I stayed as low as possible next to the couch and held my breath. My heart was pounding and I tried not to breathe too loudly. Someone had walked into the kitchen and turned on a light.

I could hear footsteps traipsing around the kitchen. I knew it had to be Dean since the waft of stake cigarettes drifted over me. He was opening a cabinet, rustling around. Then I heard him crunching on what I guessed to be potato chips. Shutting the light off, I heard him walk past the couch and go up the stairs. My stomach rumbled.

Cautiously I peered out from behind the couch into the darkness. I walked as slowly as possible, wondering where Grant and Will were. Making my way over to the window, I parted the heavy curtains a bit, letting in a small stream of light.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed my shoulder. Before I could scream, Grant’s face popped out. He yanked me behind the curtain, closing it around us.

"What are you doing?!" I whispered.

"Me?" he whispered back. "What about you? I thought you were going to wait outside."

"I was," I replied. "Until I heard something break. What’s going on?"

"Will knocked over a plant," he groaned.

"Did you find Aaron?" I asked. "Where’s Will anyway?"

"We found him. Will’s with him now. But then Dean came downstairs and we hid," Grant said softly.

I rolled my eyes in the dark. I thought people only hid behind curtains in movies, not in real life. Although I wasn’t much better. I had been crouching down behind the couch. I wasn’t exactly a hide-and-seek master.

"Let’s go." Grant directed me out from behind the curtains.

As soon as I heard Will’s footsteps, I saw Aaron following close behind him. I strained to get a look at his face, but it was next to impossible in the darkness. I just hoped he wasn’t too badly hurt.

Slowly we all four made it to the kitchen and as Grant opened the back door, I hesitated. I held up one finger asking him to wait. Quickly, I opened a couple cabinets until I found a few empty bags. Will had inched his way over to me and was watching curiously. When I glanced up, our eyes met and he put his hand out. Handing him a bag, the two of us quietly opened the pantry and refrigerator. We stuffed as much food and water into our bags as we could in a hurry. The bags were overflowing as Will took mine and carried them out the door. My stomach was rumbling. It sickened me to see all the food Gina and Dean had in this cabin, not to mention the garden we had also found. For them to have all of that within an arm’s reach and only feed us stale bread or rotten food made my stomach turn. What type of a person could be that cruel?

We had opened all the drawers, but didn’t find any knives or weapons of any kind. The most disappointing thing was that there was no phone or computer anywhere.

I wore a look of smug satisfaction as we left. We had filled up two bags with food and water of theirs, as well as rescued Aaron. As we passed a generator outside, I stared at it. Gina and Dean had found a way to get power to turn on lights and live in a pretty nice way in the middle of nowhere. However how they had enough money to buy an island was a mystery. But not more of a mystery than why they’d decided to lure teenagers there and hold them against their will.

No one spoke a word until we had gone far enough into the woods where Dean or Gina couldn’t hear us. I showed Grant the flashlight I found, but he would only turn it on a little at a time. We were still afraid of who might be out there and we didn’t want to draw any unwanted attention.As soon as Grant felt it was safe to stop, he turned towards Aaron.

"You okay?" he asked quietly.

"I’m good," he said in a dry, hoarse whisper. "You guys didn’t have to come get me. I would’ve broken out."

I could see Will shoot him a look and roll his eyes even in the dark.

"We know you could," I told him. "We just thought we’d speed it along, that’s all."

"How’d you all even know they caught me?" His eyes narrowed. "And how in the world did you find me?"

Grant tried to pat him on the back, but Aaron shrugged him off.

"It’s a long story. Let’s get back to Cal and Beth and we’ll catch you up." Grant didn’t wait for Aaron’s response. He took a step past him and the rest of us followed.

I had gotten a glimpse at Aaron’s face and fortunately didn’t see any fresh wounds. I could only imagine what his torso looked like after the beating we saw Dean give him with his belt. I winced at the thought.

Smoke still loomed in the sky from the fires, although it was dissipating. I coughed a little and then realized Aaron probably hadn’t eaten much food or was given enough water. His voice sounded so raspy.

I caught up to Will and nudged him.

"Can I have a bottle of water?" I asked, not meeting his eye. He dug into one of the bags.

"And one for Aaron?"

I could see pause for a split second, but I pretended not to notice and just keep my pace. Will made a face and handed the bottles to me. I thanked him quickly and slowed down, allowing him to walk ahead. As Aaron came up to my right, my feet caught up with his. Silently, I offered him a water, handing it over in the dark. He looked up as if to question me, and took it, uttering a ’thanks’.

He took a long swig from the bottle. Grant had gone ahead and turned to see how far back we were. He stopped to wait for all of us to catch up with him.

"Water?" he whispered and looked at Will.

Will paused and dug into the bag again, fishing out a bottle of water. Grant put his hands up, ready to catch it. Will threw it to him and I watched it spin through the air. It went high over Grant’s head and we saw it in the moonlight.

The bottle came plummeting to the ground, hit a thick pile of leaves, but didn’t stop. It looked as though it may have disappeared at first, but then the leaves sucked into the ground along with it. The four of us watched as a hole in the dirt swallowed the water bottle and the heavy cover of leaves and tree branches that had surrounded it.

None of us moved a muscle. I’d like to say it was because we wanted to avoid any other hidden traps, but honestly I think we were all stunned at what we had witnessed. Grant was standing on one side of the gaping hole as I stood in between Will and Aaron on the other side. Grant shined the flashlight into the pit. It was difficult to tell how deep down it went, but I knew it was enough to where someone wouldn’t be able to crawl out of it had they fallen in.

As we stood there, staring at the hole, a loud noise came from somewhere behind us. It sounded almost like firecrackers. I couldn’t see anything in the darkness, but the noise cracked through the air again.

"Let’s go!" Grant called out.

We quickly ran around the hole and rushed behind him. The woods were so thick and dark, Grant had no choice but to keep the flashlight on. We started running, periodically glancing behind our shoulders.

"What is that?" I asked Grant as the firecracker noises seemed to be going off more and more.

"It’s nothing good." He caught my eye.

We got to the main path that would lead us back to the cabin. All I wanted to do was get to Cal and Beth. Once we were all together again, we could go back to planning on how to get off the island. I was breathing hard as I continued running. Inhaling, I smelled smoke. As we closed in on the cabin, Grant suddenly stopped. Will almost ran right into him. Grant shut off the flashlight and his mouth fell open. I caught up to him and ran to his side.

The cabin was engulfed in flames. Heavy smoke filled the air as Grant pushed us back. My eyes widened.

"Cal! Beth!" I screamed.

Grant turned and grabbed me. I buried my face in his shoulder, sobbing. How could this have happened? My entire body shook as I tried to grasp what was happening.

"We don’t know for sure they’re in there." Grant peeled me off of him, grabbing me by my shoulders. "They’re both smart girls. Maybe they got out."

I nodded through my tears. Aaron started coughing heavily, his eyes tearing from the smoke. Will grabbed Grant by his shoulder.

"We should get out of here," he said over the crackling of the flames.

Grant was about to respond, but we another voice instead.

"Over there!" a deep voice yelled out and we heard rustling in the woods.

"Let’s get out of here! Now!" Aaron hollered to us.

We bolted in the opposite direction. I turned to look behind us, but didn’t see anyone. I only saw the cabin’s flames growing high into the air. It turned my stomach to think of Cal and Beth trapped in there. Grant had to be right; they were smart and hopefully got out before it was too late. My chest tightened and my head was spinning, but I couldn’t slow down. We had to keep running. Who knew what would happened if we stopped?

Next Chapter: Twenty Five