In Our Darkest Hours chapter 5

The boys were stunned to see a shivering, half-conscious Double D with cuts and bruises on him in the bottom of the pit.

Ed slowly climbed down to the bottom of the pit and picked up Double D as he stared at him. Eddy looked at Double D with a mix of shock and concern. Rhys noticed something wrapped in a blue plastic bag that was still in the bottom of the pit.

He slowly moved the blue plastic to reveal what was underneath. The moment he did, Rhys ran to a nearby tree to empty his stomach.

Underneath the blue plastic was a little black-haired girl who couldn't have been any older than 9. Her chestnut skin was covered in cuts, scrapes, scars and bruises. Her left cheek had a long horizational slash on it. The most disturbing thing was that her slightly overweight stomach had been cut open.

Rhys coughed a couple times before he walked over to the pit with Ed and Eddy looking down at the corpse with a mix of shock, horror and disgust. Rhys suddenly noticed a large mark on the girl's right hand.

Rhys pushed Eddy who glared at him. Rhys then pointed to the little girl before he jumped down into the hole and went over to the girl.

He knew that it would be pointless but he still put his fingers up to her and checked for a pulse. Nothing. She was certainly dead but it was worth trying. He moved her right hand and saw a tattoo of a red ant inside two diamonds on it.

Rhys climbed out of the hole and said " She has a ant tattoo on her right hand. From what you've told me earlier, she's probably a worshipper like Double D's folks or at least a competitor."

Eddy replied "She was, Rhys. Was. So what do we do with her?"

Rhys answered " Since she was underneath Double D and she has the ant tattoo, we should probably bring her with us."

Eddy shouted " What? Are you crazy? We can't just walk around with a damn corpse! If we get caught, we're screwed."

Rhys raised an eyebrow and asked " Why?"

Eddy answered " First of all, we can't give them an answer and we'd be sent to the big house. The answer that we do have would make us sound like whackjobs. Either way, we're not taking the body."

Rhys said " I have an idea. Look, Double D might know who this girl is. Even if we can't find out who did this to her or him, we could at least put a name to the face. We'll put her body inside the bag and take it to Ed's place. That way, when Double D comes to, he could give us some info."

Eddy sighed and thought "Rhys has a point. On one hand, Sockhead might know her. But on the other, we could end up in the nuthouse or worse, jail."

Eddy said " Alright, we'll take the dead girl to Ed's place. But if I see the cops, that bag's going in a dumpster. Got it?"

Ed nodded and Rhys hesitantly muttered " Yeah." before Ed followed Eddy.

Rhys picked up the girl, gently put her body into the bag and put the bag into his arms before he went with the Eds. The boys tried to be careful as they headed to Ed's house. Thankfully, there weren't any police and the boys took a shortcut through the lane to get there.

Ed squeezed through his window into his bedroom followed by Rhys and Eddy. Ed gently laid Double D down on his bed while Rhys laid the bag down on Ed's bathroom floor and gently took the corpse out before he put the girl's corpse on top of the plastic bag.

Ed scrambled to find a shirt for the half-naked Double D who was starting to come to. He put a blue T-shirt that was a size or two larger than Double D onto him. Double D began to open his eyes before he rubbed them.

Eddy asked " Hey, Sockhead, are you OK?"

Double D answered " Apart from a few healing bruises and some pain in my arm, I'm quite fine. What am I doing here?"

Eddy said " What's the last thing you remember?"

Double D replied " I was being shoved into a cage in the air while people were cackling below me. Oh, those evil cackles."

Rhys said " We found you at the bottom of a large hole in the woods outside town. So Ed decided to bring you back here."

Double D said weakly " Thank you, Ed."

Rhys continued " Double D, we have something to show you. It isn't good but we're hoping that you might provide some answers."

Double D nervously nodded as Rhys motioned for Eddy and Double D to follow him. Rhys walked into the bathroom and stood by the door as Double D looked at the body in horror.

Double D said with widened eyes " Good lord!"

He actually looked like he was about to faint. Double D took a few deep breaths and shivered at the girl's corpse.

Eddy said " We found her in the pit with you. Girl was still warm, so it couldn't have been too long ago. Did you know her?"

Double D answered sadly " A-Alana. Alana Peterson. Ten years old, she was a follower but she wasn't as devout as the others. She did have a temper, though. I think she even stalked me once or twice."

Eddy thought " Man, first Sarah then the Kankers and now this. Why does Sockhead seem to attract crazy people? Wait...the others? How many are there?"

Rhys seemed to be following Eddy's state of mind because he asked " Double D, how many kids?"

Double D answered timidly " Hundreds, possibly even thousands. But I only know ten or fifteen, maybe twenty at the most." as Eddy sighed in relief.

Eddy said " Sockhead, you said that there was a competition. When was it supposed to start?"

Double D replied "In six days, the day after my thirteenth birthday. But deaths have been reported to occur as early as two weeks before, sometimes of innocent civilians."

Eddy's face drained of all colors as his eyes widened. If Double D was right, then any of them could be targeted anytime and anywhere by anybody. But right now wasn't the time to panic even with a dead girl's body in the bathroom and the discovery of what he's learned.

Eddy took a notebook from Ed's desk and a pen and started writing in it. He wrote down:

Aibuit: Ant god, worshipped by hundreds.

Competition: Fight to the death, in six days. Double D's one of the fighters.

Alana Peterson: Follower of Aibuit, dead. Had crush on Double D.

Eddy put his hands up to his head. He had no idea how to connect all of them apart from that stupid ant god. Uh, he needed some rest but Ed's place wasn't the best idea.

Eddy said " Alright, I'm going to head back to my place. Sockhead, you're staying here for sure. See you three later."

as he went out of Ed's window.

Eddy started walking home as he thought " We have to do something. But where do we start?"

He didn't notice the person in a black hoodie sneaking up behind him until they tackled him.

Eddy shoved the person off him and held them down before he saw himself staring into dark green eyes.

It was a girl, around his age with dark brown hair and green eyes. She looked very angry, like she was about to attack somebody. She began to struggle, growling something in Russian.

Eddy pressed his fingers on her arm as she groaned and stopped struggling.

He thought " The nerve point always works." as he carried the girl with him back to Ed's basement.

That wraps up chapter 5! Just two more before the end!