The Story of the Wild Ones

Chapter 7

Ashley, Jinxx and I burst into Ashley's house, panting. Everyone jumped up, and Ellie gasped at the sight of the staff. "Did you see Jake?" Andy asked. I shook my head. "This is the staff from the shadow last night. I figured it could come in handy," I said, leaning it against the wall. Ellie began to cry again, and Andy wrapped his arms around her comfortingly. "We have to do something. If Jake and God knows how many others are in there, who even knows what's going on in there. FEAR might be torturing them," Jinxx said. I shook my head sadly. "FEAR is trying to get the captives to side with them. If they obey, they get rewarded. Some of them might become shadows themselves. The ones who disobey get killed. It was on the announcement last night," I told them.

No one said anything, everyone just looked around, trying to avoid eye contact with each other. "What now?" CC asked, breaking the silence. I closed my eyes, a million plans running through my head. "First, we rescue Jake and however many else we can. Then, we fight," I said, going with Andy's plan from earlier. "Let's go a step at a time," Jinxx suggested, and we agreed.

By sunset, we had devised the outline for a plan to rescue Jake and hopefully the others from FEAR. If everything went according to plan, we'd have a big enough army to take down FEAR. However, that's a real big IF. I saw the sun was beginning to go down, so I said, "I'm gonna take Ellie home, okay?" Everyone else was too busy planning and poor Ellie looked bored out of her mind so I stood up and walked out the door, her trailing close behind me.

"You're brave, kid," I told her. "Really?" she asked. I looked down at her and smiled. "Yeah, really. This is a lot to go through, if I were you I wouldn't have come out of my room for a week," I joked, making her giggle.

"Is Jake going to be okay?" she asked. "You know, kid, I don't know. I really really hope he is though, and if everything goes right he will be," I told her. She didn't respond, but we had already reached her house. "Just don't wander anywhere by yourself anymore, okay? Remember, the safest place for you is inside," I told Ellie, looking her in the eyes. She nodded, and I gently hugged her. "Stay safe," I whispered to her before heading back to Ashley's house.

By the time I got there, the sun had already set, and darkness had taken over Hysteria. I quickly ran in through the doors and almost ran into Jinxx. "Is Ellie home?" Andy asked, a worried look in his eye. I nodded, and he seemed to relax. "All of you should stay at my place tonight. It's already dark, and we shouldn't be out with the shadows lurking around," Ashley said, and we all agreed. Fortunately his house was big enough to where we all had our own bedrooms.

Despite the bed being the most comfortable thing I've ever lied down on, I couldn't fall asleep. All the thoughts swirling in my head kept me up for hours. I heard the wooden floors creak as someone walked across them, and I saw Andy's shadow pass by my door. I silently got out of bed and followed him. He lifted a window and crawled out, sitting cross-legged on the flat surface of the roof. I watched as he lit a cigarette before crawling out after him. "Couldn't sleep?" I asked. He nodded, taking a drag of the cigarette. "Same," I said.

We sat there for a few minutes in silence. I watched Andy as he stared into nothingness, smoking his cigarette. "What?" he asked, turning to me when he realized I've been watching him. "What's up?" I asked. He sighed. "Everything," he muttered. "It's more than that," I pressed, narrowing my eyes at him. "Fine. I'm worried about Ellie," he confessed. "Why?" I asked. "She's so young, I don't want her to do anything stupid, God knows what would happen to her if she did," he whispered. "I know you're worried, Andy. She is young, but she's very smart, and she can defend herself really well. She knows to stay inside as much as possible," I said, trying to comfort him. He didn't say anything, just took another drag from his cigarette. "I know you want everyone to be safe Andy, but that's not going to happen. Not until all of this is over," I said. "Yeah. Yeah, I know," was all he said. He put out his cigarette with his shoe and climbed back inside, and I followed him. I watched as he disappeared into his room before I went into mine and lied back downn onto the bed. I glanced out my window and saw something that made my eyes widen and me scream in terror.

Fire.