Betrayed

Chapter 11

"One, two, three..." Crystal stared counting, and I darted off into the darkness. I was running out of hiding places as I surveyed the yard.

I spotted the tree that I had hid behind previously, and I rushed towards it. The sound of the pumps gave me the chills and I pressed myself against the bark and heard Crystal call, "Thirty!" Her quick footsteps reached the grass, and it crunched beneath her feet. Closer and closer her footsteps sounded. "Found you, Andrew," she said, and I peeked out from behind my tree. Andrew stepped out from behind the air conditioning unit, and I shivered when I saw Matthew's leg sticking out by the grill.

Crystal glanced in my direction, and I looked away. "Go find Ashley, Hayley, and Natalia," she told Andrew. He nodded and ran off towards me.

Andrew raced full-speed towards the tree, and I pressed myself against it. It didn't work. He ran into me, and we fell into a hole. At first glance, I realized that it was the same hole that Andrew and Raphael had dug out earlier.

I smiled sheepishly. "Well, don't run at a tree," I told him, grinning.

"Found Natalia," he said.

"Cool," Crystal replied somewhere nearby. I looked around and spotted her near the fronds.

"Where do you think Ashley is hiding?" I asked him.

He glanced at me. "I think we should split up," he suggested. "There are only two more people to find, and separate we would cover more ground."

I nodded. "I'll go over to the basketball court."

"And I will search the play set." Andrew dashed off in that direction, and I sprinted to the court.

Once I arrived in the dark area, my spine began to tingle, and my brain freaked out. "Hayley? Ashley?" I called out. My voice sounded unnaturally high, and my imagination ran wild. Images of Hayley leaping out with a knife filled my mind, and I tried to push the thoughts away.

A soft thump sounded nearby, and I jumped. "Who's there?" I asked.

A shadow ran in front of me, and I screamed. "Stop screaming," Ashley said.

I sighed. "Please don't do that again," I said, placing a hand over my racing heart.

"Sorry," she apologized, "I didn't think that you would come over here after last time's incident."

"I know," I said, "I am not sure why I said I would come here, but now I am not alone."

Ashley smiled. "Am I the last person?" she asked.

I shook my head. "We still need to find Hayley," I told her.

"Okay." She glanced around the dark yard. "Where have you not looked?"

"The play set, but Andrew was going over there," I said.

As soon as I spoke, a loud scream reached our ears. "That's Andrew," I gasped. Ashley glanced at me. "It came from the play set." Our feet flew over the ground, and we reached the play set to find Hayley laying on the slide. Blood dripped from her chest and mouth and her eyes were wide with fear.

Andrew stood next to the slide, shaking. His hands, drenched in blood, were covering Hayley's chest wound.

Crystal was already there, glaring at Andrew. "You killed her," she growled.

Andrew didn't move his hands. "I am trying to save her," he replied. He looked up and smiled with relief. "I need something to stop the bleeding."

"I can go get Olivia's jacket," Ashley said, and she took off.