The Creeptures

Chapter 2 ~ Profile 1: Straight From the Heart and Into the Fire

Holy poop. Enjoy this mega-long chapter. 

________

The decline was steep as we traveled downwards in the mouth of the cave. It was difficult to traverse downwards, especially for Jordan who carried a body over his shoulder. I could clearly hear his heavy breathing.

I was the most recent addition to The Creeptures, meaning I had the most to learn. Though my abilities were grand, that didn’t mean that I was magically bestowed with the ability to target people, hunt them, or even know how to tie them up when guiding them back to our humble abode. No, I was pretty pathetic compared to the rest of them. However, that did not mean that I was an unwilling participant to learning. I had no choice not to. I had chosen this way of life—there was absolutely no option of turning back now. 


So I followed Jordan, Kevin, and Sly as we traveled deeper and deeper until the ground leveled out and we were walking forwards into darkness. 
Our destination was still several yards ahead of us as we walked in complete darkness.

The air began to become moist and I knew the small gorge was not too much farther ahead. 
I could already hear the rumble of the waterfall and the stream when Jordan stopped ahead of us. 


“Kevin—a torch,” instructed Jordan.

Kevin swiftly swung his backpack off his shoulder and bent down on the ground to search through his bag for the torch. 


He extracted a flashlight and Jordan asked him, “No torches?”


“We ran out of wood yesterday,” Kevin responded.

Jordan sighed. Supplies had been lessening the past week. We needed an income, and we did have one, but it was oftentimes very little. 


When we got supplies, we got them in bulk because we did not want to have to restock after every week. It was a smart strategy—we had to have as many strategies as possible otherwise we’d be caught.

Dan got us a good sum of money. He grew our drugs and gave us some, but when we had too much, he sold them and got us a good chunk of cash. That got him maybe a hundred or less dollars a week. 


Jordan gave a small sigh in response, probably thinking the same thing we all were at that moment: another supply run. 


He began to head down the side of the gorge. It wasn’t a long way down at all, luckily, so that made it easier on us. 
We were almost certain that this gorge had been used before. Our way down was by the rock, carved to make them stairs. It was easier to traverse down than the steep decline at the entrance of the cave.

We hadn’t a clue who had been here before, as when we inhabited it, it had been completely barren. We were just fortunate to have a base of operations for our excavations.

Jordan stepped off the last step and the temperature dropped. It was always cooler down here than above, which was why we had a fire set up a few feet ahead.

I saw Aleks sitting there in front of it, his back turned towards us and apparently unaware to our appearance.

I gave a sideways glance at Kevin, who grew a bit of a smile and a twinkling in his eyes as he spotted him.

I didn’t completely understand what the deal was between them. I knew that they were good friends, but I believed that they had a bit of a bond that no one knew—one formed from before they even joined The Creeptures. I supposed it was good to join a group that you knew you had friends in, and, that had been a factor I had when deciding whether or not to join The Creeptures.

“Hey, Aleks,” Jordan said and dropped the boy immediately onto the stone cold ground, a loud thump causing me to jump.

“Hi, Hoardan,” Aleks said and turned around on the log he sat on, “who’s this?”