Our Hidden World

Chapter 31

Josephine's P.O.V:

The good news is that Eli isn't dead. Bad news is he got his butt kicked by a bunch of little kids. There goes all of his pride. I don't think I want to know what happened to Asher; he hasn't shown up since the kids grabbed him. Brooke ran off a while ago to try find him.

Eli is sitting across from me in a dress. Yep, not dead but those children showed no mercy. Poor guy was forced into the pink dress when the kids caught up and dragged him into one of their parent's room. What was even better was when Aaron's (the leader) mom showed up. Apparently it was her dress. First she yelled at her son for going through her closet, then for putting Eli in her dress, and after that, Eli took some heat for possibly ruining it because he is bigger than she is. He really can't win.

Unfortunately for him the little devil hid all of his clothes so that's how he ended up sulking in front of me.

"You could have stopped them you know."

"Mmhmm but then they might have done something to me and then I wouldn't be able to help you now." He raises his eyebrows at me questionably. "What? You think I'm such a terrible friend that I wouldn't follow the kids that hid your clothes?" A smile breaks across his face.

"Thank goodness." I shake my head, standing up and slowly open the door of the room I'm staying in, making sure the coast is clear so that Eli can avoid as much embarrassment as possible.

"Come on, the hallway is empty," I wave him out and we run down the hall. "Here."

"There's nothing here Josie," he whines.

"Oh but there's something you don't know about this house." I press a spot on the wall just above my hip and a portion of the wall slides away. "I wish my house did this," I sigh. "Let's go." We walk through the opening and start looking around the tunnels. Yes, tunnels. I don't know how they managed to build them into the house but they're all over the place leading everywhere around the house and countless ones that lead outside. There are also hidden rooms, which I found out when I followed the evil kids down here.

"There it is," I point to a brown door.

"YES!! Now I can get out of this stupid dress!"

"Yep, now go in there and change."

"Why aren't you going in there with me... are you setting me up?"

"No, I just don't want to be in there when you change..."

"Oh! Ok sorry," he apologizes. I roll my eyes as he walks into the room. This would have been the perfect opportunity to get a whole bunch of people down here to give him a surprise and take a few pictures but I'm not that evil. Not to mention if I did that then everyone would know that I know about the secret passages, and then I wouldn't be able to sneak around and spy. What? I never said I didn't have an evil streak in me.

Eli walks out of the room in a shirt and pair of jeans, obviously relieved, and asks me to help him get his clothes back to his room. We're halfway back when we get into sticky situation. Literally.

"Fudge. This is what I get for helping you," I say as I turn towards Eli, or my upper body at least. Stupid kids.

"I'm sorry Josie," Eli said sheepishly.

"Whatever. How do we get out of this?"

"I could tell you," a new voice replies. Aaron.

"Really Aaron? Glue? You already put me in a dress. You really didn't have to glue me to the floor," Eli whines.

"Eh probably not but we thought if you weren't going to wear the dress we should do something else hence the glue on the floor."

"Hence? Really? And what about me? I didn't do anything wrong. I thought we were good?" Poor me.

"We are, you're just an innocent caught in the crossfire." Poor me. Aaron sighs. "Ok, it wasn't my idea. I came back to help you."

"Noo,"I gasp "that would make you a turncoat!" I say, feigning horror. "You wouldn't leave your people leaderless would you?!"

"Weirdo, maybe I should leave you."

"NOOO! Don't leave me here!" Eli screams.

"That's what I thought," Aaron says smugly. And then we're free. One second we're stuck to the floor, the next we're standing next to Aaron. I'm really starting to warm up to this kid.

The three of us walk back to the opening of the passage together and are greeted with chaos.

"COME ON PEOPLE! WE FOUND A TRAIL!!" People are yelling and cheering as the news is announced. Yep, I told Brooke to take Regina's things to Charlotte. They found the trail a lot faster than I thought they would though, the wolves have some good sniffers.

"How far did they follow the trail?" Brooke asks.

"About 15 miles," wow "and it's heading towards your town."