I've Got To Make You MINE - TamberWenclair

Chapter 22 - The Forest

Amber was sprinting through the forest, weaving between trees, trying to evade the airsoft pellets that kept raining down on her from above. The dense forest was vast, with winding paths that led to Slenderman's grove. Just as she caught sight of something yellow, it vanished again, making her curse under her breath. She remembered chasing the proxy through the thicket, counting the pages she had collected so far. She had five pages with only three more to find, and she checked her watch, coughing in the frigid morning air. It was 4:20 AM, and she had only 30 minutes left before she would have to start over. Finding these pages was proving to be a real challenge.

Amber paused to catch her breath, leaning against a tree and clutching the crumpled pages in her hand. She thought she was safe, but then she heard a branch snap behind her. She turned sharply, feeling a jolt of pain in her neck, but there was no one there. She turned back around, only to come face to face with a knife aimed at her neck, close enough to feel it graze her skin.

"Hey Pops, how's your morning going?" Amber saw the bright red eyes behind the black mask, the frown obvious even from behind the mask. The yellow hoodie of the proxy stood out in the darkness of the forest, in stark contrast to Amber's red shirt, denim jacket, and joggers.

"You were too slow, go again." The proxy handed Amber the knife, allowing him to sign. However, Amber already knew what he was going to say. She growled in frustration, grinding her teeth as she handed over the pages to her father figure.

————

Amber hated those training practices when she was home, they did it every morning and she was usually able to grab all of the pages, so she could technically win. But getting a hit on Hoodie? It was almost impossible, she practically knew each page by memory alone. She huffed, her knife held tightly as she followed behind on a familiar trek. She hummed a jaunty tune, able to hear gunshots ringing out into the forest and the faint howls of her monsters having fun. She wondered which one would be found first, as they likely shouldn't have gone far into the trees. She looked behind her, frowning a little in confusion when she didn't see Tara behind her. 

"Tara? Tar-Bear? Where are you?" She called out into the forest, surprised when the wind whispered into her ear. Gone. 

"What the fuck do you mean, gone?" Amber likely looked insane as she yelled back at the wind, knife in hand as she waved wildly, seemingly annoyed by the forest's secrets. 

Taken. Amber shut up immediately, her wrist burning as the small sigil activated, she could feel the static in her brain, making her ears ring with a sharp discomfort. She took off running, trusting the feeling, the call from the forest beckoning her from deep within the dark. She could see it, Crackstones Crypt, where Tara had gotten the flag during the Poe Cup. She prayed internally to the Slenderman, a mental image and a running mantra of desperation keeping her going. 

In turn, from across the forest, Wednesday was facing off against Donovan, unbothered by the bullets piercing flesh and Toying with the human by hiding in the shadows between each tree, the man was shooting blindly until he ran out of bullets, and that's when Wednesday struck, tearing into his body and eating him alive with vicious furiosity even as their head rang with the static of the forest's call. With the hunt now finished, the gaunt creature went off on the hunt for their mate. 

Away from her mates, Enid was struggling in combat against Hyde, a desperate and exhausted creature that was willing to do anything to escape. Enid could empathize with its desperation, as blood dripped from a wound on her face where the Hyde's claws had struck her. She howled once she managed to back away from its wild swings, and watched as it lunged at her again. She dodged to the right before it could reach her and quickly hid behind a group of trees. Mentally apologizing to the plant life, she used her claws to tear through their trunks, sending wood flying as the fallen trees knocked Hyde to the ground. With the creature distracted, she ran away, shaking her head as she tried to get the static out of her mind. Only to subconsciously follow the strange beckons instead.

The three killers found themselves at Crackstones Crypt,  Amber had been the first to arrive, finding Tara by the open casket, the ritual already completed by the time any of them had arrived. She was bleeding, curled up with her hands over her ears, and her clothes soaked with blood that dripped from her ears and a large knife wound in the abdomen. Her gun was missing, but there was damage to the stone and the casket itself that seemed to be from bullets. 

"Tara!" Amber ran into the crypt, falling to her knees in front of her girlfriend. She was already crying, taking her uniform jacket off and pressing it carefully into her girlfriend's lap. Tara gasped from the pain of the fabric touching her wound, her head hurt and her ears were ringing, it felt like they were bleeding. She held Amber's jacket to the wound, crying out in pain as the two of them tried to pull her up. 

"Don't move her yet." The command was sharp from Wednesday, who was lightly jogging into the crypt and climbing up the stairs. With another person to help her stabilize, they managed to carry her outside, where Enid was waiting. The large golden wolf whined when she saw Tara, carefully lowering herself to the ground so they could all climb onto her back to return to the school, to get Tara medical attention, and to deal with the Gates.