Chapter 52 Chapter 52
“Trust your instincts especially on nights when everyone else is wearing a costume.”
Clara slowed her pace without fully meaning to. One step shorter, then another, her heels digging into damp leaves as her gaze slid past Margaret’s bouncing pigtails and fixed on the forest ahead. Something about this journey made her feel uneasy.... Then movements...
It was subtle, too smooth to be a trick of the fog, too deliberate to be a falling branch. A shadow shifted behind a tall pine to their left, then stilled again. Clara’s breath hitched, her eyes had already caught it and once something was seen, it could not be unseen.
She stopped. Trinity noticed immediately, spinning around, her hand dropping instinctively to her thigh.
“What is it?” she said scanning the woods for any possible threats
Margaret halted too, bat resting on her shoulder, grin already forming. “Why’d we stop?, found any clue ”
“No, I just think someone’s following us,” Clara said quietly
Margaret burst out laughing, sharp and mocking. “Oh please, don’t be silly. No one knows this path but me. This is the path I use to avoid the others... ”
“Watch your tone,” Trinity snapped "And don’t talk to her like that.”
Margaret blinked, surprised. “Excuse me?”
Trinity stepped forward, squaring her shoulders. “You should mind how you speak, especially since you haven’t been completely honest with us.”
Both Margaret and Clara turned to her at the same time, identical questions written across their faces.
“What do you mean?, Are you calling me a liar?" Margaret asked, lips curling defensively.
“Yes I am. I don’t believe you’ve done this hunt before,” Trinity said flatly. “This feels like your first time, it's easy to see"
Margaret scoffed, ready to fire back, but Clara cut in before she could.
“She’s right,” Clara said slowly. “I noticed it too. If you were really a pro, we would’ve found at least one treasure by now but we've not found anything useful"
"And you claim to know where the cabins are but somehow this journey feels like it's heading nowhere " Clara sighed
Trinity smirked. “Exactly and we wouldn’t be moving in circles if she was truely a pro ”
She stepped toward a nearby tree and brushed her fingers over three shallow slashes carved into its bark. “I suspected it earlier,” she continued. “So I started marking trees. Every time we passed this point, I added another mark.”
Margaret’s laugh this time was different, low and tinged with restraint “That’s what they want you to think.”
Clara frowned. “Who’s they?”
“The trees are rotating,” Margaret said casually. “Not the paths, the trees.”
Clara snorted. “That’s ridiculous. You can’t rotate trees, and besides,” she tilted her chin upward, “the moon’s still in the same place.”
Margaret shook her head. For a split second, her pupils dilated unnaturally wide, swallowing the whites of her eyes before snapping back to normal then she exhaled slowly, like someone letting go of a long-held breath.
“Fine,” she muttered. “You caught me.”
Both girls stiffened, exchanging a worried look.
“It’s my first time,” Margaret admitted. “I lied because… I just wanted to belong to a group. Everyone's teaming up, I didn’t want to be alone.”
Trinity folded her arms across her chest. “Funny, makes me wonder what else you lied about.”
Margaret’s brows knit together. “What are you talking about?” She shrugged. “That’s it. That’s the only lie ”
Trinity reached for Clara’s hands, squeezing them once “We’re leaving. We don’t need you anymore.”
“What?” Clara protested instinctively.
Trinity shook her head, firm, and pulled her away into a different clearing without another word.
Once they were far enough, Clara leaned closer. “What did you mean that?” she whispered. “What could she be hiding?”
“Everything,” Trinity murmured back. “Her, this hunt, all of it. Haven’t you noticed? The temperature drops every time we come out of a cabin and only one of her ears felt cold when I touched her.”
Clara’s stomach flipped. “I saw a date tattooed on her neck. If that's her birthday, then she's still a teen" she admitted quietly. “And I also saw something like a QR code on her wrist. I just… brushed it off.”
Trinity shot her a sharp look. “You can’t brush things like that off, Clara. Not here, not tonight. Every single detail is a clue or a warning ”
They stepped out into a clearer field and froze. Margaret stood there waiting, bat planted firmly against the ground. Her posture was rigid, her grin gone, replaced with raw anger.
Leaves crunched as she struck the bat harder. “Why’d you abandon me?” she demanded. “I thought we were friends.”
Trinity lifted her chin. “This might be Halloween night,” she said coolly, “but if you act crazy, I’ll take it there with you.”
"Why did you abandon me?, I was nothing but good and helpful to you"
" You barely helped do anything if we're being honest " Clara said
Trinity nodded in agreement " That's right"
"You ingrates. To think I thought of saving you"
Margaret laughed, the sound growing louder, sharper, until it twisted into a scream so piercing it made Clara’s ears ring. The fog parted as boots thundered from every direction. Fully armed men emerged from the trees, weapons glinting under torchlight.
Clara swallowed. “Wow,” she said lightly. “Looks like people really came prepared for Halloween. Full gear i see ”
Trinity snorted despite herself " I commend the effort "
Margaret smirked and with a wave of her hand the men moved and the girls bolted back into the woods. Branches tore at their clothes, roots grabbed at their ankles, lungs burned as they darted through the woods.
Shouts echoed behind them, footsteps pounding, flashlights too bright for the night. Clara vaulted over fallen logs, stumbled, recovered, heart slamming against her ribs.
They split instinctively, weaving unpredictably, the forest becoming a blur of breath and terror. Clara ran until her legs screamed, until her chest ached, until she finally staggered to a halt, gasping for air, unable to rub any further.
"I thi...think we've lost them" she said gasping hard for breath but no one except the crickets replied.
“Trinity?” she whispered.
Her head snapped up then she realised, the men weren’t chasing after her they were after Trinity. She turns frantically searching for a way then suddenly, a strong hand clamped over her mouth.