No reply, no sign of Zyle anywhere.
Adam was now at the gate which acts as a border separating the woods from Zyle’s house, also meant to keep away unwanted “guests”. He left the house immediately after receiving the text message, thinking that it was probably too much of a coincidence that Zyle’s parents and sister went over to their grandma’s to stay; they would’ve killed Adam for what had happened. And kill Zyle too, if he ever came back alive.
This also explains how he could go over to Zyle’s house in the first place; reason is Zyle’s parents wanted him to lay low because they were filthy rich, and wouldn’t want anyone to get too close to him for unnecessary needs. “Paranoid”, in Zyle’s terms. But it was better to be safer than sorry.
“Shweeesh.”
Even though it was a split second, Adam thought he saw a glimpse of something splinting in the woods. It occurred to him that what he saw was something on all fours, which meant that it wasn’t Zyle.
“Maybe it was after Zyle?”
With that thought Adam dashed over to the route where he saw the four-legged creature disappear to, only to find the soccer ball they had left behind.
“Dammit.”
“ZYLE! STOP PULLING PRANKS ON ME! I KNOW YOU’RE THERE!”
Immediately after yelling a gust of cold wind sent the shivers up Adam’s spine, and out of nowhere, he got knocked down to the ground by force which seemed like a full body tackle. Still shaken by the impact, Adam felt a painful stinging sensation on his back. He was bleeding. Whatever attacked him had used some weapon with sharp edges, or was it done by the attacker himself?
Adam got up, hid himself behind one of the trees and took a peek. He looked to the direction where he got attacked, scanning the area hoping he would pick up some slight movement again. There, a black shadow slowly emerged from behind one of the trees. It was tall, on twos, and pupils glowing crimson red in the dark. Adam still could not make out what it was, but decided he should make a run for it. And he still had to find Zyle, before the black shadowed creature does.
“Three, Two, One. Go.”
Dashing out from his hiding place, Adam ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Behind him, he heard a screeching howl, which made him creep out once again. “It’s coming for me!” He thought. Trying not to look back, Adam kept going on and on… Deeper and deeper into the woods.
The pain on his back started to hurt like a thousand needles piercing his wound. It was unbearable, but Adam tried hard not to make any noise. He dare not call out for his friend either, fearing that it would be more than his back getting clawed for yelling once more.
Staggering much more now, Adam finally came to a stop at a solid brick wall. In the middle of the woods? Also, there was a sign with words that read:
“Thou who seek what lies ahead shall do what is said.”
“X” marks the spot.
From “X”, go north four tiles, east two tiles, south six tiles, east two tiles, north two tiles and lastly, west four tiles.
Adam followed the instructions. In the end, it lead back to the”X” again. Adam frowned. “What is this? A joke?”
Suddenly, the wall crumbled down and Adam felt as if his surroundings were spinning and twirling. His vision became blurred, but he could make out that someone was reaching out to grab him right then.
“Adam! Adam!”
“Zyle?”
The person’s voice was muffled, but Adam could tell that it came from Zyle. But other sounds echoed around Adam as well. One of them came from a train, in an underground railway nearing to the station’s platform, and also loud chimes from Big Ben, the clock from London. Not only that, Adam realized that he was now standing on the railway tracks in the underground station- and the train was approaching!
“Damn.”
“Adam, Adam wake up!”
It was Zyle, still in one piece, and all along everything was just a bad dream, was it?
“Cool alarm ringtone you got there by the way, “Trains and Clocks” huh, cool title too.”
