4-4

4-4

All of us we're waiting for Gregory and the gang to return. Most of us are now at the estate, eating snacks and drinking beverages. Many were praising Nadia for overcoming her fear and actually hiked out with us.

The door slammed opened suddenly and we saw the serious faces of Gregory, Jefferson and Johnny. It was too damn serious though, makes you wonder what happened to them. Everyone stared at the opened door.

"Greg… Jeff... John… Are you guys alright?" Jane asked first,

"It was a cave… And we found Kevin's shoes in it…" Gregory replied.

Everyone was shocked to hear what he said.

"Okay! Let's get out of this shit!" Jasmine said,

"We threw our molotov in it. Those fucking shits! This place is ultra-messed up!" Johnny said,

Everyone is becoming more and more agitated to leave this place but it looks like you need more work done to get the exit opened, hopefully it was the exit.

"Let's share what we found." Gregory said it firmly; he doesn't want to mess around anymore. You can really see the urgency on his face,

"So it is confirmed that the triangle is a cave then?" Jane said,

"The square is a cabin? There was a cabin in the middle of nowhere and what we got in it is a piece of paper having gibberish on it and a picture of what seems to be a magic circle on the wall." Steph said as she presented the paper to everyone,

"Nur… Bukil… Boyinataralsin?" Jane said.

After Jane said it, the papers with lines and scribbles glow a golden light on its lines. Everyone was taken aback just by looking at it.

"What the hell was that?!" Kristen exclaimed,

"It glowed… Like the magic circle in the cabin. Wesley said the phrase and the magic circle on that cabin glowed then disappeared which could mean if we ever complete those papers, if we stacked them together, it could also form like the magic circle on the wall." Steph explained,

"That makes sense! But we can't just immediately assume to be so. Last time we assumed things, it did not end so well." Wesley said,

"Yeah…" Everyone agreed as sighs filled the room,

"We went to the circle on the map and what we saw was just a concentrated beam of golden light, the same light as the paper that glowed. A sign said that we need to reflect the light with the same light." Jasmine said,

"What would happen if you do that?" Wesley asked,

"Don't know." Jasmine replied,

"We went to the X and we found a door." Kristen said,

"The door also has a phrase on it. It said that we need to spread the golden light to open the end. Maybe the exit… So if ever we reflect the light with the magic circle paper then maybe it could spread the light and open up that door?" I explained,

"That is still hypothetical." Gregory said,

Mostly everyone is deep in thought trying to throw out ideas when the front door suddenly slammed open out of nowhere. Troy entered the estate with a firm look.

"Let us not get our hopes up. It may not be an exit, it may be. Let's not expect too early." Troy said,

"He's right." Gregory agreed,

Troy approached Jasmine.

"I… I am sorry Jas. I know I was in the wrong but I can't stay still anymore. I also want to get out of here." Troy said,

He then faced the center and with a serious tone,

"Once the basement doors show up again, we will get the remaining papers and get Venus out of it then we try all those and enter the door in the X." Troy said,

"So you've been listening outside?" Jefferson said,

"Yeah… I guess." He replied as he scratched the back of his head.

"But remember guys. Let's all put a grain of salt to this. This may not be assured. We must not take all our assumption as an absolute, we still need to think of the worst case scenario so that we will be prepared if it is not what we expect it to be." Gregory said.

We keep repeating ourselves to not assume things easily. Due to our quick assumptions, we ended up with accidents one after the other. We learned from it that is why our train of thought is like that.

"If that is the case, we also have to prepare the 'worst case scenario'." Jefferson said,

"Worst case scenario?" Gregory cocked his head to the side,

"What would that be?" Wesley added,

Everyone faced Jefferson and looked at him with all seriousness.

"Electricity and the sun!" He exclaimed,

"The sun?!" Steph,

"Why the sun?" Johnny added,

"We can understand the electricity but the sun?" Jane questioned.

I've always known Jefferson. He has this sadistic side and always thinking the most negative scenario in every situation. I don't know how he managed to see things pessimistically yet acts optimistic but that is how he is. The things he thinks off are usually absurd like the probability of it happening may be less than a hundredth of a decimal yet he prepares for those anyway. But I feel like I want to listen to him as my gut has been telling me to believe in his nonsense this time. My gut has been on point now so I will trust in it a little bit more.

"Guys. Let's listen to Jefferson and take it to an absolute certainty." I said in the open,

Jefferson looked at me in disbelief.

"What?" I asked sheepishly,

"You usually don't believe everything I say…" Jefferson said,

"Well. Instant transportation, magic doors, beams of light and glowing papers. If all these nonsense happened, how are your ideas any different? Right now, anything we can come up with is a possible scenario. And besides, between the both of us, you can come up with ideas easily." I answered his doubt,

"Yeah. Like what Daryl's said to me earlier. 'Let's not put Logic and Reason to this place anymore'." Kristen added,

"Well… Okay then." Jefferson said,

"Ahem! Again! The sun! What is scarier than for the sun to not rise again?" He said,

Everyone was in deeper thought after he said that.

"We already know that this place is run with magical electricity. It could shut down anytime that is why we built torches that surround the estate in case the electricity shuts down at night but what if the entire forest shuts down. A total darkness, how are we going to deal with that?" Jefferson asked,

"You got a point." Troy agreed as he tries to think of ideas of his own,

"My idea is simple. Let's trap the faceless in the cave!" Jefferson said,

"Since our scope of area became the entire forest then we need to investigate further but if we place torches on the entrance of the cave then we could at least answer the faceless problem for the mean time?" He proposed,

"Whoa! That's a great idea Jefferson! I never thought of that. That way we can freely roam around the forest even when the sun never appears again hence broadening our area of investigation without having to worry anything." Jane said,

"What if it rains?" Steph asked,

"oh… I didn't think that far." Jefferson said,

"There's an entire forest guys! We can just build a canopy on the torches." Troy said,

"Right… Forest huh? More like a Maple farm but whatever." Sheila said,

"That's also a good idea. We can use the clothes as ropes and the windows as roofs." Jane added,

"Then what are we waiting for. Let's get started." Gregory said.

"Can't we just cover the entrance of the cave?" Steph suggested,

"And how are we going to cover a huge ass entrance?" Jefferson asked,

"Umm… Trees?" Steph said,

"We don't even have any saw to cut down trees. That solution is ideal but unrealistic." Nadia said,

"Well, we can just find alternatives if that's the case." Gregory said,

"Then let's try doing both then." Jane said though her voice sounds off,

"Guys! Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The most important question that we supposed to be answering is who will be the one to install a torch in the entrance?" Troy asked in the open,

Everyone stared at him worriedly as everyone started to look at each other as if saying 'you should do it' pushing the responsibility to the other person.

"Just like I thought. It's so easy to say all these things but would not even commit. We have to remember that the faceless may have a weakness which is light but the cave is still their territory. How much molotovs do you guys think would be wasted just to install a gate for them to pay a toll? So much and we only have 9 molotovs left since Johnny threw one at them." Troy exclaimed.

The atmosphere became silent again and everyone is dropping sweat. True, looks like no one wants to do it. Even, I can't volunteer to do it, I saw the faceless personally, it is a stuff of nightmares.

"But we still need to address the matter, right? Since our scope is now the entire forest itself then addressing the problem at hand will help us to freely explore until we can find the exit to this place." Jane defended,

"Okay. If it comes to this, all of us will have to go and install the defense mechanism." Gregory firmly said,

"I… I don't want to…" Nadia muttered,

"Nadia! You're not the only one who's afraid!" Gregory exclaimed,

Nadia droop her shoulders down.

"Sorry but even if I haven't seen those things and only saw the cave, I saw the blood of what was supposed to be from Kevin or Carlo or Ryan splattered all across. But if we don't do anything to put those things in their place we will never be getting out of here, the longer we stay here, the dangerous it gets. If we stayed cowering in fear, we will just end up getting eaten by them eventually and in place of Kevin's blood, it'll be our blood being splattered in their cave next." Gregory said,

"Greg is right. Let's do this everyone." Jane said in the open,

Every single one of us is forced to agree, Gregory is right. We can't stay idle just because we are afraid. The longer we stay here the more dangerous it is both physically and mentally. As early as now, we should already get out and it wouldn't be as severely traumatizing as it may become.

"I did suggest it but it would be impractical to do it now." Jefferson said,

"Why is that? Wouldn't it answer the faceless problem?" Jane questioned,

"Yes, but we will only be wasting time and resources if we are still lacking requirements to probe further." He added,

"Hmm… Jeff is right. We still need the other papers on the other basement door. If we address the faceless problem when our scope is still within the compound, then it would be a waste of effort. Yes, our scope is now the entire forest but it is only so if we are already done with everything here in the compound." Gregory defended,

"Then defending the compound is our first priority before continuing outside then let's wait for the remaining basement door to appear before we start going out." Jane agreed.