Blood Moon Lake

Chapter 19

Trigger Warning! ⚠️ Mentions of c@nn!bal!sm, de@d people, and k!dn@pp!ng

After the nightmare, I didn't even try to fall back asleep. Leo had fallen asleep so the only other conscious people in the cage were the adults, but I don't want to talk to them. So, I sat there in silence letting my mind wander while waiting for my friends to wake up. Maybe once they wake up from whatever Brian knocked them out with, they can help me come up with an escape plan. They would probably have some helpful insight. Maybe we won't have to come up with a plan, maybe someone will notice we're missing and come find us. I frowned, no, we were last seen with Brian so he would probably just come up with some sort of lie about us leaving. Dang it, being found would have made it so much easier. I sighed, oh well, we'll just have to figure something out. I was pulled out of my thoughts by the sound of approaching footsteps. Looking up, I saw the lady standing in front of me, I hadn't noticed before since it was dark but now, I could see she had long auburn hair and sparkling hazel eyes. "Mind if we join you?" She asked, "You look lonely." Without waiting for a reply, she and the two guys sat down next to me. Why did she ask if she wasn't going to let me answer? That's the point of asking a question. "Look I know you don't think we're the best of people and I get that," she said, "But maybe if you got to know us a little better, you might trust us. We want to get out of here just as much as you do. If we work together, we might be able to escape." "You want me to trust you when you haven't even told me your names?" I asked skeptically. "Fair point," the lady laughed, "My name is Amelia." "I'm her husband, Chase," the man to her right said, he had coffee-brown eyes and salt-and-pepper hair. "I'm Chase's brother Carmen," the man to the left said, he was slightly younger but had similar brown eyes and more black than gray hair.

"Nice to meet you," I replied, "I'm Luke, the blonde who came in with me last night is Leo. The girl with black hair is Anna, the other girl with burgundy hair is Ella, and the boy with charcoal color hair is Jack." "I'm assuming you're all friends," Amelia guessed. "Anna, Ella, Jack, and I are but Leo found us after his friends were attacked and he just stuck with us." "Oh," Chase said surprised, "Really? I thought you were close friends or something since you kept him from being shot." "Nope," I replied, "That's just human decency. Normal people don't let other people get shot." Amelia sighed, "You're not letting go of that are you?" "No, I'm not," I told her. "I don't blame him," Carmen muttered. Amelia and Chase glared at him, "What!?" he asked, "I wouldn't either." "What are you guys talking about?" A British voice asked. Glancing over I saw Leo was awake and limping over to us. "Just getting to know your friend," Amelia answered smiling at him. "Oh please," Leo scoffed sitting down next to me, "Stop with the smile, not only is that fake thing hurting your face it's hurting my eyes." Amelia's smile dropped from her face, "I was just trying to be nice." "Sure," he said, "Whatever you say." "Leo, be nice!" I scolded. "Gosh, you're worse than Kyle," he complained. "Who's Kyle?" Carmen asked. "A Friend," Leo replied not elaborating. Carmen seemed to connect the dots and realize he was one of the friends I mentioned earlier and dropped the subject. "So," I said, "What do you guys know about this place?" "It's patrolled during the day," Chase said, "But it's mostly empty at night. We're not sure why but we think they go somewhere." I glanced over at Leo silently asking if we should tell them what we know. He gave a slight nod and turned to the adults. "They disappear because they're dead," Leo explained, "Or at least some of them are."

"What!?" Amelia shouted, "How are they dead!?" I shrugged, "Don't know but we arrived at night and found houses of dead people. The next morning, they were all alive and well." Carmen frowned, "That's weird, how does that even work?" "How does what work?" Someone asked. Looking up, I saw Anna and Jack were now awake and coming over to us. "The dead people not being dead when we wake up," I said. "Oh, I had a theory on that," Jac hummed, "You know what time loops are right?" Everyone nodded. "So, I think this is some sort of time loop," he explained, "It repeats the same day over and over again, and at night the murders attack and eat the people and then the loop starts over the next morning." "That's a good theory," I said, "But wouldn't we have heard or seen the demons?" "Demons?" Anna asked. "Oh yeah you weren't conscious for that," I replied, "Those things aren't murderers, their demons looking for hosts and feasting on human flesh." "Oh," Anna muttered, "That is so much worse." "I know right," I replied. "Ahem," Leo said clearing his throat, "Going back to Luke's question I think I have an explanation for that." "What is it?" Jack asked. "I think Jack is right and that it's a time loop, but I don't think it's the same thing repeating over and over again. I think it's the same day, but the people in the loop are carrying on like it isn't. Each day they carry on like normal people but at night the time loop comes back to the present and people can enter it." "But Amelia, Carmen, and Chase came in the middle of the day," I told Leo. Carmen shook his head, "No it was probably around six in the morning when we arrived, it wasn't quite light yet." "So, it might still be possible," I smiled, "This means we want to escape at night." Chase nodded, "Yeah, fewer guards and the only time we can leave." "Now we just need to figure out what other type of security they have," Leo stated, "And probably the time the guards get on and off shifts." "How will we do that?" Anna asked. "By watching them," he replied, "How else?" "Makes sense," she hummed.

We were just about to continue our planning when we were interrupted by very loud yelling. "WHAT THE FUCK!?" Ella screamed, "WHAT IS GOING ON!?" "Welp, Ella's awake," Jack sighed. Getting up and jogging over to where Ella was, I squatted down beside her and shushed her. "Can you please stop yelling?" I asked, "You're gonna make the guard come over." "I will if you tell me what the hell is going on!" Ella stated. "Brian kidnapped us and plans on feeding us to the murderers that turn out to be demons," I told her. "WHAT!?" she screamed. "Sh," I hissed, "Be quiet." "What's all this racket about?" the guard asked looking bored. "Oh, just processing the fact that I was KIDNAPPED!" Ella spat. "Well do it more quietly," the guard replied walking away from the cage. Ella flipped the guard off as she walked away. I sighed, "Ella, do you want to help us come up with an escape plan, or do you want to sit here and freak out about this quietly." "What do you think I am a baby?" Ella asked, "I'm gonna help." "Okay," I said, "Come on." We got up and went back over to the group, Amelia, Carmen, and Chase introduced themselves to Anna, Ella, Leo, and Jack and we went back to planning. "So, what type of security do you think they have?" Jack asked. "Well, they have guards," Ella said, "Probably cameras too." I nodded, "Probably, what about ID scanners or motion detectors?" Chase shook his head, "No, this place is too run down for that. Security cameras are probably the only thing they have in here." Leo nodded, "Chase is right, besides people would get suspicious if someone was buying a whole bunch of tech for security and lugging it out here." "So, just locked doors, cameras, and guards?" Ella asked. Amelia nodded, "Seems like it." "Doesn't sound like it should be too hard." "You wish," Leo scoffed, "We need to learn the guard's patrol routes, what time they switch shifts, and who comes and checks when there's noise. Where the cameras are placed and unless someone knows how to pick locks, we need to steal the key to get out of the cage."

"You sure know an awful lot about breaking out of places," Ella stated, "It's almost like you've had to break out of a jail before." Leo glared at her, "I have not broken out of jail. Besides jail is much more difficult to break out of." "Only a person who's been to jail before would know that," she replied. "Oh please," he muttered, "Everyone knows jail is hard to break out of!" "I don't think so," Ella glared, "Maybe you need to educate us more on it since you've been there." "I have not gone to jail!" Leo argued. "Really?" Ella questioned, "Because I think you have." "Shut up!" I shouted, "No one here has gone to jail and if they have it doesn't matter. Now can we please focus?" "Focus on what?" Someone from outside the cage asked. Spinning around, I came face to face with Brian. He was holding a tray of bowls in his hand and leering down at us. "On the conversation," I answered, "I wanted them to stop arguing and focus on what we were talking about." "And what were you talking about?" he asked. Shoot! Quick think of a lie! "On whether or not we had to pee in the corner of the cage," Ella answered smoothly, "Also I was wondering if I could get my hands on some feminine products. Because unless you want blood all over the place, I would suggest giving me some." Brian shuddered, "I'll find some, and no you pee in a bucket. Now here's your food." Brian slid the tray through an opening and walked away. I picked up one of the bowls and frowned. It was filled with a grey, lumpy, runny mush. "Who wants to try the mush first?" I asked. My friends glanced at the bowls and grimaced. "Noes goes?" I asked. "Noes goes," they nodded. "One, two, three, noes goes!" Anna shouted. All of our hands flew to our noses. "Luke touched his noes last!" Jack said. "Dang it," I groaned. "What was that?" Leo asked. I glanced over at him to see he didn't have his hand on his nose, and he was staring at us like we had grown two heads. "It's noes goes," I explained, "Whoever puts their hand on their nose lasts loses and has to do whatever everyone else didn't want to do first."

Leo shook his head, "That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of." "Well either way you lost so you get to try it first," I told him. 'Okay," he shrugged grabbing a bowl and putting some of the mush in his mouth. "It's not that bad," he told us after a few minutes. "What does it taste like?" Anna asked. "I honestly don't know," Leo told her. "Let me try," I said grabbing a bowl and putting some of the mush in my mouth. It tasted like... Skittles? I frowned, "It tastes like Skittles?" "What?" Ella asked tasting some of it herself, "You're right it does!" Jack and Anna tried it too. "I mean I don't think so but sure," Jack said. "Whatever it is it's not half bad," Anna said shoving more of it in her mouth. We continued to eat our food in silence. I had to agree with Anna, whatever Brian had given us was pretty good. After we were done with our dinner we went to sleep.