Away From Reality/ A Carlos DeVil Story/

Ben Is A Beast?!

"Ben!" Carlos called out. "Dude. Come on. Nothing?"

"These things just grow everywhere." Gil smiled and picked some berries off a bush. "Hey, we should play that icebreaker. Um, Jay, I like the way that you can bounce around and jump off things." Gil turned to him. "These are free, right?"

Jay laughed, "Yeah. Um...I like how you get a kick out of a berry bush."

"I guess you've probably seen everything by now, huh? Furry rocks. Giant fish. You're probably used to grabbing lunch off of a bush." Gil smiled sadly.

"No. I mean, no, not really. I definitely have not seen as much as Payton has. I mainly just use the vending machines at practice. You know, tourney, kind of eats up most of my time. So..." Jay said.

Harry laughed. "Tourney, that's a wee boy's game."

"I'd like to see you try it." I smirked. A bird flew over and landed on my finger. I had never seen this kind of bird before though. It had the most beautiful blue feathers I had ever seen. "Hello..." I giggled.

"You guys are killing me." I heard Harry groan.

"You know..." I said slowly, "Not everything here is bad." I looked at him.

"Really..." He said, not convinced. "Enlighten me."

"Come here." I said plainly. He looked at me like I was insane. I sighed, "Listen Harry, if I was going to kill you, I would've done it already so just come here."

He sighed and made his way over. I grabbed his hand with my free one and let the bird hop onto his. I could feel him tense up when the bird landed on him. . I could see the hint of confusion on his face, like he expected it to fly away in fear. It finally flew away and I chuckled. "You see? If you really try, nothing will be afraid of you. And you won't be afraid either." I walked away and went farther in the forest. I heard faint snaps and steadied myself for anything. I looked down and saw tracks. "Guys!" I called out. They quickly ran over and looked at me. I knelt down and traced my hand across the print. I saw them trail forwards and stood up. "He's this way." I said and we started walking that way.

"Hey." Carlos came up beside me, "How are you feeling?"

I sighed, "I don't know." I thought for a moment, "Carlos, I'm scared." I admitted.

"Of what?" He frowned.

"Of a lot of things. Like what happened to Ben, about Audrey, about my mom." I looked at him. "If we do free my mom...what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to say? I never knew her."

Carlos was quiet for a moment, "I don't know. But what I do know, is that your mom will be thrilled to see you, Payton. No matter the circumstances."

I hugged him tight, "Thank you Carlos."

"Always." He kissed my head softly.

"Ben!" Carlos called out.

Dude stopped in front of us. "Boy, something stinks. And it wasn't me this time."

I stopped in my tracks, it was quiet. Too quiet.

"Harry look out!" I pulled him to the side as a beast jumped in front of us. The beast tried to attack us but failed.

"You need some serious nose adjustments." Harry panted.

"I'm not so sure." Carlos said slowly. "Ben?"

"Ben? Did Audrey do that? Huh! I thought I recognized those pants." Jay stopped. Ben growled again.

"Oh, he's got a boo-boo. That's why he's so cranky. You know, my dad said that his dad did not handle pain well at all." Gill started.