the light in the shadows

Mateo

Mateo

The weird bunker had a ton of bookshelves and tables with chairs surrounding them.

"If this is a Toxin hideout, I want to trade hideouts 'cause this is amazing." Rose said.

"Ya," I said, amazed. "Is there a light switch anywhere? Or a candle?"

"Here, I think this is a light, there." She said, I heard a click. Nothing happened for a few seconds then lights fared on. It was a burning light, it took a minute for my eyes to adjust.

I heard Rose walk around. When my eyes finally adjusted, I saw Rose pulling books off the shelves and flicking through the pages.

She was murmuring something under her breath that I couldn't hear.

"What'd you say, Rose?" I started walking toward her. She either didn't hear me or was ignoring me, I couldn't tell. "Rose?"

She looked up at me, "Come here, I need to show you something."

I walked over to her. She was looking at one page in the book, turning it upside down, sideways, and holding it up to the light.

She looked at me and pointed to the top right corner of the page. "What is that?"

It looked like a map, but nothing like I'd ever seen. It looked like a diamond with rivers, mountains, and lakes in it. It had five rivers flowing into a big lake in the middle of it. The mountains were scattered all around.

"I-I don't know." I replied, still stunned by the wired map. Or maybe it was a symbol? The star could also mean something completely different than a map.

She put the book on the table and flipped to the next page. It was an enlarged version of the weird map-symbol-thing.

"What could this mean?" I mumbled, mostly to myself. I couldn't tell if it was a map or not. This was confusing, more confusing than trying to figure out why Ariel left.

My expression must have shown that I was thinking about Ariel because Rose looked up from the book at me. "You ok?" She said, sounding concerned .

"Um, ya, fine. I'm fine " I responded, I got taken out of my thoughts back to reality.

"You sure? You seem... sad." She took my hand. " You can talk to me, you know. I won't tell anyone anything if you don't want "

"I'm fine, Rose, Seriously." I did want to tell her about everything going through my mind right now. Ask all the questions I've been keeping to myself, but I couldn't. I can't keep us distracted, we need to get the information we need and get out.

"Ok, but I'm here if you ever need me." Rose reassured me.

I pulled her into a hug, wanting this moment to last forever. We are best friends. She was here almost immediately after we got to the forest and set up camp.

I heard her gasp. "What? What is it?" I tried to pull away from the hug, but she wouldn't let go, "Rose," I whispered, "what's going on?"

"When I let go, run."

What was she talking about? "Rose, you're scaring me."

"Just do it, promise me you'll do it." She pleaded.

"Fine, I promise."

I heard her take a shaky breath and her arms dropped.

I turned and ran. I got to the ladder and looked back. Rose was running towards me and someone jumped up from behind a bookshelf and ran straight at us.

"GO!" Rose screamed. I started to climb up the ladder, my hands hurt from the tattered wood. I felt splinters in my skin and warm blood on my hands from cuts.

"Get back here! I won't hurt you!" I heard someone say in a psychotic voice, probably the boy that was behind the bookshelf.

"Run, Mateo! Don't look back!"

I ran for another yard or so when the urge to look behind me was too great. Just one peek. I told myself, just one.

The scene was horrifying, Rose was on the ground with a bloody nose and blood drooling from her mouth. The boy was tall and skinny, he had a dagger in his right hand but nothing in his right except for blood on his fist.

"Run!" Rose's voice cracked. "Mateo run!" I couldn't leave her. She said she would always be there for me. I couldn't just leave her at the mercy of the Toxin, they would torture her into giveing up our plans to stop them (even though we don't have much right now).

"Aww, is the little boy going to save his girlfriend?" The boy taunted in a babyish voice.

I could feel my cheeks flush, "What do you want with us?"

"Oh, I don't want anything," he said, picking at his fingernails with his dagger. That's when I saw that Rose's hand was behind her back and he had his foot on her wrist. "but the leader does."

I wanted to use my telekinesis to throw some rocks or something at him, but he might get angry and use that dagger. I looked at Rose, she had a pleading look in her eye like she wanted me to leave her.

"Who?" I had a sight quiver in my voice. I hated it but I couldn't help it, my best friend was in big trouble and I could be in even bigger trouble soon. "Who is your leader?"

"Hmm, I don't really want to tell you. No I won't, unless..." he taped his head as if he was thinking hard. Then he, for some reason, laughed. "Nah, you wouldn't be brave enough to do it."

"What? Do what?" I was starting to get sick of this kid.

"You really want to know, don't you?" He smirked.

My fists clenched. "Yes!" I screamed, I didn't think anyone could be this annoying! "Obviously I want to know! If I ask something, I want an answer! Gah!"

The kid threw his hands in the air. "Oh my, did I hurt the boy's feelings?" He said in a false apologetic tone. "Or maybe I should say Mateo, just to be polite."

I was taken aback. "How- how do you know my name?"

"You're scared, aren't you? Ha!" He twirled his dagger in his hand. "All of us know your name. Actually we know everyone's name."

I decided to test him, he could be tricking us. "Oh really?" He nodded. "Then what is everyone's name?"

"Oh so you're testing me now?" He said. "Well-"

"Wait!" I cut him off. "Better question first, what's your name?"

"So you want to know more about me?" He asked. "Well I'm flattered."

"Just answer the question."

"Ok fine, I'm Rhys. I control fire." He formed a fireball in his hand (and it kinda looked like a skull) and threw it at me! It missed me by about a foot, but it was still pretty scary.

"Rhys," a girl came out of the trees, she had a mask over her mouth and nose but her eyes looked so familiar. "We aren't supposed to kill the trespassers. Just bring them to our leader."

"Oh come on. You never let me have fun."

"Now now Rhys," she said, starting to pull down her mask. "This isn't about fun, it's about revenge."