Mansion in the Forest

Uh, You already told her

Heart beating erratically, breathing is unstable, chest rising and falling rapidly. The forest grows ever more dark. Soon the shadows of the trees will blend into the blackness and their silhouettes against the lantern light grew less pronounced. As the view disappears the sounds emerge as if the volume is being steadily turned upward. The breaking of simple leaves or twigs becomes the focus of Lexi's attention; cautiously running into the woods and looking for the monsters who took Herlie.

"Lexi."

The swordswoman looked over her shoulder when she heard a voice calling her name.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" She asked, almost whispering and pulled down Jazen so they could hide under the bush. "Didn't I tell you to stay?!"

"Didn't I tell you that earlier was the last time you'll leave me?!" Jazen growled low on her throat and hit Lexi's shoulder.

"This is not the right moment to—."

"Just shut up." Jazen cuts her off and covers Lexi's mouth with her hand when she sees a monster passing by.

"Hiding is not a very good idea." Jisu said, the couple looked to Lexi's side and saw the girl, crouching next to them.

Lexi shrugged Jazen's hand and she groaned gutturally. "You guys are crazy!"

"Let's just kill it since it's alone." Lexi looked over her shoulder when she heard Trevor's voice.

"Oh God, why did you give me these kinds of friends?" Lexi sighed, slumping down her shoulders.

"We need to make sure first if it's really alone." Iris said, ignoring Lexi's rant.

"You too? I thought you're going to—."

"Yow!" Denver yelled, getting the monster's attention. "Got lost in the woods, huh?"

"What are you doing?!" Lexi was shocked when she saw the boy and tried to pull him back, but Blake stepped out from the dark as well and without thinking twice, he ran forward to the monster.

The monster swung his arm but Blake slide to avoid it and he adjusted his dagger and slice the monster's left foot, then Denver leaped off and kicked the monster, but it didn't stumble back and recollected himself, he snarled loudly, as if he's calling his friends, then ran towards Denver using his hands and feet.

"Such a drastic move." Lexi hissed and she stood up, unsheathed her sword and jumped in front of Denver. She pointed her sword forward and when the monster jumped towards them, she lifted it up and pierced the sword in the monster's chest, but since it was too big and heavy, it fell on top of the two teenagers.

That's when everyone stepped out from the bush. Jazen blew its head off using her shotgun. The monster's body writhed for a moment and stopped. Siena and Blake rolled his body while Jisu and Iris pulled out the two underneath.

"Thanks." Lexi said after she was successfully escaped under. Then she stood up and turned her body around hastily. "What the hell are you all doing here?!" She asked, throwing her arms in the air frustratedly.

"Uncle Sam is dead." Trevor said, not showing a sign of grieving.

"So you left his body like that?"

"Of course." Iris shrugged. "He was covered with blood, the monsters will soon smell the scent of his blood and it's not safe to stay there.

"Right, you guys basically left him to be the monster's prey." Lexi scoffed.

"What do you want us to do? Bring him with us? b***h, those monsters are gonna run after us wherever we try to hide if he's with us." Siena retorted. "Anyway, please don't feel bad that we left him there, at least he told us everything before he died."

"About what?" Lexi asked, eyes looking everywhere to check that there are no monsters around since they are still out of the woods.

"That Jisu was right, that kid is not your sister." Trevor said, waiting for Lexi to look at him before he continued. When Lexi's eyes landed on him, he held her gaze. "Herlie is a monster and she's the daughter of the first monster who arrived in that mansion, your real sister was killed by Father Sitrus—."

"Stop." Lexi cuts him off by lifting her hand in front of Trevor's face.

"Lex, you have to listen to him." Jazen said to convince her to hear everything which is the truth.

Lexi released a deep sigh, trying to contain her emotion about the revelation she heard from her best friend and she nodded her head to tell Trevor to proceed.

"That's all." Trevor said with confused eyes looking at Jazen. "Did you somehow hear anything aside from that?"

"Seriously?" Jazen asked ludicrously. "You're not gonna tell her that Sakura wants Herlie and she's just using Lexi to get the kid and kill all of the since she knows that Lexi was the only person who could defeat all of those monsters?"

"Uh, you already told her." Denver chuckled.

"People shouldn't tell their last will to you, Trev." Jazen scoffed at him and rolled her eyes.

"Can everyone please shut up for a moment?" Lexi tells them, her eyes were closed, her mind is having a short circuit, she couldn't name every emotion she could feel at that exact moment. She looked up abruptly, let out a groan, her jaw moving as if everyone could tell how furious she was. "Just why?" She asked herself.

"Why what?" They asked her back.

"Why do I have to be so stupid and let people took advantage of it?!"

"Lex, please don't blame yourself for that." Trevor held her hands and squeezed them. "If Sakura wants Herlie, then we'll give her, let's kill all the monsters and take her money. We all decided to help you—."

"For a good cause, we have to split up the money." Blake chimes in to interrupt Trevor.

"Right, and Jisu knows the way out so we have no choice but to protect her so she can bring all of us out of here." Iris said and they all nodded their heads.

"Fine." Lexi sighed deeply. "Let's kill all those monsters, take back Herlie and get the money prize from Sakura."

"That's what I like!" Denver said, punching the air as the excitement kicked in.

They all agreed on the plan. Killing all those monsters is practically basic for them, they have skills, strength and intelligence that those monsters don't have.

They were just preceded by fear so they thought they had no ability to fight the monsters and they preferred to hide and run.

But now that they are courageous and determined to face what they fear, nothing can stop the teenagers from showing their fighting ability and focus on their goal.

The money Sakura offered to Lexi was enough to help them once they left that place and returned to their respective homes. So they come up with a plan of splitting it up and never accept another offer just in case they survive their horrible situation.

They continued walking in the middle of the forest, careful and cautiously but prepared for whatever danger awaited them at the end of the secluded forest.

"This is it." Lexi said as they all stood in front of the mansion, the place where they started and the place where they will end everything.

"We're not going to enter that mansion right now, we have to wait for the sunrise, then let's break the main door and make sure that it's not gonna close again so once we are finished, we can still go out." Jisu instructed and they all agreed to it.

They sought refuge while waiting for the sunrise, because they will be able to find Chantelle faster in the morning because that is the time for the monsters to hide, then they will have to wait another night to start killing the monsters until they find Herlie.

They are sure that those monsters will never hurt Herlie, she is a princess of monsters and if they tried to look for her, she can only be found in one place.

In the basement. Where every monster is hiding in the daylight.

As they are looking for a place to hide, they found a small house at the back of the mansion, if Lexi and Trevor were not mistaken, that was the house where Uncle Sam lived back then. They often played in the old man's house so they memorized every corner of the house.

"One time, I saw Uncle Sam emerge from the floor so I think he has a secret room in this house." Lexi said and she went to the bedroom and started searching for a lever. She found a strange handle at the corner of the room, she pulled it and the floor split up in two and in between, there's a stair in it. "I'm right." Lexi said proudly.

"Wait." Jisu stopped Lexi from going down. "We're not sure if there are no monsters down there."

"Relax, this is safe, I just have to check if there are still eligible food downstairs."

"It's been ten years, Lexi. I don't think—." Trevor stopped speaking when they heard a loud shuffling sound at the door. They all turned to it and there was fear in their eyes as they waited for the next thing to happen. The crackle was followed by a loud and successive crash as if someone wanted to open the door.

"Quick, everyone hide here!" Lexi said as she ran to the kitchen, she looked for something they could use so they could have light in their hiding place and she found an old torch with still gas in it then she ran back to the bedroom. She lowered the leverage and jumped before the floor closed, luckily, she fell in the piles of hay.

"That was close." Lexi chuckled and she started lighting up the torch, but as soon as the fire illuminated the whole place, they were flabbergasted for what they could see right in front of them.

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