How Could You Forget The Sun

XXIII

TRINVILLA’S POV

The sky was beginning to lighten in the eastern horizon. I twiddled my thumbs nervously, glancing at Hoody, who was keeping guard over us in the dark forest. I glanced back to where I knew the house would be and sighed.

“Why do you think that no one’s letting us back?” I whispered, curling up against the roots of the oak tree I was sitting beside.

Hoody glanced back at me and shrugged. He listened for a few minutes longer before coming over and sitting beside me. “Maybe she wanted to go on a walk,” he suggested hopefully.

I let out another sigh and watched my feet in their lavender-leather heeled sandals. My off-white sundress was dirty with dirt stains and grass stains. I ran my fingers over the pleated skirt, wishing that, for once, I could have a pair of pants on instead.

“Hoody?” I heard Masky’s voice. Both of us sat up and welcomed the masked man. “Where’s Ana; I can’t get in,” he confessed, glancing to spot where the house would be.

“Same with us,” Hoody told him. “Do you suppose-?”

“Stop supposing because we have a real problem,” I heard Laughing Jack mutter. He was standing, ragged and seemingly disheartened with Toby beside him. “She gave herself up.”

“What?” Masky asked. “Why? Why weren’t you protecting her? I thought you were helping us, not deceiving us!”

“Shut up,” the clown growled. “I didn’t just stand by as she was taken. Offenderman might have gotten the upper hand over me and she, well, she helped me.”

“What do we do?” Hoody asked. “Who’s in charge now?”

“I guess I am,” I whispered. “After all, I know Ana best. I would know what she would do, and I promise I wouldn’t let my opinion into the matter.”

“What makes you think the line of rule goes to you?” Masky demanded, and I flinched. “You have a little sister,” he pointed out and I relaxed. He was trying to be kind, not rude. “And we have a better understanding of how ZALGO works.”

“No, maybe she’s right,” Laughing Jack mused, scrutinizing me form his pale eyes. “She has a point; she knows Ana better than anyone else. Besides, she has nerves.” When I let out a surprised laugh, he glared at me. “You think that just any little ginger can stand in front of four murdering creepypastas and assert her authority and give good reason behind it without trembling in fear?”

I hesitated, thinking that over. “He’s right,” Toby agreed. “Most of them just kind of hide somewhere and cry while they beg for their lives. The guys, well, they just are stubborn and try to fight us. Of course, they lose every time.”

“Is this supposed to be helping?” I asked as gruesome images entered my mind.

“Our point is,” Hoody explained to me better, “that you could make the transformation as Miss Anastasia is.”

“Transformation?” I questioned, and then grew horrified. “You mean for me to become one of you? No thank you! I don’t want to hurt people! I want to help people!”

“Think about it,” Hoody urged. “What if it meant that you could eradicate rapists and other murderers from the planet? What if it meant that there were no more abusive parents or frauds or animal abusers? Would you do it then?”

I stayed silent, trying to think of a good argument. There were none to be had. “But,” I said desperately, “that would be breaking one of the Ten Commandments. ‘Thou shall not murder’ is against everything you said, and Ana knows that. How can the descendant of Eve herself break that Commandment?”