Six weeks had trickled painfully by as the four friends, with the addition of Mbunji, had searched every piece of paper, journal, and notebook in the entire school. Yet the author of their letter remained a mystery.
“Was it a man or woman, Maybe one of their class mates playing a trick, or one of the many helpers.”
Whatever the case, the four were compelled by an unspoken loyalty to their secret.
Sitting together in the dinning hall for every meal, protecting their space.
Samm arrived earliest, to avoid pushing and shoving with the older students. Samm looked pale and out of air when the trio found him a short while later. They hurriedly skipped breakfast, understanding the fear they saw in Samm induced by the envelope he placed on the table top.
For each of them had received a letter that night, in the handwriting they had spent the last six weeks searching for. Each with the same simple message;
“First challenge, be ready”
They walked to the girls room stopping at the entrance as the slightest touch reclined the door open. The lights in the room flickered on and off, making the four hesitant to enter.
“I’m not walking into a thing again. Why are the lights in your room flickering? Can we just go to the sports pitch, open spaces seem like a good idea” Samm spoke. Without a dispute, Kezipe locked the door following the rest of the gang towards the stairs leading to the kitchen exit.
They picked the football pitch, which turned out to be furthest from the administrative wing, choosing to sit in the centre of the green field.
The hairs on Mulenga’s neck sprang to attention, the air surrounding her tensed as her focus heightened. Unsure why she felt tense Mulenga stopped walking, spread her feet apart as she readied for battle.
A shadow lunged at her, only able to dodge it by reflex, Mulenga turned towards the shadow but found nothing.
“Guys! We are under attack” Mulenga shouted.
It was too late the shadow grabbed Kezipe pushing Samm and Mbunji to the ground. Kezipe was knocked unconscious as the shadow carried her off at a sprint.
The shadow was a massive figure dressed in black with a mask covering its face. Mulenga took off chasing the figure down towards the edge of the football pitch that was met with a barrier wall fence, no single ladder could climb over. The figure bound Kezipe’s waist in rope that was attached to the top of the fence.
Mulenga’s dazzling speed caught the figure off guard. Half turning to stare at the approaching Mulenga with her fist catching him Square in the jaw, knocking him unconscious against the wall.
Kezipe awoke, tucked into her bed with the sun setting, sending purple hues through her open curtain. The sun set brilliantly reflected off the faces of her concerned friends, sitting silently on Mulenga’s bed.
Mulenga, Samm and Mbunji took turns filling Kezipe in on the details she had missed out.
“…we tied him up, and left him hidden in the forest. We’ll figure out what to do with him tomorrow…” Mbunji exclaimed. The next day the gang sat down for breakfast together with non of them being able to touch their food.
“I couldn’t sleep last night, I know he tried to take you, but I couldn’t sleep. Are we now the bad guys?” Samm asked. The group looked at each other with silent resignation.
During lunch, the group went into an agitated frenzy, worried for themselves and for the stranger.
“…it’s been 24 hours since he last had any water or food. What if his dead?” Kezipe wondered. The thought echoed through all their minds as they decided to skip lunch and go check on their captive.
The forest was twice the size of their sports field, towards the west wing of the school, covered in a variety of trees with over grown grass. The forest got its name as a result of the many children who had wandered inside searching for their ball, only to have a search party follow the child after a few hours of not returning.
Samm marked their route using a marker on the barks of all the trees they passed, this led them out of the forest safely after hiding the strange figure. The gang entered the forest from where Samm had marked and kept moving until the markings stopped.
“Why have the markings stopped?” Kezipe asked. Samm walked from the rear of the gang checking on the markings until he joined Kezipe at the front.
“This should be it, his body should be bound, lying next to that tree, waiting for our return.” Samm spoke. Searching all round for some logical explanation to the whereabouts of their strange captive.
Mulenga knelt by the tree that help their captive, looking for any signs that could lead to answer, when she spotted something white flapping behind the tree.
It was a letter exactly like the first, only this time it said,
“I’ll take it from here, excellent work. Until next time.. ”
Someone knew about their secret, and this someone had taken the body of their strange attacker. Standing next to each other in the forest, the group knew they could trust nobody apart from each other.
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