands as black angel wings, protecting earth as she dreams, night gives them ever more reason to draw closer to one another, to feel the natural warmth they are born to give. It was so freezing cold and one of the difficult times they needed to stay strong aside from fighting the monsters as they waited for the dawn to come.

Lexi felt a body vibrating next to her, she turned to see who it was and saw Trevor. "Hey, are you okay?" She asked worriedly as she wrapped her arms around her best friend.

"Y-yeah." As much as he wants to talk without stuttering, he couldn't do it as he knows to himself that he's not fine and he's on the verge of dying. He lost too much blood, he's getting weak and the cold night added difficulty to breathe.

"You have to sleep, Trev." Jisu tells him as she moves to Trevor's side. She rubbed both of her palms to create heat then cupped Trevor's face. She did it several times before everyone decided to help her and they gave enough heat to stabilise Trevor's breathing.

"You'll be fine, buddy. We'll get out of here." Lexi whispered to him and kissed the top of his head. "I promised." She added.

As the night went deeper, the cold brittle air kept stroking them, but since they didn't stop from giving Trevor the heat he needed, they were sweating and their palms started to feel numb.

"That's enough. Thank you." Lexi said when Trevor finally fell asleep on her lap. Jazen soothingly stroked his hair like a mom helping her son to sleep serenely. "You guys should sleep as well."

"Nah, it's dangerous to even blink, especially that there are monsters underneath us." Iris shook her head.

"We have to wait till the sun comes out and get the hell out of here as quickly as possible." Siena added.

They thought that staying outside the balcony would keep them safe, they were not aware that Sakura's men already found them and they are making a way to call all the monsters inside the room, which is splashing human blood and creating sounds.

"What was that?" Denver asked when he heard the sounds.

"What?" Chantelle asked back, looking at him confusedly.

"Didn't you hear that?"

"What should we hear?" This time, Jazen asked and she peeked between the closed curtains and her eyes slowly widened when she saw a monster inside. "Don't talk." She whispered, getting everyone's attention, then she pointed inside. "There are monsters in there."

"How did they find us?" Lexi whispered so low but enough for everyone to hear.

"Look!" Chantelle pointed at the man standing at the door while letting the monsters inside.

"How come those monsters don't attack him and yet they keep attacking us?" Siena asked.

"That's what I'm concerned about, I mean, they can roam around the mansion without getting eaten by those monsters." Iris pointed out what she could notice since the moment Siena found the phone under the bed that they used to block the door. "There is something really wrong with what is happening in this mansion."

"I'm sure Sakura had something to do with this." Lexi said with certainty in accusing the Queen.

"Stay silent, they won't find us in here if they won't hear us." Jisu tells them and they all shut their mouths.

The room was filled with monsters but since they couldn't see, they were just smelling the blood all over the room but couldn't find the human bodies.

The guy standing at the door looked at the balcony, then he picked up something from his side and walked inside the room, then he three the thing he was holding at the sliding door, luckily the glass was thick and it didn't shatter. The monsters snarled and they walked towards the spot where the sound came from.

"That guy." Jazen hissed past through her teeth while glaring at the guy. "He's helping the monsters to find us."

"Let's just stay here and hope that these sliding doors won't disappoint us." Lexi said.

They guy didn't stop from that failed attempt, he walked out of the room and after a few minutes, he came back with much bigger stones and threw it on the sliding doors.

"That's it!" Jazen stood up and she pulled out her gun from her waist.

"What are you going to do?" Lexi was shocked and tried to grab Jazen's hand but she didn't get a hold of it as Jazen walked to the sliding doors and she slid it open after shooting the lock. The monsters looked at her spot when they heard the gunshot, but just before they could take steps towards her, Jazen pointed her gun at the guy and shot him dead. His body dropped on the floor and the monsters quickly smelled the scent of his blood and they all ran towards his body and started devouring him. Jazen shut the door once again and walked back to her spot earlier next to Lexi and sat down like nothing happened while everyone looked at her in disbelief.

"What the hell was that?" Lexi asked, flabbergasted.

"He's trying to get us killed so I did the favour for the monsters and gave them dinner." Jazen shrugged her shoulders.

"Crazy." Chantelle chuckled while shaking her head.

The sun blooms on the horizon, golden petals stretching ever outwards into the rich blue. It is the brilliant flower of the sky that warms their days. It is the invitation to a new day, that sunrise so ordinary extraordinary.

As Trevor slowly opened his eyes, feeling so weaker than last night, he looked up and see Lexi sleeping as well as the others in the balcony wherein they decided not to sleep but fell asleep nonetheless. He took that chance to stare at his best friend's face. The face that he always wanted to see every morning since the day he met her at the same mansion where they're at.

He promised himself that he would protect Lexi at all costs. But s**t happens when those guys appear in front of Lexi's apartment. If he hadn't let those men take Lexi away, they wouldn't be where they are now where they need to be strong to save themselves from imminent danger.

He would have been in his classroom thinking about where to take Lexi to eat after his class. Then he will spend time in her apartment while nauseating his best friend. It was one of the things he regretted at this time and with remorse he let Lexi go that day.

But what can he do? Lexi found her dying biological mother inside the hospital after abandoning her in the mansion without leaving any trace of who her parents were.

Lexi felt the pair of eyes staring at her so she shot her eyes open in alert and met her best friend's eyes. "Trev."

"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?" Trevor asked with playfulness in his voice even if he's in excruciating pain and on the verge of dying.

"Yes, a lot, since we were 7." Lexi chuckled.

"I'm sorry Lex." He then mumbled and let the lone tear escape from his left eye. "I'm sorry if I couldn't fulfill my promise of protecting you."

"Trev, don't talk like you're going to die because you're not. I'll get you out of here and bring you to the hospital so I want you to stay with me till then." Lexi said and she decided to wake up everyone so they could leave the place. It was morning so they were free to walk out of the forest and they were sure no monster would dare to walk in the middle of the light.

"Let's get out of here." Iris said as she stood up and she was about to go down but Siena stopped her from doing so when she noticed that there's something wrong beneath them. "What?"

"Are those boxes in there last night?" Siena asked confusedly. They all looked down and saw piled boxes on the ground and a TnT outside of the box written on it.

"Please tell me that those are not dynamites." Denver said as he backed away from the fence.

"It is." Blake said since he was familiar with those kinds of explosives. He worked for the army as an EOD but got relieved from his duty since he had violated strict guidelines from accidentally killing one of his co-workers in the field when he tried to test one of their explosives and killed his partner.

"What the hell are they trying to do now?" Siena groaned.

"Stop us from leaving this place." Chantelle scoffed and she also backed away and sat down again.

"I can disarm it." Blake said while scanning the explosives that there was a trigger device attached in one of the boxes.

"You do?" Lexi asked which Blake nodded his head as a response. "So how?"

"I can't tell you unless I won't see it closer."

"But how did you know about explosives? And how sure are you that we can trust you?" Jazen asked him mockingly.

"As much as I want all of you to disappear and take the prizes all by myself, I can't because you guys saved me multiple times." Blake shrugged his shoulders and he turned to Lexi. "If you guys don't want to believe me, you can go down with me."

"How can we go down if there's a trigger on that explosives?"

"You can jump high, I saw it last night so you don't have to worry about yourself. Let's just avoid hitting those boxes so we wouldn't trigger it."

Lexi stared at Blake, even if she's doubt about him, she really didn't have much of a choice but to risk everything and agreed to him. So she nodded her head and stood on her feet.

"Okay, let's do it." She said.

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