Who's Laughing Now?

4

Tori handed Ainsley some napkins before hopping into the passenger seat of the car. Meanwhile, both Seth and Lewis had tied Ari down with the rope Ainsley packed, and wiped her face with napkins before lifting her into the trunk of the car. They first had to move all of their bags to the side though. Ari wanted to help somehow, so she kept the duplicate of Lewis busy by shoving her phone flashlight into his face. As Ainsley helped themselves into the car, Tori noticed how carefully they got in and decided to pop the question.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Nothing important," they responded whilst strapping themselves in.

"Yeah, but you've been limping this whole way along, is you foot hurt?"

"I jumped from the cliff," they admitted. Tori looked at them as if they were crazy.

"When was this? You were fine this morning-"

"When Seth had told you I wasn't home. One of the duplicates caught me and brought me up to the top of the hill that you can see from out my window. It was your duplicate, but I got away. I just couldn't get back down to the bottom. I don't know how I got up there, because I was knocked unconscious. And I didn't have anything in my bag that was gonna help me get down, nor did I have any signal to call anyone," Ainsley explained.

"Yeah, but why didn't you say anything afterward? Lewis packed his aid kit..."

"They don't like me Tori!!" They interrupted. I'm only trying to work with them because we're forced to work together to defeat these characters. And I'm already getting a headache from them. I'm starting to wish I never even wrote the book." Tori placed her hand on Ainsley's right thigh.

"Hey, this isn't any of our faults. We don't even know what caused this to happen." Tori looked around before lowering her voice to a whisper, remembering that Ari was being put in the trunk. "All we have to do is find Layla, and find the book, and we'll be good."

"How though? We'll have to go back into the woods and find the same place we got lost at. And at the same time, we have to find the duplicate Layla, which is in the other direction. How on earth would we go find them both at once before it's too late?" Ainsley asked in a whisper.

"We split up. You take Seth and Lewis to find the book, and I will take Ari."

"No, that's too dangerous, we have Ari's duplicate in the trunk. She could shoot spikes up to get herself out."

"Where does Ari's powers come from?"

"Her mind, for the illusions and her black eye for sharp objects," they responded.

"Then I'll tell the boys to wrap her eye with something-" Ainsley interrupted her.

"No!! Just take Lewis instead. I don't want to risk anything." Tori sighed and slouched back in her chair.

"Fine, I'll take Lewis. But I'll still tell them to wrap her eye."

"Do you have a plan?" Ainsley questioned.

"Since we have the duplicate Ari, we can somehow convince her to tell her where everyone is. I'm sure you already know where their hideout is, but most are probably out here looking for us and she can tell us where everyone is."

"If possible. But I made Seth's duplicate have the power to find locations." The back car doors opened and Seth and Lewis sat down inside. Ainsley didn't take their eyes off Tori though. "So you would take the car right? It only makes sense. We can't bring it down in the woods with us. Plus none of us can drive."

"True...so just take the stuff you need from out the back," Tori instructed. "You too Seth. And get some of Ari's things too. Everything of hers is pink." Tori looked at Lewis. "Can they take your first aid kit Lewis? They'll need it more than us." Lewis nodded and reached his hand to the back of the car, feeling around for his aid kit. At that moment, Ari got inside of the car. "Hey Ari?" She looked up. "Do you have a scarf or anything in your bags? Or possibly a sleeping mask?" Ari thought for a moment.

"No, it's summer time, so I don't have a scarf. I do have a sleeping mask. I always carry one with me."

"Well, to prevent us from dying, we're gonna need your sleeping mask to cover your duplicate's face. Her powers come from her eye." Ari nodded and looked back at Seth who was still in the back, grabbing things.

"Hey Seth, can you look in my pink purse back there and see if you see my purple sleeping mask?" Seth lifted a small bag.

"This one?"

"Yep! It should be in there somewhere. And whenever you find it, can you put it on my duplicate's face please?" Seth nodded and began searching through the small purse. Didn't take long to find at all.

Tori placed her foot on the petal and began driving forward. She planned to drop Ainsley, Ari and Seth off at the place they traveled to the other day. That was only how far she could take them.

When she arrived, she pulled up to the side of the roads and looked out the window. You could see that there was one path going up a hill, and another going down. The path going downward, it was much easier to spot all of the trees and bushes. Last time they all had been here, they went up the hill instead of down only because you couldn't see anything that was up there no matter how far you looked up. The group was curious at the time. Then Layla got them lost, and then Ari threw the book down to the lower part of the forest. The part of the forest that Ainsley, Seth and Ari had to go look through to find the book. Tori turned around to face everyone in the back.

"So...you all know the plan, correct?" she asked. Exactly what Ainsley and her discussed, is what she told the group in the back as they drove up to this spot. And surprisingly, no one had a huge fuss about it. Not even Ari. Tori assumed that she finally was taking everything serious because all it took was to snatch Layla and involve tons of blood. Seth, Ari and Ainsley started heading out the car. Tori grabbed her friend's hand with a slight grip on it.

"Please let them fix your foot, you guys will be walking a lot. I don't want you hurting yourself more." Ainsley nodded their head rapidly without looking at the blonde. "Ainsley I'm serious-" The redhead untwined their fingers from hers and opened the car door to get out. "Ainsley!!" Tori called out one last time. But they just slammed the door shut and started walking towards the downhill part of the forest before the other two. When Seth and Ari realized that Ainsley was already going without them, they quickly tried catching up. But Seth came to a halt when he heard Tori shouting his name and gesturing him to come back to the car. He turned around and started heading towards the red car Lewis just got out of. He began making his way to the passenger seat of the car just as Seth came back.

"Yeah?" Tori ducked a little lower so that she could make eye contact with Seth through the passenger seat window.

"I need you to make sure Ainsley's foot is wrapped since you have the first aid kit. They're gonna be very stubborn with you, but please just somehow get them to sit down so you can do your thing. Please?" Seth's face lit up.

"Of course, Tori!!" Lewis opened the passenger seat door, and before sitting down, he gave Seth a little nod, that he quickly returned back. Seth looked behind him to see that Ari and Ainsley were both already gone. As Tori drove off, he started whispering to himself. "Hopefully they didn't go too far yet..."