“Serena, come on,” the boys called out again.
This time I lost my temper. Summoning up my energy as best I could, and focusing it on the crying birds, I tried to manipulate them through syphoning—telling them to leave me alone while simultaneously trying to drain their energy so they’d back off. It was a skill that was underdeveloped in me, and I wasn’t sure how well it would work. To my surprise, I felt myself connecting with the creatures, sensing their strange, hysterical panic. The syphoning disorientated them, and I took my chance, racing ahead to meet the boys at the other end of the lawn.
“Thanks for the help!” I called out, panting as I ran.
The moment I got within a few paces of them, I watched in utter disbelief as they turned and started running into the swamplands.
“Are you kidding me?” I cried out, coming to a standstill.
“We’ll explain!” Jovi hissed. “We just need to get a bit further from the house.”
His tone was the same urgent call I’d heard earlier, and it sent a rush of goosebumps up the back of my neck. What had they discovered?
“Serena,” Field called out, his voice fast fading as they ran on ahead.
As dumb as this idea seemed, I didn’t want to be left here on my own. I started to rush through the swamplands, my bare feet slapping against soggy soil. I stuck to the areas where the trees grew, not wanting to sink into water. There was just enough moonlight to guide me, and I could make out their shadowy figures up ahead.
As I ran, I resolved to talk some sense into them when I finally caught up with them. I was beyond angry, and in the past, would never for a moment have even thought that either of them would behave this way.
“Can you wait up?” I cried out, almost stumbling on a vine that caught around my ankle. I paused to untangle myself, and when I looked up again, they had gone.
“Jovi? Field?” I called out.
My voice sounded hollow and echoed across the silent swamp. The crickets had stopped, and now there was just an airless silence that sank into my bones.
“Jovi?” I called again, hating the sound of my voice—timid and alone.
I moved forward, brushing aside a curtain of willow boughs. The moonlight shone down on a small island rise in the swamp. Field and Jovi were standing still, watching me. I couldn’t make out their features properly—their eyes were cast in shadow, their figures not looking… quite right.
“Guys?” I stammered. “What…What’s going on?”
They didn’t say anything, just continued to watch me. My body screamed out for me to stop moving—to turn around and run back as fast as I could toward the house. My mind tried to act rationally, moving my body forward. They were waiting for me, that was all.
They’re not my friends.
The thought came as a whisper through my mind, and I stopped moving. My limbs froze in complete terror. Field smiled at me, and it was all wrong.
Serena
[Hazel and Tejus’s daughter]
I heard a shrill cry to my left, up in the trees. I looked up, seeing a black figure jumping from one tree to another. It moved on its hands and feet, giving the impression of something that was almost human, but not quite. I stumbled back, my eyes shifting in horror to where Field and Jovi had stood. They’d vanished.
Before I could turn and run, there was another ear-splitting cry to my right. It sounded like a child screaming—a wail that was desperate, hungry. More figures, all moving on four legs, jumped from the trees. The boughs shook, and I could hear the soft thumps as they landed. This time I turned and started to move across the swampland, jumping to the small patches of land.
Another cry went up, closer this time, almost as it if was right behind me. I turned, silently screaming as a pair of fangs—large, and shining a brilliant white in the light of the moon—snapped next to my face. I could smell the putrid breath of the creature, like rotted meat, hot on my skin. In a split second it was gone, and the black figure jumped onto another branch.
I had been tricked—whatever these creatures were, they had lured me into the depths of the swamp to trap me. I started running again, my breath coming out in harsh pants as I dodged the roots of the trees in the soil, praying not to stumble. If I did, that would be it.
I could hear them easily keeping pace with my strides. They screamed down at me from the trees and splashed in the water behind me, some of them running through the water as they gained on me. I kept running in a straight line, heading to where I could just about see the house in the distance. Leaping over a wide stretch of water, I landed clumsily on the other side. I stumbled, just for a moment, and one of the creatures dropped down in front of me.