Clarimonde

Chapter Ten A Deadly Game of Cat and Mouse

Soon morning came. All of us had stayed up the whole night because of our fear of Clarimonde returning. We were exhausted but we all had refused to sleep. I was lying in Rin's arms and Carol and Jay were holding onto each other tightly, their faces wet with salty tears. I knew we had to get out of this cabin. We had to get to town I thought that maybe we would be able escape that way.

"We have to get to town." I said as I looked at everyone. Jay and Carol looked at me and I could feel Rin's eyes on me as well.

"Town?" Carol said as she looked at me.

"Yes, we have to go to the town; we may be able to escape that way." I replied.

"Let me get this straight. You want us to go out there where that deeply disturbed spirit is just waiting for an opportunity to kill us?" Jay asked as he looked at me in disbelief.

"We have to get to that town! It may be our only hope if we don't want any more of us to die!" I said as I looked at Jay.

"There is no way in hell, we are going out there! We'd be killed instantly!" Jay said angrily.

"If we just stay in here we'll die anyway so what's the difference? If we go out there and try to get to the town there is a good chance that we'll probably survive!" I said as I looked at Jay hard.

"I think....I think Sora is right." Carol said as she looked at Jay.

"Has everyone here except me gone insane?!" Jay yelled.

"If it means a better chance at surviving then we have to! We need to!" Carol said. Jay thought for a little while.

"Fine, if it means we may have a good chance at surviving then fine." Jay finally agreed. We all got up and walked out of the cabin. It was very hot outside.

"We have to stick together. Alright? No one leaves anyone. Understand?" I said as I looked at them. Everyone nodded. Rin grabbed my hand and Carol and Jay held onto each other tightly.

"Everyone stay close!" Rin said as he led me and the others through the woods. At every rustle of leaves, every snapping of twigs we would all jump and look around frantically. Soon when we became so paranoid of all the normal sounds in the woods we began walking as fast as we possibly could. We didn't know what direction the town was, but we were determined to find it as soon as possible.

I became so frightened by the sounds in the woods that I squeezed Rin's hand in fear of losing him. Jay and Carol followed close behind. I didn't know what was going to happen to us, but I knew that we were all determined to survive this terrible nightmare.

Suddenly I heard malicious laughter. Ghostly laughter. Everyone else heard it too and the tension we shared rose significantly. Rin sped up and the rest of us did the same. It seemed as though the laughter was following us and that Clarimonde was hiding somewhere, watching our every move. Waiting to go in for the kill like some wild beast. I kept as close to Rin as possible.

We had been walking for hours and hours it seemed. Rin soon stopped. I looked at him. I was a little confused because the longer we stayed in one place the more likely we were to be killed.

"Everyone okay?" Rin said softly.

"Yes." I answered, but then I realized that I hadn't heard Jay and Carol in a while.

"Jay, Carol are you guys....What the?!" Rin said as he turned around. I looked behind me and realized that Carol and Jay were gone.

"Where are they?!" I said in a panicked voice. I looked frantically at Rin whose eyes were wide with fear once again.

"Th-they were just behind us!" Rin said in a worried tone.

"We have to find them Rin!" I said as tears fell from my eyes. Then I heard Clarimonde's cruel laughter echo all around us. I gasped. Rin's grip on my hand tightened and before I knew it we were running. It was getting dark and I didn't know if we were even running in the right direction. I didn't know where my other two friends were. I didn't know a lot of things during that time.

Suddenly my hand slipped from Rin's and I fell. I heard the cruel laughter getting closer and closer. Rin panicked. He ran back grasped my wrist and pulled me to my feet again. We continued to run and run. Then we heard a guy scream.

"That's Jay!" I said as we were running. We stopped and looked all around us trying to find the direction the scream came from. Then we heard both a guy and girl scream. I whirled around and looked to my left. "Over there!" I said as I began to run in that direction.

"Sora! Wait!" Rin yelled as he ran after me. He grabbed my hand and pulled on it to make me stop.

"Rin they're our friends! They're in trouble! We have to do something!" I said. After considering it for a slight moment he went ahead of me and holding my hand tightly walked fast in the direction of the screams. We began to run. Soon we came to the area of the cliff. We almost screamed ourselves.

There right before our very eyes was Clarimonde holding Jay by the throat in her left hand and holding Carol by the throat in her other hand. I covered my mouth trying not to scream. Rin gripped my hand even tighter than ever before.

We watched in horror as Clarimonde lifted both of our friends very high in the air. Then with one swift movement she threw them over the edge of the cliff and as they fell she laughed cruelly. We heard them scream their last desperate screams. Rin pulled me back into the woods and we ran in the opposite direction of the cliff. We were running for what seemed like a half-hour.

Finally, we rested in some bushes. We were out of breath and it hurt to even breathe the slightest of breaths. I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my sides as I tried desperately to breathe normally.

"We have to keep running." Rin whispered.

"Rin, I don't think I can run for much longer." I said as tears began to form in my eyes. Rin quickly grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me a little.

"You have to! You have to keep running! If you want to survive, you have to keep running! We have to get to that town!" Rin whispered sharply. I stared at him. "I can't let you give up! Do you understand?" Rin whispered and for the first time I noticed the many tears that began to flow from his light-brown, once happy eyes. I merely nodded and continued to stare at him.

We started to run again. We ran as fast as we could. But Clarimonde's laughter started again. Soon it seemed as if it was coming from the direction we were running in. We quickly turned and ran the other way. But the laughter still continued to sound as if it was coming from in front of us. We turned and ran in so many directions, but the laughter always seemed to follow us. It was everywhere.

Soon we found ourselves back at the cliff's edge. We panicked and tried to figure out which direction the town was in. But then we heard a twig break from behind.