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Chapter 12: The thing that lurks in the shadows

"When will you come back?" Luna asked.

"It'll be more than five minutes but definitely less than half an hour, if by that time we're not here head towards another camp, not ours. Follow Shakers commands, he'll be the one responsible for your safety and he'll also pay the consequences if something happens to you while we're not around, understood?" She glared at the huge student and nodded. She obviously knew he wasn't a suitable candidate for a team leader, but she also knew he was the only one with a trait among the students and she needed both corporals to save the rest of the group.

"Why can't we go with you?" The pretty girl begged.

"Wake up child, this is a battlefield now, get yourself a trait and don't die."

With that, Lieutenant Dragonfang disappeared along with the two corporals. Uriel wasn't an optimist by anyone's standards, but he felt that things could have been a lot worse.

While being attacked by a shapeshifter was the stuff nightmares were made off, he had heard about gigantic beasts that were able to turn office buildings into rubble in seconds. All things considered, a shapeshifter was the lesser evil.

What worried him the most wasn't any monster, but Shaker's arrogant nature. He feared he might try something weird with the pretty girl and he tried to figure out what to do in order to keep her safe, at least until he remembered how everyone in the group made fun of him reminiscing about his humiliating nickname and no one stepped up to defend him, not even Luna.

There was a reason why he was an outcast and it had little to do with Mark or anyone in particular, it was because he knew from experience that people were nothing but bystanders of all the abuse he had suffered through the years, first at highschool and now at college.

The company of books was much more preferable than that of people, for a brief second he felt reassured by the books weighing on his backpack. Unlike many of the students present, he took a couple books with him in hopes of catching a bit of free time to read.

He thought he'd be able to read to his heart's content during this trip, but never in Uriel's wildest dreams would have crossed his mind that a girl would attempt to make conversation with him, or that the supposedly safe incursion would become a messy chaos.

"Shouldn't we at least try to light a fire?" The cute girl asked worriedly, their only source of light was a dim lantern.

"Not here, not yet..." Luna replied dragging her words, making it sound ominous enough to make her point clear enough.

Standing in the dark, the scared students hurdled together like penguins in the cold, listening to the sounds of the wilderness as if each and every one of them was a death threat. Their senses were sharpened by the lack of sight, which is why when the sound of gunshots in the distance echoed in the barrenlands they got even more scared.

"That's it, we're moving." Shaker commanded, doing his best not to stutter.

"Wait, Miss Dragonfang said..." Luna tried to rebuke, but she was quickly cut short by Jackson the Shaker.

"Shut up midget! I'm in charge and I say we're moving!" He shouted angrily.

The group moved towards the direction Shaker pointed out, which was the nearest campfire towards the north. Every minute they stalled was one minute closer to dawn, they only needed to survive until dawn and then everything will be safe again.

They walked blindly, doing their best not to get separated and as close to Shaker as they could since he was the one entrusted with their only source of light. Meanwhile, the cute girl kept her phone at hand watching it closely because as soon as a cryptid got near, its screen would turn off.

When the gunshots died, there was no sound left in the vast open space. The absence of sound made it even worse on them as there was nothing as cruel as a vivid imagination to torment them. It didn't take long until they were scared by the sound of their own footsteps and no matter how fast they moved the campfire in the distance didn't seem any closer.

"Don't worry, it will be fine." Uriel said trying to comfort himself, but everyone took it as if he was addressing the whole group.

"Hey, don't try to act cool in front of the girls you wimp." Shaker said in a raspy voice, his throat was clenched in fear just as everybody else's.

"I can see it, the campfire, we're saved!" The cute girl shouted as she ran mindlessly towards the source of light, but she was suddenly stopped by Uriel.

"Wait, something is off... there's no one over there." His tone of voice was as grim as his words.

"They must be close, maybe they didn't encounter anything and they're already asleep." The pretty girl said trying to convince herself.

"No, there's also the issue with the missing flares, we can't assume they're safe." Uriel said, the very sound of his voice irked Shaker and he was getting more and more annoyed by the second.

He wanted to play hero and act cool in front of everyone, he had a trait that would carry him to great heights. He was deeply offended by the wimp trying to steal his spotlight, it took all of his savings to sign up for college because there weren't any scholarships for adults.

He was still a child when the cryptids appeared and he remembered it as if it was yesterday. He never had a care for studying and all he did was play thug in highschool, it had never been his intention to become a professional.

When the cryptids arrived Shaker tried to enlist in the army, but he failed the psychological evaluation and the only way for civilians to acquire a trait was to get into college. With that goal in mind he worked hard, he became a corporate drone and prepared to join college, but it took him no less than ten years to finally save up enough money to do so. It was a huge effort and he wasn't willing to let a kid get all the attention that was meant for him and him alone.

His thoughts were quickly shut off when a soothing sound reached his ears as the group was getting closer and closer to the campfire.

"Is that a... river?" Uriel asked Luna, but she didn't have a clue. Instead, the pretty girl replied.

"There's no rivers nearby, at least not any that could be called as such. The only thing that resembles a river is a small creek that used to be popular back in the day. Hang on a minute, didn't Luna tell a story about this very creek?" The pretty girl gulped down so loudly everyone could hear her.

"Luna, please tell us that you made everything up and we're safe here." Uriel asked thinking on the story about the slenderman she told them earlier.

"I- Uh- I'm sorry, I can't lie about this. I don't know if any of it is true because I found it online, but I did some digging and the facts checked up so... I don't think we're really safe, but it should be safer if we stay close to the fire... I guess." She answered honestly.

"Oh shit!" The cute girl yelped as she banged her cellphone with her hand.

"What's wrong?" Uriel asked.

"It went off! My cellphone... It went off" Her face was twitching, cold sweat ran down her forehead and her eyes were wide open. The screen of her cellphone was turned off suddenly and that could mean one thing, there was something nearby, a cryptid to be precise.

Fortunately for the group, they were close enough to the campfire to reach it after a short sprint.

Despite the rush, they all noticed the sound of their footsteps had changed on the last few meters they ran. It was as if they had stepped on water and every step they took made a thud sound, but when they reached the light of the campfire they noticed something horrific, something that would haunt them in their dreams for a long time.

The wet sound of their footsteps wasn't caused by water, it was blood.