-A Morning Jog-

IMPORTANT NOTE (Please Read): I was recently browsing the internet and I found that someone had the nerve to copy two of my stories, post them on another website, and pass them off as their own work. Listen, you should never copy another persons work, it's just wrong and you will not get away with it. So always remember, respect the work that authors put into their stories and never try to copy them.

I woke the next morning in a complete daze. I looked around and I suddenly became very confused. At first, it was because I had no fucking idea where I was. After I realized that though, I became even more confused because I didn't have a clock in my room so I had no way of knowing what time it was.

Of course, that's why I carry around my handy little device that I like to call my cell phone. I found my bag lying on the floor next to my bed; guess I kicked it off by accident while I was sleeping. I grabbed my travel bag and searched through it for my phone. That was when I remembered that I was using it as a light the night before and had left it sitting on my night stand. Hey, new surroundings can have a strange effect on you okay? Anyway, I grabbed my phone so I could see what time it was. It was six thirty in the morning. I guess I had made a habit out of waking up early. That or I was so scared out of my mind that I woke up early so I could keep myself alive. Whatever the reason though, the fact was that I was up so I might as well do something.

I got up from my bed and decided to take a walk downstairs. I looked down at what I was wearing. Since I had fallen asleep in what I was wearing the day before like I usually seemed to do I decided not to change just because I was lazy. Not like anyone was up yet to see me anyway. I left my room and started to head downstairs. No one was up, as I had expected, and I didn't really know when classes would start so I decided to see if I could find Ms. Grimwood anywhere.

I found myself walking into the kitchen where I found Ms. Grimwood tending to something cooking on the stove. She seemed busy enough so I didn't want to disturb her. Then again, I did still have some questions that I needed to ask and I was sure that she could spare some time for me.

"Hello dear," Ms. Grimwood said as she saw me, "You're up quite early are you not?"

"Yeah," I said, "It's kind of a habit I guess."

"Well," Ms. Grimwood said, "The early bird catches the worm as they say. How are you adjusting to the school?"

"Good enough I guess," I said. I was over exaggerating a little bit, though I didn't' mention that. I was getting use to the school, but it would still take a whole lot of convincing before I would let my guard down around any of these psychos. I continued to lie to keep myself covered though. "I talked to all of the girls last night, and we got along pretty well. I think I might be over them being monsters." Not, I thought to myself, but I didn't say it out loud.

"Well that's good," Ms. Grimwood said, "I want you to be able to feel at home here like all of the others do."

Fat chance that will ever happen, I thought, but, again, I never said that out loud. "That would be nice," I said with a hint of sarcasm. "So, anyway," I said trying to change the subject, "When's breakfast?"

"We'll be eating once the others wake up," she said, "About thirty minutes."

"Awesome," I said, "I'm starving."

I walked over and smelled what Ms. Grimwood was cooking. I started gagging before the smell even hit the edge of my nostrils. I honestly thought that I was going to die just from smelling that….whatever it was. To describe it would be murder, and in all honesty, you do not want to know what it was like. If you really want to try and imagine how horrible it was then imagine the worst smell that you have ever come across. Now, multiply that stench by ten and you can start to have an idea of what I was feeling in that kitchen. I fell backwards in order to get as far from that stuff as possible and I nearly threw up all over the floor.

I gathered my thoughts and managed to take a look at what was cooking, after I got up off of the ground mind you. What the hell is that, I thought to myself. What was cooking in the frying pans, well, actually there were four frying pans each cooking the same disgusting looking…..can I even call it food? In each frying pan was what looked like an old muddy rag that someone had gotten pissed off at and had decided to stomp on it out of shear frustration; really, did she expect people to eat this stuff?

"What in the world is that," I asked.

"Why, they're expired dragon eggs of course," Ms. Grimwood said, "Haven't you ever seen them before?"

Oh yeah, I thought, because I go out every fucking day looking for expired fucking dragon eggs. I was now sure of the fact that this place would be the death of me, expired eggs, and dragon eggs no less. Where the hell does she come off feeding me expired eggs? And where the hell does somebody even get dragon eggs?

"They smell awful," I said.

"I know," Ms. Grimwood said, "I can't wait for breakfast either."

Oh yeah, I thought, I almost forgot that these people are fucking insane. Of course, monsters would like expired food. I was sure that they probably ate rotten meat and fruit. They probably waited for the food to be at its worst before they started to even consider using it. I was starting to think that they would probably eat, like, bugs and stuff too. Cockroaches and other weird insects like that. Actually, I hear that if you dip them in chocolate cockroaches are supposed to be pretty good. I also hear that they are healthy for you too, contain a lot of protein or something…..wait a minute, what was I saying again?

I gave Ms. Grimwood a very quizzical look. It was the kind of look that you give someone when you want to ask, Are you fucking kidding me? Ms. Grimwood didn't respond to me after that. Instead, she decided to go back to her cooking. Okay then, I thought, Guess I'll be skipping breakfast then.

I left the kitchen and made my way back up to my room. Once I was their, I thought about what I should do for food. I couldn't eat whatever it was that this place was going to try and feed me, but I also couldn't go without eating. I was at a very difficult crossroad at this point. I grabbed my travel bag and searched through it, hoping that I had been smart enough to pack some kind of food. A snack, a sandwich, something that I could eat that wouldn't kill me.

Luckily, I found a bag of chips in their. Smashed and nearly uneatable, but they were still better than eating the food that Ms. Grimwood was cooking. I downed the bag in seconds and then sat on my bed in silence for a while after that. I'm still hungry, I thought to myself. My stomach decided to answer me with a very loud, and very aggravated sounding, growl. I knew that I needed something more to eat. My only choice was to go eat breakfast.

I stood up from my bed. I started hearing footsteps outside of my door, which indicated that the girls were up and were heading downstairs to eat breakfast. With nothing better to do, I left my room in order to join them.

When I got downstairs I found that the food was all gone. Not a single morsel was left for me. So much for that idea, I thought. I walked into the dining room where I found the girls all sitting at a rectangular table still eating breakfast. I'm not sure why, but I decided to sit down in the only seat that was still open, which, ironically, put me right in between Sibella and Phantasma.

"Here," Sibella said as I sat down at the table. She slid a plate of food, if you could call it that, in front of me. "I figured that I would get some for you since Winnie usually eats everything."

"I do not," Winnie yelled from across the table through a mouthful of food and four empty plates sitting on the table in front of her.

I managed to give Sibella a smile. "Thanks," I said, "I think." I stared down at the plate of food in front of me. It still just looked like a plate with two muddy rags sitting on top of it. I prayed that whatever it was wouldn't kill me, and, reluctantly, I took a bite of it.

It tasted like the worst food you could possibly think of, but even worse. A lot of kids complain about eating broccoli or brussel sprouts, well; having to eat those would have been a blessing in disguise for me. I wanted to spit it out and wash my mouth out for the next hour. I wanted to throw the plate at the wall. More than anything, I wanted to throw up, but, mostly out of respect, I swallowed what I had in my mouth. Afterwards, I stood up from the table.

"Something wrong," Sibella asked.

"Don't you like it," Phantasma asked.

I really didn't want to insult anyone by telling them what I thought about the food. Then again, they might take me saying that the food was, and I quote, "The worst fucking thing I had ever eaten in my entire life," as a compliment. I decided not to tell them what I thought about it, regardless of how they might take the criticism.

"No," I said, "Just, not hungry that's all."

Phantasma seemed to buy my lie without any convincing. However, Sibella gave me a quizzical, almost accusing, look that told me that she was not convinced at all. Before she could say anything though, Ms. Grimwood came into the room. Everyone fell silent and looked at her as she entered the room.

"Alright everyone," Ms. Grimwood said, "You have exactly ten minutes of free time before classes start, you may use this time as you please."

As eager as I was to continue eating my delicious breakfast, I offered what was left on my plate to Winnie, who gladly took and ate it within seconds. I darted from the table, leaving everyone else behind, and ran upstairs and straight to my room. I shut the door behind me and looked around the room. It was as dark as ever, even with the sun out. I went over and tried to clean off the window so that I could at least see. I was able to clean it off enough so that it let enough light in for me to see.

I looked over at my travel bag. I wasn't really sure what I could accomplish with only ten minutes, but I decided that it was better to do something other than sit there and feel sorry for myself. I dug through my travel bag for my phone; honestly I should have just started carrying it with me from the start. I scrolled through my contacts until I came upon my home phone number. I hit send and waited for someone to answer.

"Hello," My mom answered on the other end.

"Hi mom," I said overjoyed to hear her voice and doing absolutely nothing to hide it.

"Ethan," my mom said as happy to hear me as I was to hear her, "Honey, it's Ethan," she called to my dad who was probably in the other room getting ready for work. If I was right, then my mom was in the kitchen getting breakfast ready, which was probably much better than what I just ate. I missed her cooking already. I heard my dad call something back that I couldn't hear clearly.

"Your father says hi," my mom said, though, I could hear the laughter in her voice. I was almost positive that my dad had probably made some kind of sarcastic remark about me, something like, "Oh, he's not dead yet, good," but my mom wasn't telling me that part. My dad and I always liked to joke around with each other like that.

"So," my mom said changing the subject before I could come up with a good comeback, "How's your new school?"

I told my mom all about the school and what I had thought about it. Okay, that was a complete lie. What I told my mom was the complete opposite of what was actually going on. I told her that I was adjusting pretty well, even though I was really on the verge of having a panic attack. I told her that I was getting along well with the other students, even though I was really scared to death of all of them because they were all monsters. I did tell her all about Sibella and Phantasma, even though I changed their names since their names were clearly not normal. Sarah and Paullina, two students and my two new friends that I had met on the first day and that I was getting along with very well. I had to change the stories around so my mom wouldn't get suspicious, but I kept most of it the same. The only thing that I forgot was that this was supposed to be an all boys school and Sarah and Paullina were clearly not boy's names.

"I thought that your school was a private school for boys," my mom said when I mentioned Sarah and Paullina (Sibella and Phantasma).

"Oh," I said as I realized how much of a fucking idiot that I was, "It was, I mean, it used to be, last year that is, and the years before that. Well, this year they started to let girls into the school." The line was silent for a while. I hoped that my mom would buy my story and that my own stupidity hadn't just bought me a one way ticket back home.

The thing I found strange as I was thinking about how much of an idiot I was as the line was silent was the fact that I was trying to stay at the school. I knew that if I had told my mom this really was a private school for girls then she would rush up to get me. I knew that I could have gotten out of there back then, but I didn't. For some odd reason, instead of ending my nightmare, I lied to my mother, which I hated doing by the way, and, in turn, practically gave myself a death sentence. The strangest part was that I never once regretted doing it.

"Well," My mom said finally ending the silence that had taken over our conversation, "That's fine, I guess, but I had better not hear about you being alone with any…"

"Mom," I screamed to cut her off since I knew exactly where she was going with that, "Don't worry. I won't do anything to get myself in trouble, not this time anyway."

Before my mom could say anything else, I heard my dad call something from the other room. Again, I couldn't hear him clearly because he was essentially trying to talk to me from the other side of the house, but I could imagine what he said. "Don't listen to your mother now," I pictured him saying, "You can be alone with anyone you want. Just make sure you tell me about it when you get back." It was probably something along those lines anyway.

"Honey," my mother said to him in a very accusing tone. That only confirmed that I was right about what he had said.

I started laughing and I was going to say something in return to what I imagined my dad had said, but then I realized how long I had been on the phone. "Mom," I said, "Classes are going to be starting soon, so I have to go, but there is one thing that I was hoping you guys could do for me."

"Of course," she said.

I asked her if she could bring my Mp3 player up to the house later since I had forgotten to pack it before I had left. I had already gone about half a day without it and I was already starting to break down. If I had to go a whole day…well, I didn't even want to think about what would happen. She told me she would be able to get it to the house later that night. I thanked her and we said our goodbyes before I hung up.

I sat down on my bed and looked out the window, which was looking much better now than it had when I arrived at that place. The sun was just beginning to rise. It was casting an orange glow on the dead forest that surrounded the house. The sky was still gray; however, even though the sun was high enough that it should have lit up the sky to its usual shade of blue. I was starting to think that everything in this place was made to be depressing.

I looked away from the window and down at my phone. The time showed that it had already been nine minutes since I had come up from breakfast, which left me with only one minute until I would start classes. I thought about calling my friend, the one who gave me the knife before I left, but I decided not to. There wasn't enough time and he was probably getting ready to leave for school himself.

I felt myself beginning to feel faint, like I was going to fall asleep if I sat there any longer. That was when I heard someone knock on my door. I was so faint that the sound startled me to the point that I nearly fell off of my bed. I was able to keep myself up though. I stood up from my bed and put my phone into my pocket.

"Come in," I said.

Sibella opened the door and stood in the doorway. "Classes are starting soon," she said, "You had better get downstairs."

"Oh yeah," I said remembering how long I had been sitting alone in my room. Sibella turned to go downstairs herself, but I stopped her before she could get too far. "Wait a second," I said, "What are the classes like here?"

It sounded like a strange question even to me. Honestly, what could the classes be like? I mean, aren't all schools the same? Don't they all have the same general classes? Well, that was what I thought at first, but then I started to think about it. This school was clearly unlike any that I had ever been to. It was a school for monsters after all, and, after what had happened at breakfast, I was starting to wonder what other kinds of things I should expect. This school could have all kinds of crazy surprises for me and I wanted to be prepared for the worst of them.

"Well," Sibella said, "This morning we will be taking a jog through the swamp."

"Wait a minute," I said in astonishment, "What? A jog? Through a swamp?"

"Yes," Sibella said, "It was an idea that Ms. Grimwood got from our gym teachers last year. They actually went to a place that was much more fun, but Ms. Grimwood thought that the swamp just outside the house would work just as well."

"So wait," I said, "Your talking the full deal right? Like quicksand and snakes and other stuff like that?"

"Yes, isn't it Fang-tastic?"

"Yeah sure," I said in the most sarcastic tone that I could possibly manage, "It does sound FANtastic." Thank you last year's gym teachers, I thought to myself, Now I really am fucked.

Sibella gave me a smile, which was kind of nice, and then she ran down the hallway and out of sight. I left my room and walked down the hall, following the same path that Sibella had taken. I have to admit that I was laughing the whole way down the stairs. Fang-tastic, I thought as I walked, it sounds like something out of a bad cartoon or something.

By the time I had reached the foyer it was about seven thirty. All of the girls were standing in a group in the middle of the room. As reluctant as I was, I joined them and was going to say something to Phantasma when Ms. Grimwood clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.

"Alright everyone," Ms. Grimwood said, "Come, follow me outside." We all did as she said and left the house through the front door, as cramped as it was. To this day, I still have no idea how that old, rotting porch was able to support everyone's weight, but it managed to by some miracle. Our little group made its way to the edge of the forest around the other side of the house. Ms. Grimwood stopped. "Okay everyone, the swamp is only a short walk into the forest from here. Now, split up and be on your way."

"Wait just a minute," I said now unable to keep silent with all of my arguments, "Split up!?" I waited for a response from someone, but none came. "So you mean to tell me, and stop me if I'm wrong, that we are going into a swamp, which has some, shall we say, hazardous elements, and we have to traverse it on our own?"

"Yes," Ms. Grimwood said without a second thought.

"Oh okay," I said, "I was just making sure I heard you right."

At that point I was starting to get a mixture of sadness, anxiety, and fear. I was afraid of going into the swamp by myself. Okay, saying that I was afraid is a serious understatement. I was on the verge of having a fucking seizure at that point. On the other hand, I was kind of depressed over the fact that I would be alone since I was hoping to spend some more time with my new friends. On an off note, I was also still brooding over the fact that I did not have my music and would have to wait through the entire day before I would get it back, that is, if I even survived the rest of the day.

Ms. Grimwood sent us all off after that. Everyone went into the woods, each of the girls taking a different path. I watched as each of them disappeared into the dark forest surrounding the house. For a moment, I just stood there alone and stared at the dead trees around me. The forest itself wasn't very inviting, on account of the fact that it was all deader than my great great grandparents, I had to wonder what the swamp would look like. Just the thought of it was making me shiver. After a few minutes of staring at the forest, I took a deep breath, picked a path that I had hoped would end up leading me in a giant circle back to the house, and then ran into the woods at full speed.

I would like to tell you that I had overreacted to the entire situation. I would like to tell you that I braved the forest, the swamp, and everything else that I had been afraid of doing. I would like to tell you that I came out of it all without a single scratch. I would like to tell you all of that, but I can't, well, I could, but I would be lying. The truth is that I got about six feet into the forest before everything went wrong. I was just starting to think, hey, this isn't so bad, when my foot got caught on a very large tree root and I ended up falling flat on my face.

I lay on the ground, face first in the dirt, for a couple of minutes. I'm not sure why I did it, but I just didn't feel much like standing up. After a few minutes, though, I decided that lying in the dirt wasn't doing me much good and I sat up. I wiped the dirt and mud off of my face, as best I could anyway, and I looked up at the sky. It was still an eerie gray color, even though it was sunny out and there was no sign of a storm approaching. Great, I thought, isn't this just the perfect fucking way to start the morning.

"I hope you're all having as much fun as I am," I screamed into the air. I wasn't talking to anyone in particular, there wasn't anyone around to talk to after all, so I didn't expect to get an answer, but, of course, I got one.

"We sure are," someone called back to me.

I was taken back at first, but I gathered myself together after a moment. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to do so, but I decided to answer the voice. "Well, good for you then," I yelled. This time; however, there was no answer. It may have been because I was expecting one, or it may have been because I was hoping for one, but, for whatever reason, an answer never came.

I sat looking up at the sky for a good bit of time. I was still waiting for that voice to answer me, but they never did. After a while, I decided that sitting around doing nothing was pointless. I pulled myself up onto my feet and looked at the path ahead of me. I took another deep breath, preparing for what may lie ahead of me, and then proceeded, cautiously this time, down the path. It was, in my opinion, the biggest mistake that I have ever made. I should have just called it quits right there. I should have just turned around and went back to the house, but I was way too stubborn to do that.

For the next, let me see, I can't even remember how long I was out there anymore, I don't know, but for the longest time after I started down the path again I was fighting for my life. I stuck in about ten different mud pits, in which, I lost both of my brand new pair of ninety dollar boots that my parents had bought just before I left for the house. There were also snakes, a lot of snakes, I wasn't sure if any of them were deadly or not, but I wasn't getting close enough to check. They all looked angry enough to kill and that was enough for me to stay away from them. And did I mention the quicksand yet? No, well, there was a lot of quicksand as well. I spent most of my time trying to avoid the quicksand, actually, that was the one thing that I seemed to be able to avoid. I also came across these strange looking plants that were like, okay not like, they were, eyeballs on top of a very thin stem. I found out later that they were called poison EYEvy. Well, that's what we call a play on words kids.

I was out in that swamp for hours. I was beginning to feel like that place was going to be my grave. That was when I finally had a run of good luck, sort of. I was completely lost at that point and I was starting to lose hope when I came across a very old shack that seemed to be abandoned. Normally, I would have thought twice before entering an abandoned shack that was out in the middle of a swamp, which was pretty strange in itself, but I thought that it would be better than being in the swamp.

I made my way up to the shack, which, for some odd reason, had no door. I looked inside of it, mostly just to make sure that it really was abandoned, but it was also to make sure that there was nothing that would try and kill me inside. Luckily, the thing was empty. There was nothing on the floor, there was nothing on the walls, and there was nothing on the ceiling. The only thing that was in the shack was a small window on the wall to my right. There were also a bunch weird marks and scratches covering the walls, almost like there was some kind of fight that had happened within the shack some time ago. Then again, the marks could have just been made by the fact that thing was just really old, and in the middle of a swamp, which probably didn't help it.

I sat in a corner of the room, on the floor, the very dirty floor, because there was nothing to sit on, and I had never felt better. The floor wasn't very comfortable, but it felt really good to be out of the swamp, kind of. I didn't know how long I had been out there, but I was starting to get hungry and there didn't seem to be anything to eat for miles. I looked out of the shack's window and saw from fruit growing on a tree nearby. I was thinking about how nice it would be to have something to eat, but then I second guessed myself before I could even move. I knew that, no matter how good it looked, the fruit was probably rotten or something.

That was when things started to get bad. As my mind was drifting off thinking about food, I heard a noise coming from somewhere outside of the cabin. It sounded like someone was coming up to the cabin, but it sounded as if they had four feet, which, even considering where I was, seemed really weird. I gathered myself together and stood up. I instinctively reached for the knife that I had somehow managed to hold onto. I pulled it out of my pocket and flipped the blade open. I didn't know what was coming, but I was not going to take any chances.

Then the strangest looking creature I had ever seen appeared in the doorway of the shack. The thing had a body that looked like a giant lima bean that was way past its time. It had one big eye in the very center of its lima bean shaped body. The weirdest thing about it, though, was the fact that it had no arms or legs. Instead, it had tentacles, six in all, four that it used in place of its legs and two that it used in place of its arms.

"What the," I said trying not to laugh at the strange creature, "What the hell are you supposed to be?"

The creature glared at me with its one big eye. Honestly, if the creature hadn't looked so funny I might have been scared, but I just couldn't help how stupid it looked. "You don't need to know," the creature said. Just when I had gotten over how stupid it looked it gave me something else to laugh at. The creature's voice, which I expected to be at least somewhat intimidating, well, let me just say that it wasn't. Okay, the creature sounded like a little boy, which just made me laugh, I couldn't help it that time. "What," the creature asked, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," I said trying to stop myself from laughing.

"Hmmm," the creature said, "Well then, what are you doing here?"

I finally managed to stop my own laughter. The challenge was keeping myself from starting again. "Well," I said with some effort, "If you have to know, I go to Ms. Grimwood's school."

The creature seemed to think of something then because he got some kind of contorted smile. That was another gesture that almost got me laughing again. "Oh," the creature said very quizzically, "And what kind of monster are you?" The creature started moving towards me stretching its tentacle arms out as if it were going to try and grab me. "Revoltta will have her revenge on those little girl ghouls," it said as it got within arms, I mean tentacles length.

"Who," I asked as I tried to think of some way out of that place.

I knew now that the time for laughing at that thing was over. Whatever it was, it was serious. I had to escape it somehow, but it seemed to have the whole shack covered. There was no way that I could get around it. I looked around the shack and then noticed something that the creature seemed to have forgotten. The window was open. I waited a moment and then made a mad dash for the window. I was a little too late. Before I could get to the window, the creature grabbed my ankle with one of its tentacles. I fell onto the ground just inches from the window.

"You cannot escape the Grim Creeper," the creature said.

"Watch me," I yelled at it.

I gripped my knife to remind myself that I was still holding it. I held it high and brought it down on the Creeper stabbing it directly into the gnarled tentacle that was still wrapped around my ankle. Some sort of green liquid poured from the wound in the Creeper's tentacle. I wasn't sure what it was, a substitute for blood I suppose, but it looked like acid and I avoided touching it altogether. I pulled my knife from the Creeper's tentacle, it was covered in the same green liquid, and the Creeper immediately let go of me. I closed my knife and put it back in my pocket. The creeper retreated to a corner of the room and I ran out of the shack while he was crying over his newly acquired wound.

I ran as fast as I could from that place. I ran right past all of the things that had scared me when I had come through the area before. I didn't much care that they were there anymore. All I cared about was getting back to the house. In all honesty, I didn't even know if I was going towards the house. It was lucky that I ran into one of the girls. Well, actually, I ran through her, but that's not the point.

Phantasma let out a surprised yelp as I ran right through her. I stopped running when I heard her and turned around. "Phantasma," I yelled, "Thank goodness, it's good to see a friendly face."

"Why," she asked, "Did something happen?"

I was somewhat reluctant to do so, but I told Phantasma everything that had happened. I told her about my journey through the swamp as quickly as possible and I left out the embarrassing parts, which was most of it, so I didn't spend much time on that part. What I really focused on was my encounter with the Grim Creeper, as he called himself. I was not sure what it was doing out there, but something about what it had said scared me.

"Revoltta," Phantasma said when I had finished my story, "That's not good." She was silent for a moment as if she were thinking about something. "Come on, we have to get back to the house and tell Ms. Grimwood about this."

With that, Phantasma started to lead me back to the house. I started to notice some familiarity in my surroundings and I realized that we had left the swamp and were back in the forest that surrounded the house. It wasn't long before we were back in the house's backyard. Everyone was gathered in the yard when we returned, everyone except for Ms. Grimwood and Sibella that is.

I stopped and pulled myself away from Phantasma. She turned and looked at me with a bit of surprise showing on her face. I wasn't sure why I had pulled away from her, but I knew that something wasn't right there. Everyone seemed to be casually waiting, but there was someone missing from the group and no one seemed to be worried about her at all.

"Where's Sibella," I asked.

"She hasn't come back yet," Phantasma answered, "Both of you should have been back some time ago, Ms. Grimwood just sent me in to look for you both."

"Well then," I said getting angry, "Why aren't we in there looking for her?"

Phantasma didn't answer me after that. My anger snapped then. Sibella was missing and no one seemed to be doing anything about it. She could have been in trouble, she could have been hurt, or worse, and no one seemed to be doing a damn thing about it. I don't know why I did it. I had just fought for my life in that swamp, but I turned and ran back into the forest down the path that Sibella had taken that morning