Devils Den

89

"Is that my sweater?"  Emrys panted as he questioned Jude, pointing to Jude's waist–where Emrys bloodied sweater was tied. He let go of my hand seeing Jude staring at our hands.

"This?" Jude didn't let go of my hand as he lifted the torn sweater sleeves with his free hand. "We found it before the wall opened. I knew it was yours," Jude started.

"How'd you know it was mine?" Emrys interrupted.

"Before we got transferred to our houses, you told me you'd stitch your initials into the inside of the right sleeve so you would be seen as fancy and know if one of your housemates stole your sweaters," Jude explained, letting go of my hand to untie the sweater around his waist. He moved the torn fabric to reveal Emrys initials.

E.C.S.

Sewn in gold lettering.

"Emrys Cardan Sayre." Jude's thumb ran over the sewn initials.

"I regret telling you my full name." Emrys shook his head with a chuckle. "I hate my middle name."

"Why?" I looked at him in confusion. "Cardan's not a bad name."

"It's not, but it doesn't match me." He shrugged.

"Shh." Felix pressed his back against a tree. "They're here." He trembled in fear.

Jude tied the sweater to his waist again before he grabbed my arm, pulling me to his chest as he pressed his back against another tree. Emrys doing the same with the tree beside us, except his chest was against the tree instead of his back so he could peek out easier.

Emrys looked towards me and Jude, holding up 2 fingers indicating he saw two creatures. 

"Jude..." I whispered, my heart beating fast at our proximity.

"Shh, it's okay." He held my head to his chest, his heart beating rapidly along with mine. "We're gonna make it out of this." He assured.

"It's only two, there are four of us. We have the upper hand." Felix spoke up.

"You said that last time." I turned my head to Felix, referring to our fight with Malcolm and his mother.

"That was when we were up against Malcolm's strangely strong mother. But now we're not." He explained.

"There were 12 chasing us, now there are two," Jude interjected. "the other ten are still out there."

"We should make a run for it then," Felix suggested with a low whisper.

"No," Emrys spoke up. "we climb." He jumped grabbing a branch, pulling himself up. "There's no better option. We could be surrounded by now without knowing." Emrys stopped climbing to tell us when he saw the slight fear on my face.

"Should we?" Felix looked to Jude for confirmation.

"Come on." Jude hoisted me up so I could grab a branch. I used all of my strength to hoist me up on the branch, Jude using his arms to support me as much as he can. "Are you good to climb?" He asked me once I fully stood on the branch.

"Yeah, just not fond of the idea of climbing," I answered nervously before climbing even higher, Emrys in the tree beside me.

"Tell me about it." I heard Emrys muttered getting flashbacks of us falling off the wall.

"Get a move on." I heard Jude say to Felix. They climbed their trees, Jude under me.

"How high should we climb?" Emrys asked as he struggled to lift himself up once more. The branches on the tree he was climbing were spread far apart compared to the ones me, Jude, and Felix were climbing.