Mansion in the Forest

ANOTHER ENEMY

Aside from the pungent odor, a disgusting scene is in front of them now. The room is filled with a lot of glass jars and the contents are concentrated on the body parts of the monsters and human remains.

"What the hell are these?" Denver croaked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"This is so disgusting!" Jazen shrieked and turned her back against them as she started to gag.

"I know this kid.." Trevor mumbled while walking to the shelf. Then he looked over his shoulder when he finally recognized the owner of the head in the jar. "It's Bob."

"Didn't he get adopted? What is he doing here?" Lexi asked.

Bob was one of the orphans in the mansion, at the age of 6, he got adopted by two young rich couples living in the city. They took him and they never heard anything from him again. All of the orphans were envious at his fate, not knowing that ten years later, they will see his severed head inside a jar along with another two people that Lexi and Trevor assumed were that young rich couple who adopted Bob.

"Why did Uncle Sam kill them?" Siena asked, though disgusted, she still managed to looked at the jars with the heads of people.

"Poor boy, all he wants is a family but ended up dying in that old man's hands." Blake shook his head and turned to walk to check the other jars which contained other unfamiliar heads of people and monsters. Then he froze when he found something he didn't want to see. He stumbled back, hitting her butt on the floor with a heavy thud.

"What happened—?" Denver stopped and his eyes widened when he saw Francis's head inside a jar. "s**t!" He exclaimed and ran to the corner and started vomiting, joining Jazen.

"What the hell." Lexi mumbled while looking at Francis's head.

"Look, this is his body." Iris pointed at the table on the farthest corner as she lifted up the torch to see it clearly. But it wasn't alone, there are another body lying next to the first body and even if Denver couldn't see its head, he knew who it was. Then he vomited again but this time, there were also tears in her eyes.

"That's Lei." Iris said.

"His head might probably be in here."

"Please, don't tell me where it is." Denver said while waving his hand.

"I don't think Uncle Sam did all of this." Trevor commented and they all looked up from where they entered as they could still hear the banging outside the door.

"We're doomed." Siena sighed, she's starting to breathe heavily. Iris walked back to her and started rubbing her back to calm her down. "We are so dead, Iris!"

"No we're not, just calm down."

"Everybody shut up." Lexi rebuked them when she heard the door finally break and she heard footsteps above them.

Iris quickly puts out the fire in the torch and they all hide at the darkest corner.

"Why did you lock it?" A man's voice said above them.

"I did not." Another man replied and they were walking around the house. "Do you think there is someone hiding in here?"

"Who has the guts to go here? Those teenagers are still out in the woods and probably dead by now." He laughed.

"Does he really think we're weak?" Iris hissed but Siena nudged her to stop her talking or those guys above them might hear them.

"We have to go back in the forest to look for those teenagers." The first guy said.

"Can't we wait for the sunrise?"

"No, time is ticking. If those monsters don't kill them, we'll both be in trouble when they escape."

"How about the girl?"

"Just leave her be, she'll die soon." The first guy said as he walked to the door and the kids waited for the door to close before Denver light up the torch again.

"Who are they?" Jazen asked as she sat at the barrel behind her, but she startled when she felt the barrel move. She leaped off abruptly which made everyone look at her ludicrously. "That barrel moved!"

Lexi unsheathed her sword and walked towards the barrel, she kicked it and Jazen was right, it was moving, as if there's someone inside and wanted to go out so badly.

"Step back." Lexi told them as she moved forward and carefully removed the cap of the barrel using the tip of her swords. When She removed the lid they all cried out in panic when a head suddenly appeared. But they also stopped immediately when they recognized who was inside the barrel. It was Chantelle, the real Chantelle they were looking for.

"Oh God!" Jisu exclaimed and ran towards the girl and helped her out.

Chantelle was feeble and could barely move. Jisu laid her down onto the floor and tapped her face multiple times just to make sure that the girl was still alive.

The girl whimpered and groaned, her throat was too dry to even utter a word so she settled down at whimpering.

"Quick, someone get me a glass of water." Jisu requested which Lexi quickly obliged. She ran upstairs, opening the door carefully and checked the perimeter before coming out and ran to the kitchen. She grabbed the bottled mineral at the fridge before running back down, almost skipping the stairs.

"Here."

As soon as she handed the water, Jisu removed the cap and helped Chantelle to sit, she put the tip of the bottle near the girl's mouth and helped her drink.

"Okay, now that we got her, we only need Herlie." Siena said.

"Right, we will go inside at sunrise. For the meantime, we have to stay here and wait for those guys to get back and let's attack them." Lexi instructed which everyone agreed. "Check the kitchen if there's something to eat."

"I don't think I can still eat after seeing this disgusting room." Jazen said, her face pale and her throat is too dry because of puking too much.

"Me too." Denver said.

"Then more food for me." Siena said as she looked over her shoulder before walking to the stairs. "Let's go, Blake."

"You go." Blake dismissively waved his hand while staring at Francis's body as if he's looking for something.

"Just in case you still want to eat, I'll keep some for you." Siena continued her way upstairs with Iris who's helping Trevor.

"How many days have you been here?" Lexi asked the weak girl who can barely open her eyes.

"I don't know." She replied.

"We should bring her upstairs so she can eat." Lexi suggested as she helped Chantelle. She wrapped the girl's around her shoulder and Lexi's hand around her waist, Jisu did the same and they went up.

While all of them are eating without Blake who decided to stay downstairs, Jazen heard footsteps coming towards the door since she was their lookout.

"They're coming." She warned her friends, Jisu hid the girl behind the countertop along with Trevor while the others stayed behind the wall and prepared for an attack once the men entered the house.

The door swung open and the two guys walked in, not even aware that there were people waiting for the right timing to attack. Lexi looked at them and nodded her head as they all attacked the two guys simultaneously.

Iris and Siena kicked the back of their knees and the guys dropped down, they were both surprised at the sudden attack behind them which didn't allow them to fight back. The two teenagers locked their hands behind them while Jazen pointed the gun on their heads.

"Don't move if you don't want to die." Jazen warned them.

"How did you guys get in here?" One of the guy asked, he tried to struggle from Siena's grip but the latter pressed her knee behind him, putting all of her weight on it. "Ugh!"

"Are you Sakura's men?" Lexi asked as she sat down to see the guy's face.

"Who the hell was that?" The other guy asked, his face screamed real pain because Iris wrenched his arms brutally and wanted to break them as she could remember the things they found under the house.

"Look, we don't want to do this, we just want to know who you worked for." Lexi said calmly.

"If we tell you that we're working for the government, will you tell this girl to loosen it up a bit? She's going to break my arm!"

"You're working for the government? What has the government got to do with this?" Lexi asked confusedly, ignoring the guy's whine.

"We don't know either! We were just following the orders!"

"Orders like what?" Lexi pressed but the guys didn't respond to that and they kept their mouths shut. So Lexi borrowed Jazen's gun and she stood up, walked around and shot the guy's leg under Iris' grip.

"Argh! f**k, why did you shot me?!"

"Well, I asked the two of you but you didn't give me an answer." Lexi shrugged her shoulders and she walked to another guy.

"No no please don't shoot me!" The guy begged.

"Then tell me! What has the government got to do with this?" Lexi asked again.

"They are trying to hide what's going on in this place so people outside won't get scared!"

"That's it?" Lexi pressed.

"And they asked Sakura to send all of you here because you guys know about this place and about the monsters!"

"The government and Sakura are working together?!" Siena exclaimed.

"Yes, and just so you know, they wanted all of you to die by sending them here." The guy with a bullet in his leg, said. "And even if you survive here and get out, the government will still find a way to execute all of you!"

"Great, now we found another enemy." Denver sighed as he stepped out behind the counter.

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