Demons, Dragons, and Skullcrawlers

Chapter Three: Planning

The area around us quickly dimmed as the sun vanished behind the cracked sky over us, plunging the area into darkness. I saw Edd shiver as the light vanished and sit down next to a tree. "We should stay where we are until morning, we have no clue what's out there," Edd suggested as Tom sat down too. Matt stopped looking out of the forest, which appeared to be a little safer than being out in the open.

I nodded, glancing around anxiously before sitting down too. "Yeah, that's a good idea," I agreed. Tom took his flask back out of his pocket and took a swig. "Tom, I said not to drink!" Edd exclaimed, trying to remove the flask from Tom's hand. Tom snatched it away and took one more sip. "Shut up, I'm freaking out and it's keeping me calm!" Tom sounded scared, which made me a bit uneasy. I wasn't used to him actually showing too much emotion, so seeing his hands shaking as he took sips from his flasks made me feel a bit nervous. 

"Wait, what was that?" Matt whispered as he turned around and looked behind us. I turned too and saw nothing as Edd managed to get the flask away from Tom. "I don't hear anything," I said as I kept my eyes out. I couldn't see much at all, mostly just the silhouettes of the trees and the water moving in the swamp. Matt shook his head. "Never mind, I could've sworn I heard something." A loud screech tore through the silence, making all of us jump.

Edd covered Matt's mouth as the sound of footsteps got closer. I held my breath as I heard heavy breathing a few feet behind us; it didn't sound human. After a few tense minutes, whatever it was walked away, leaving all of us pretty shaken up. I shivered as a cold breeze blew past me, making goosebumps appear on my skin. "Can we start a fire?" Tom grumbled as he rubbed his arms. "Yeah, I think that's a good idea," Edd said as he looked up at me.

"What?" I asked, raising one eyebrow. Did he expect me to know how to build a fire? I did, but I didn't think he'd just look up at me immediately. "You know how to make a fire, right?" Edd asked, looking a little worried. I sighed and picked up a few sticks, placing them in a pile. "Matt, do me a favor and put some of those rocks around the pile so we don't start a forest fire and kill all of us," I pointed at a few large stones near Matt and helped him put the stones around the wood pile.

"No, we can't use my Smirnoff to start a fire!" Tom suddenly yelled after Edd muttered something I couldn't hear to him. I looked up and saw Edd was holding the flask away from Tom. "We don't have anything else to use, Tom, just deal with it for now and maybe we can find more sometime," Edd said as he tossed me the flask. "We don't even know where we are! Who says we'll be able to find any?!" Tom yelled back, looking a little worried. 

I laughed a bit and poured the vodka onto the sticks, using some rocks to make a spark. The fire lit up and I sat back, enjoying the warmth coming from the flames. "I hate you guys," Tom grumbled as the fire crackled, smoke rising through the canopy and into the air. Edd looked up at the rising smoke for a few moments. "Hopefully that doesn't give away our position," He muttered.

I leaned back and tossed Tom his now empty flask. "Here you go, I don't have a use for this," I said as I heard a slight rumble from my stomach. "I'm hungry," Matt whimpered, clutching his stomach. "I am too," I added, the hunger hitting me all at once when I realized I still didn't get to eat my bacon from earlier today. "I vote we eat Tom," I blurted out. "What the fuck!" Tom yelled, looking more annoyed than he already did. 

Edd shook his head. "Nah, Tom's more alcohol than human, there'd be no point," Edd chuckled a bit as Tom punched his arm. "All of you suck," Tom mumbled as he laid down on the ground, facing away from us. I chuckled and was about to say something else when Edd shook his head and made me stop. Matt looked like he was deep in thought for a few minutes before he finally spoke. "I saw some small crabs skittering around near the swamp, maybe we could catch some of those," Matt suggested.