23 Hide and Seek

"I WILL SKIN YOU ALL ALIVE ONCE I CATCH YOU!!!"

"Shit!", Sieg silently cursed. They were faster at work than expected.

The others were still shocked and frozen. What was this just now?! Who was this?! And was this person after their lives?!

Sieg and Anastasia exchanged looks. They both knew in which danger they were in right now. She spoke loudly to the rest:

"Quick! Hurry up! We need to escape, as fast as possible! Tony, take care of Panda! The rest, leave everything be and move now! We don't have anymore time!"

As if being thrown into cold water the other children realised the gravity of the situation at hand and quicky moved out. Many thoughts ran through their minds, but there were only two conclusions if they were caught, captivity and death!

"Hey, Craig! Is everything ok?!", Gene who stood near Craig realized something was wrong with him.

Craig held onto his neck and throat, he looked like he wasn't getting any air. He gasped desperately but didn't achieve the desired effect. His eyes went wide open.

Gene shouted out first:

"He, he is hyperventilating! He can't breath!"

"Shit, does he have asthma? Does he have his inhaler with him?"

Craig shook his head as a response and fell onto his knees still having his hands on his lungs.

Nobody had any idea about what to do, then Sasha walked up to him and gave him a kiss on his lips. If Craig's live hadn't been in danger, he would definitely have cherished this moment for a bit longer. He realized that she was giving him the air he needed and he accepted it gratefully.

Sasha seperated herself from him, her ckeeks still a bit red. She explained:

"My aunt also has troubles breathing sometimes, she told me this was my uncle's way to help her."

"I, huh, I, I am sorry!", Craig relaxed again and took in deep breaths of air,

"I don't have asthma. I, I just got nervous because of the shout and suddenly I couldn't breath in anymore.," he looked at Sasha and thanked her.

The rest of the group was astounded and praised her for her quick thinking. The kiss probably shocked him out of his breakdown.

"Don't worry Craig, we will overcome this.", Anastasia assured him.

The situation resolved itself as quick as it happened, and everyone went back to work.

Tony was as careful as possible when carrying Panda but he needed to be fast as well. Fortunately Panda had a smaller physique and Tony was quite strong.

Sieg had taken the Gemini Stones from Vincent's hands and their combined illumination was enough to serve as a guide in the darkness.

Gorst's voice sounded out from behind:

Hey, hey! You-you can't just leave me behind here!"

"Forget him! Would he do the same for us?!"

"No, probably not. But he is right, we should let him go at least!", Claire reasoned. She didn't want to become just as villainous as Gorst himself.

"Thank you milady, I definitly won't forget your grace!"

Anastasia went up to him, picked up the axe and cut through their self-made ropes.

"Quiieeeck! Be-be careful at least!", he whimpered.

"From here on out, our paths separate. Don't follow us.", after saying this she quickly got away from him and ran back to her group.

She didn't forget what he had done earlier in the day. She wouldn't trust him so easily.

Gorst took a couple of minutes to get free of his confinement. Finally he could escape this most embarassing point in his life. As for not following them? What else could he do!? He still hadn't given up on his plan to offer them to his Boss and make peace with him. He just needed to wait for the perfect opportunity. Right now, the children were to wary of their surroundings so he decided to hide in the dark and approach them sneakily.

The children were on the move and went towards the east. It wasn't easy as the stones didn't give enough light. When somebody got caught or entangled in a bush or branch, or stumbled onto the ground. they also needed to wait a little. Moving together in a group and ensuring that everybody came along was of course a necessity but it slowed down their pace by a notch.

Sieg wondered when the fog would finally rise up. All their assumptions were based alone on Gorst's words. If he got it wrong or the fog came at another time, then everything could have been for naught and their struggles would only delay their demise for a bit.

The shouts got louder and louder at their back:

"Where are you?! Come out now! As long as you give me back the key and the book, I will keep you alive! Cooperate and you will live!"

"What does he mean with that?"Jean asked around,

"What book and key?"

"Ahh!", Claire suddenly thought of something,

"I, I think I know what he is talking about."

She told them again about how she had tried to open the metal cages and how the key turned out to be the wrong one. She had kept both items all along in her pockets, but actually, she forgot about them. Too many things had happened afterwards.

"Then this is the Boss who is after us? Why does he want them so much?", Jafar asked agitatedly.

"Does it matter? Just give them back, and he might let us go! We could make a deal with him!", Tony told him anxiously. Their situation wasn't in their favour right now.

They wandered through an unknown forest in the dark, towards an unknown destination while being hunted by an unknown man. It truly wasn't an exaggeration to say their situation was shit.

"No, we can't do this!", Vincent, Claire and Charlotte told him off at the same time. They had a clearer understanding about what kind of personality these bandits had. How they treated children and women and other people. Their Boss couldn't possibly be better. And according to most descriptions of him he was probably the worst of them all. Any kind of negotiation with this man would be no more than a joke!

Silently they all agreed to not surrender to this man as long as their hope hadn't been extinguished yet.

When they reached another more open field, thoughts of taking a break popped up in some of their minds. But Sieg knew they couldn't afford this, as time was running out for them so they decided against it. Just when they were about to finish crossing the field, an enormous creature jumped out from the bushes tens of meters away from them!

"Quick, hide behind the trees!", Sieg shouted loudly, and the children dispersed as quicky as possible.

He picked himself a tree and fell on his knees to make himself smaller. The others did as well, and gazed fearfully at the newly arrived beast.

Like Claire had told them already, it was a beast with three heads resembling a dog. It was bigger than the children by two times at least and sniffed around in the air.

Sieg's theory was confirmed when they all saw this happening. The bandits used this monster and their scents to find them!

Their hearts beat faster and faster as they quietly awaited their doom. It was only a question of time, now that this dog continued to look around.

Right in this moment, someone else entered the stage. It was a tall man, with a red leather armour on and blond hair. The scary thing was his eyes. They glowed in a red-blood colour and penetrated their minds and induced incredible fear in the children! Some of them believed they had encountered a vampire! Like in the movies!

"I know you are here! Come out, and we can still talk! Give me back my belongings and you will be forgiven!", Michael declared calm and righteously,

"and if you don't then ... we can keep playing hide and seek! Mwuahahahaha!"

When he finished laughing, Tiberius gave out low growl! There was an incredible stench in their surroundings, it couldn't ignore it even if it wanted to!

"Ohh, have we found the first candidate? Go Tiberius, show them that nobody can escape our grasp!", he ordered and the monster dashed from its position towards another site.

The children held their breaths and closed their eyes! They prayed that they wouldn't get caught and tears poured out from their eyes. The moment they had tried to avoid at all costs finally came.

"Nooo! Not meee!!!!"