Jailbird

c h a p t e r LVII

"WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT in the history of the world, that you would give a plausible answer to this riddle!" Sapphire said in admiration.

"That kinda sounds like an insult," Enzo replied as they walked through the woods.

The last challenge was to find a red flag hidden somewhere around the school with only a riddle to help find its emplacement.

Mr. Olsen had given the long-awaited riddle a couple of minutes before, something about the sky, the trees, and a caterpillar, (Sapphire hadn't caught the whole thing; she wasn't very interested in solving it) and while every team had headed to the tallest tree on the premises, Enzo shared his idea with Sapphire and Ayla that maybe, Mr. Olsen was actually talking about the old shed hidden behind a lot of tree near the parking lot.

No one had entered the shed in twenty years if not more, it had been rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a guard who had been said to have died there. Apparently, he'd been locked in it either accidentally or by some children and he had spent a month there. Of course, the whole thing was no more than a myth but still, it was enough to instill a shiver down the students' spines.

"So..." Enzo trailed after walking for a while.

She glanced at him, "Yeah?"

"Aviva's father's coming this Friday," Enzo awkwardly played with the string of his hoodie. "I'm freaking out. What if she gets mad? What if she didn't want me to get involved?"

Sapphire gave him a friendly nudge, "It's going to be fine, when we spoke about him she was worried and sad, she misses him a lot. They haven't seen each other in a whole freaking year! I think she'll be happy."

"You think?"

Sapphire nodded, "Yep."

Enzo smiled a little at the thought of Aviva grinning when he glanced at something between the trees and stopped walking. Sapphire almost fell when he grabbed her arm to stop her too.

She frowned at him and right when she was about to speak he shushed her to say something.

"I'm gonna go check on the backside of the shed," he said, "you take care of the rest."

"Umm, sure?" she replied, unsure.

A few seconds later, he'd disappeared between the trees and she was walking alone. The sun had gone down a bit now that it was the afternoon and the wind had grown weaker making fewer branches move here and there.

Sapphire found the shed after a little searching and debated a long time before entering. Enzo had told her the story about the guard and well let's say it freaked her out a little.

"If I was a flag where would I hide?" she mumbled. "No, if I was Ricky where would I hide the flag, flags can't hide themselves. Can't they?"

The shriek the door let out when opening it was anything but reassuring and the spider webs almost enough for her to turn her back and walk away. Shovels were covered in dust just like pretty much anything in there. Sapphire was about to touch some foreign object to make sure bones weren't hiding under it when a red cloth caught her eye. There, between two hammers sat a red flag.

"Yes!" Sapphire whisper-yelled as she reached to catch it. Now all that was left was to get it back to their base without someone stealing it.

Carefully, she sneaked out with the flag, but before she could walk more than ten feet, the flag disappeared from her hand.

"I'll take that, thank you," a low voice echoed behind her.

Turning around her eyes met Maddox's. He was now holding the red flag high up above her head with a playful smirk dancing on his lips as she scowled.