Chapter 8

     The moon rose in the sky, illuminating the forest. Yekaterina noticed something that sparkles and is shiny on the dead animal’s body a few steps farther. She walked closer to it and she picked up a tree branch. When she was close enough, she used the tree branch to separate the decayed flesh from the shiny thing.

     It’s a key. She bent down and pick it up. She wasn’t even able to examine it thoroughly when suddenly another group of players came and one of them, a normal looking guy, bolted towards her and grabbed the key forcefully, taking her by surprise.

     One of the guys with the group looks very noticeable. But not in a good way. He’s a dangerous and scary-looking guy. He’s tall and has a muscular tattooed body, covered in only a sleeveless shirt that is exposed and open on both sides. His eyes look devoid of life and the way his lips rose sideways looks evil. His constant biting on the toothpick on his mouth creates a disgusting sound as he played with it using his tongue and teeth.

     Their leader, the only woman on the team has fake, straight, blonde hair that reaches her waist. She’s tall and has an hour-glass figure. Her red lips speaks volume. Her eyes landed on Jade and scanned her from head to toe. Then she adjusted her own sweatshirt and make it look like a make-shift crop top, a poor copy of Jade’s style. She also folded and lifted her own leggings and made it look like short shorts. The other members look nothing special.

     In just a matter of seconds, the player who stole the key from Yekaterina toss it into the air and the scary-looking guy catches it with one hand.  Then they started running away like nothing happened, the keys on the scary-looking guy’s waist jingling as they go.

     Jade was the first one who reacted and ran after them to take the key back. They need that to open a chest box and complete the game. It seems like the other group had stolen almost all of the keys from the others to make them fail.

     Running faster, Jade was able to catch up to them. She touched the scary-looking guy’s shoulder to get his attention and make him turn to her but what meets her is the sudden burst of pain on her side. She gasp in shock as she realized she had been stabbed with a knife, deep. She can feel her blood oozing out and flowing down her leg. The scary-looking guy smirked and tuts  as if to say it’s her fault and she made a mistake for following them.

     He twisted the knife inside her and then in one quick move, he pulled it out without mercy, his evil eyes watching her pained face. More blood spurted from her wound and she reached for it, trying to cover it and stop the wound from flowing even more. But her attempt did nothing.

     Her vision became blurry and she dropped into the ground, clutching her stab wound. She heard their loud laughter and mocking words as she watch them disappear into the woods, leaving him to die.

     Jade was already unconscious on the ground, lying on her own pool of blood when Ahrio and the others arrived. Yekaterina crouched down on her side to check her pulse and assess her state. This is not good, she immediately thought. Her pulse is weak and the amount of blood she had lost is extremely alarming.

     Ahrio left them there and run off to chase the group who did this to Jade. He was gone for a few minutes and came back with blood-covered hands and some wet stains on his sweatshirt, which assuming from the blood on his hands, those stains were obviously blood as well. But most of all, he was holding all the keys the other group had stolen.

     “How did you get those?” Zayden asked as he looked at the keys on Ahrio’s hand.

     “We don’t have much time. Let’s hurry.” Ahrio said, dismissing Zayden’s question.

     They were thinking of ways to carry Jade safely when Zayden said. “Put her on my back. “

     But Blaize stopped him with a hand on his shoulder then he kneeled with one knee , offering his back and ready to carry Jade.

     They helped put her on his back and when they were done, they walked towards the exit of the forest and luckily the shooting arrows had ceased. They walked hurriedly, figuring and making out the quickest exit they could find.

     “Hey! Give it back, damn bastard!”

     They came across the same familiar faces from earlier, but this time there’s only five of them. They were once again stealing keys from others. The group noticed their presence and seemed to look frightened when they glance at Ahrio. Then without another word, they run off faster than one could ever say go.

     The woman cursed and called them out once more but they had already disappeared out of sight. Her black hair is levelled with her shoulder, judging  from the look in her eyes, she is pretty naive, making her susceptible to the harsh danger of the world.

     She finally noticed them and turned to glance at them. Her expression slightly changed when her eyes landed on Ahrio, an unreadable emotion passes through her eyes but was gone in an instant. Her group members were muttering about their stolen key, extremely worried and afraid. They fell silent when they caught glimpse of the keys on Ahrio’s hand, immediate judgement can be assumed from the loud silence and the way they pass glances at each other like they’re having some sort of communication wordlessly.

     Ahrio stepped closer to the woman and handed her all the keys absent-mindedly, including their own , his eyes never leaving hers.

     “Let’s survive in this together.” He said with a determined look on his face, still staring at her beautiful innocent face.