This was insane, though Yumi. They were running through a dense forest in the middle of the night, in nothing but their nightclothes. This was absolutely insane.
But the only alternative was death.
Xana had had enough. He was coming for them. He had decided that this Halloween was to be their last.
William had been the first to die. At the Halloween Firework Festival in town, a firework had been fired in the wrong direction, and knocked him backwards, straight into a wall. He died from blunt force trauma.
Only an hour after that, they had gone trick-or-treating. A scaffold had collapsed, and a truck had swerved to avoid it. Odd, distracted by the discovery of a bar of white chocolate in his candy, had been hit.
He died instantly. Not many people survive being splattered on the front of a truck.
They had screamed, grieved, panicked, cried. After dinner, they held a quick meeting just outside the school. They all agreed to stay away from anything dangerous.
Moments later, there was a car crash down the street. A shred of shrapnel flew through the air.
It came down through Jeremie's heart.
The scene was still fresh in her mind. Jeremie lying on the pavement, the shrapnel piercing his chest. His eyes blank and vacant. Blood everywhere. All three of them screaming.
That was the moment they had begun to run.
They were still running now, hours later. They were so tired, but they had to keep going. Fear fuelled them. They couldn't stop.
But where would they end up?
Aelita, in the corner of her eye, noticed the cloud that developed swiftly above them, following their movement, unusually low. But none of them noticed the symbol that flickered momentarily in the cloud, the symbol that represented Xana.
The lightning came down almost vertically. It struck a large tree, and set it alight. The tree fell down in front of them. Ulrich almost smashed into it headfirst.
The trio stood there, shaking with adrenaline. Aelita was sobbing. They had almost died.
Death's dice had rolled in their favour.
This time.