Smoke Out

Ashton and I stood by the edge of a babbling brook, dipping our hands in the mud along its edge. Slowly, we spread it across our skin, being sure to use enough to cover the skin of our arms and faces. 

"Do you think this will work?" I asked as doubt began to claw at me. "We don’t know how many are in there."

"Do you have a better idea?" Ashton snapped in annoyance. "Weren’t you the one that said that there wasn’t any time to waste?"

He was right. I was the one that was insistent. I didn’t know if the twins were okay, and I needed to see them with my own eyes. I still couldn’t understand why someone would even want to kidnap them; they weren’t even part of