With a shaking voice, Eros whined, "A-Aten?"
Aten didn't reply. He just looked into Eros' eyes. "So, this is the place?" He carelessly asked Kalypso, who just nodded his head, even though he, too, was unsure of whether this was the place where those children had gone missing.
"Wow," Ara gasped, "Shitty place. It looks boring and I'm tired." She pointed behind her with her thumb, "Can I go home now?"
"Ara, no. Didn't you say it'd be us six?"
"Oh," she paused. "That was to make Eros jump over the gate."
"Oh fuck me." Astrid sighed and ignored Ara's mumble of a 'when' as she glanced over at Kalypso who was eyeing the area. He felt like they needed to go back. The sudden wave of dread came back once more, as he got a rush of adrenaline. This most definitely wasn't safe in the slightest. He felt like he needed to go back. His mind was telling him, yes, yet his feet said no; as they kept walking towards the unknown dangers of the woods.
"Kaly?" Aten called towards him, but Kalypso just ignored him as he trotted further into the forest, not minding Eros' calls for help as he kept falling over his own two feet.
Jericho sighed and ran to catch up with them all.
"Should we really be doing this?" Aten asked Astrid. Astrid just looked at him with a blank expression on her face. She shrugged, not even knowing what to say to that.
They shouldn't really be doing this, but they're doing it -- so it was too late to say no.
Kalypso whispered, "Not really." He answered for Astrid who was too busy looking for where Ara had gone.
"Too late now," Ara laughed to herself, though she realised how serious the situation was. "But, do you really believe that people have disappeared from this place? There doesn't seem to be anything here..." She trailed off.
"Yeah, yeah."
"Pffft," Eros laughed, "There's nothing here because all of it disappeared, you dumbasses!"
Ara hit the back of Eros' head.
"You're the only dumbass here." She sneered mockingly.
"Shut up Ara." Astrid sighed, tired of Ara's bullshit.
"Everyone shut up," Kalypso raised his hand, "I heard something."
"The sound of your bullsh-," Ara began before Jericho covered her mouth with his hand.
As Kalypso began talking again, Ara licked Jericho's hand, only for him to wipe it on her cheek. "You're disgusting."
"So is your face, now let's go."
"Ara, shut up!" Kalypso yelled and she just rolled her eyes.
They all stopped and looked around in silence, until Ara burped.
"ARA!"
"Shit." She whispered.
"Right, everyone needs to fucking shut up." Aten sighed, and they finally did it this time. Everyone looked around for anyone who could possibly be there, and once they didn't see anything, they began walking again.
"Damn." Ara said with a hint of sarcasm. "Look at all these people."
"Ara, that's not needed." Eros whispered.
"You're not needed. Get lost kid."
Eros frowned. "I'm not the kid here-"
"GUYS!" Kalypso yelled, and went silent. "I heard something."
"Oh, it was my stomach."
"Ara, I'm done with your shit."
"Fine! Leave then." She told Kalypso, who just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
"Whatever." He muttered to himself, as he trotted ahead of them all.
----
Despite what Eros had said, they had all decided to go off in pairs to try and find anyone that was lurking. Ara yelled that she wanted to go with Astrid, and despite Astird's cries, she got what she wanted. Jericho and Eros decided to go together, which left Kalypso and Aten.
"Where are we going?"
"Hopefully, far away from me." Ara laughed which earned her a punch from Astrid. "Ow, motherfucker."
"I'll motherfucker you."
"Take away that 'mother' and the 'er' and sure." She winked and Astrid just harshly grabbed her arm.
"So..." Aten awkwardly whispered, "Where do you wanna go?"
"Well, let's go the opposite way to Ara." he said, and pointed North. "This way."
Jericho and Eros had decided that they wanted to go East, albeit they had gone first so nobody knew where they were now. Thankfully, Jericho had his phone on him, as did Eros; so if something did happen, they could always call them or text them - because, really, who calls people these days?
The long path seemed to stretch on for miles, which alarmed Kalypso greatly. If they had to run for ages from something, then-
"T--There's a note," Aten whispered, and bent down to grab it with shaking hands. "Do not come any further."
"W--What?" Kalypso stammered and grabbed the note. He read it carefully, and crumpled it up. "That was fucking Ara's handwriting."
He could even hear her laugh from there.
"My god..." He whispered as he kept walking, but he had a feeling that he was being watched -- albeit when he turned around, there was nobody there. He aknowledged this, but couldn't shake the feeling off.
