Desolation

Chapter Nine

((here is Ian😍😍😍!!! and btw there's Trian scene in this chapter😏))

My heart skips a beat.

It can't be.

Why is my name the only name that is circled on this list?

"Oh my god," I whisper, still staring at the paper.

Ian glances at me, then back at the paper.

"A list of the twelve of our names? This is really weird," he murmurs.

"They know who we are," I whisper.

Suddenly, I get the chilling feeling that someone is watching us. I look around at the trees, spinning around in a slow circle.

"What's wrong?" Ian asks, watching me.

"Nothing...I just have the feeling that..."

My words trail off.

"The feeling that what?" He asks

"The feeling that we're being watched. But it's gone now," I say.

He looks around too, but of course, there is no one there.

"Creepy," Ian says.

"Yeah, tell me about it," I say, laughing slightly.

Suddenly, I jump when I hear the snap of a twig. Whipping around, I see that it is just Tristan, standing at the edge of the lake. He stares at the two of us for a moment, then says,

"I started a signal fire. It's not a big one, but hopefully some of the others will see the smoke eventually."

I nod. Tristan stands there awkwardly for a moment, his hands in his pockets, looking at us.

"Well if you guys are done, we can keep going for a little more. The sun's starting to go down, so we will have to camp out for the night somewhere."

"Okay," I say.

He then looks down at my hands, which are holding the piece of paper.

"What's that?" He asks, pointing at me.

"It's a list of all of our names. We found it in a bottle at the bottom of the lake," Ian says.

Tristan raises his eyebrows.

"Is there anything else on it?" He asks.

"Well, there is one really strange part about it. One of the names is circled," Ian says.

"Whose?" Tristan asks.

"Mine," I say abruptly.

Tristan eyes widen. He opens his a mouth for a moment, then shuts it.

"Hey, let's not worry about it okay? It could mean absolutely nothing for all we know," Ian says, breaking the silence.

I highly doubt that my name is circled for no reason. But Ian is right, there's no reason to waste time worrying. We have to move on.

Ian and I wade over towards to edge of the lake. It suddenly hits me that I am in my bra and underwear and my clothes are in a heap on the shore of the lake.

Ian gets out first, quickly putting on his t-shirt and jeans.

"Why aren't you getting out?" He asks me, shaking his wet hair out.

I stare at him, my cheeks burning bright red. I then point to my clothes on the side of the shore.

"Oh right. You don't have your clothes on. C'mon, we won't look. Right Tristan?" Ian asks, grinning at Tristan.