Traitors In The Underworld

Chapter 1 Richard

I was running out of places to hide. I was hiding under my bed, just waited to get hit by a stray bullet.

"Rich! The game's over. You won!" I crawled out from under the bed, then a bullet hit my leg.

"Ha! You actually fell for that! Yes! I got you for the first time ever! YES!" Daniel ran to the kitchen, probably ready to hit some more people. I sighed. This game was to practice aim at moving targets, and it was probably a bad thing we used bullets that were quartz. Maybe not, since we used armor, and because if we shot each other, we'd actually kill, and that would be bad, since we're all a family. I spotted a flash of golden hair, and I flopped down on my bed.

There was only one room with all our beds, because it was a small house, though this was a huge room. Rebekah was a little reluctant to sleep in the same room with us boys, but she understood.

I had to wait until there was only one person in the house that wasn't on the bed. I looked through my memories to pass the time. The time when Daniel joined all three of us and we played this game for the first time as a family? The only prank Josh played on us? Then I settled for earlier this morning.

"Why do we have to use guns?"

"Because we only have so much celestial bronze, not enough to make anything except bullets, and you can't find any other weapon in stores. Knifes you can make, but that would make only one knife. Guns you can modify to shoot celestial bronze and you can make the bullets."

"Oh. Okay."

"The rules are that you have to go back to your bed when you get shot, and that you can't shoot the areas without armor, only the areas with armor."

"What if you accidentally shoot someone?"

"Uh, that's never happened because the bullets are too big for the chinks in the armor. Let's continue. These bullets are rocks shaped by John-"

"Hey! My name is Josh!"

"Here, and you could kill someone." I could've sworn that her face darkened, and that shadows quivered. "You can only shoot someone once, and when you shoot someone their armor turns red, so it looks like you shot them for real. Got it?" Rebekah nodded, and she took off to the table with the guns and spn around, a gun in her hands. Daniel ducked behind a sofa, and the rest of us were stunned.

"Gotcha!" Josh was out. I had a split second, so I rolled out of the way.

A loud Snap! filled the air, and I was taken out of my memories.

"Seriously? The game was over quicker than normal, thanks to Rebekah here. She has, like, great skill at shooting." Joanna told me.
"So when you lose, you sleep?" I shook my head. "No, I just replay memories." A shadow passed over my sister's face.

"You don't want to do that, not with all our bad memories." I winced. She didn't have to remind me of Samuel.

"Uh, do I get anything?" Rebekah asked, a little quiet.

"No, it's just for practice. The game, I mean." I shrugged.

It was nighttime, and we all were bouncing on our beds. Josh bounced a little too high and hit his head, then passed out on the floor.

"All that candy and jelly beans is making me hyper!" Rebekah sang-song the last part. Then she yawned, and she ran out of the room, yelling like a Native American. I laughed and fell back, trying to suppress my hyper self.

As I laid on my bed, I smiled and wondered what was going to happen. The day had started with the game with the guns (which Daniel keeps calling "The Game Where Daniel Wins" I mean seriously! It was one time), then with the money we saved up, we went to 711. I tried to persuade the others not to buy candy, but they insisted and Josh had to join them. I guess they wanted to have complete havoc.

I remembered the crazy things the others did, and it made me crack a smile. I only ate a little candy, but with ADHD little isn't so little. I went all out skipping and singing songs from the '90's outside, and the others tried strangling trees. Not the nymphs, the trees. I have severe ADHD, and so do the others, so we went crazy after the amount of sugar. Well, even if normal kids ate that much, they'd be as hyper as us.

When it was finally midnight, I remembered something.

"Hey guys! Merry Christmas!" Josh rolled her eyes.

"No duh. What do you think all the Christmas decorations were for?" I laughed.

"Good point." I choked out.

"Guys, let's sleep! It's midnight!" Joanna yawned.

"That candy's still getting to me!" I complained. Rebekah nudged Joanna.

"Guys, go to another room, please!" I shrugged. Josh also yawned.

"Actually, I'm still tired." Josh pretended to pass out, and loudly fake snored.

I was still in bed, trying to sleep. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't. I buried my face in my pillow, which made me a little uncormfortable. It's really hard to sleep with your eyelashes digging in your eyes. I turned and tried to sleep. I couldn't sleep, so I walked out of bed quietly, and opened the door. A blast of cold air hit my face. I was a little cold because my shirt wasn't all that great of a windbreaker.

I sighed, relaxed by the coolness of the air. I always felt awake at night; I could never sleep. Joanna always called me a werewolf for this reason and my love for wolves, even after our bad experiences with lycanthropes. I might as well have been one, because I was pretty strong. I pulled away from those thoughts and walked into the forest.

I heard a howl, but that didn't bother me. I continued to trudge further, and I reached my favorite spot. The place where we all met, the place where Joanna and I lived before creating that Mistform house. We were a pretty big family, even if we weren't at all related. For some reason, every night and day here, we were all safe. I laid back on the tree stump and curled up on it. I fell into a dreamless sleep, despite me being awake.