U.H Book One // Hegemony {ON HOLD}

• Chapter Seventeen •

The thunder continued rumbling in the distance as we all sat in Leila's darkened room. We had stretched a sheet from her bed, to a chair, to the doorway. Then we had padded the ground with a thick comforter and pillows so we could all lay on the floor in our childlike, homemade tent.

We all lay down, telling stories and talking about the tickets, wondering if Leila's was yellow or gold. Either way it would have been a good thing. The sun was beginning to set and the rain was pouring down now, the only light in the room came from the flashlight Leila had gotten out of the supply closet.

Star was telling a scary story and everyone was watching with interest. Silas was hiding behind Leila, and Violet was listening with wide eyes next to me.

"And then...the little cat hybrid's ears twitched at the sound of his name being called. He spun around slowly...and-"

"BLARGH!!!"

Everyone screamed at the top of their lungs and looked up to see Leila's guardian chuckling dryly at us.

She was an old deer hybrid, she looked a bit older than Donna, but she definitely had human dominant trait. My heart was still pounding but I was giggling.

"Mrs. F, not cool!" Leila protested in a fit of laughter.

"Oh sorry I just couldn't resist." The old deer hybrid shrugged, "Anybody hungry?"

Everyone shyly nodded, except for Star and Leila who both jumped up excitedly. They then looked at each other and began laughing.

"Alright, come downstairs. I made mushroom stew...and brownies, cookies, and ice cream for desert." My mouth watered at the thought as we all bounded downstairs. This time I really did fall, and toppled down the stairs, landing on my bottom with a thud. Everyone was asking me if I was ok but after I stood up and laughed it off, they laughed too. My face was extremely hot.

We all ate and ate until we couldn't eat anymore, well...maybe a little more than that. Then we returned to Leila's room to finish the scary stories.

Halfway through another story, the power went out due to the raging storm, which scared the crap out of us.

Around 1:00am Violet and Silas were asleep on the floor in the tent, and the rest of us were laying on the bed talking quietly, when suddenly the window burst open.

The storm hadn't calmed down, so the wind and rain was immediately blown into the room, and Leila stumbled blindly to the window to slam it shut, but it was hard to navigate due to the darkness. I heard her stumble over a few things and maybe cuss- I really couldn't hear over the rain- before she finally slammed the window.

It was then I realized I was clutching onto Star's arm. I awkwardly let go, with a red face.

"How did that open?" Star asked.

"I don't know." Leila mumbled, "I thought I latched it shut. It must have been the wind."

She climbed back on the bed, accidentally stepping on me while we all huddled under the covers once more, continuing to chat quietly.

After a while everyone but me had fallen asleep.

'Curse you insomnia.' I thought miserably, that's when I noticed a rather large figure making its way towards the bed out of the corner of my eye. I froze and covered my mouth. I was definitely not just seeing things.

That's when I was yanked into the darkness.