The Guide

A group of a teacher and his students were going on a field trip on foot to multiple places around the country. There were never the days them complaining about the exhauation from the expeditions. The locals were friendly, the foods were great. They even participate the festival in one town before they headed toward the jungle and ending their journey after it. While they were on their way to home,

"Look carefully students, you can see two path toward different direction are forming in front of us. Do you know what this means?"

"Do you mean we have to choose one side of the path, Mister Christoph?"

Asked the first student.

"Oh...Oh...I know Mister christoph, do you want us to check both of these sides instead of choosing?"

Asked the second student, raising his hand.

"What about the rest of you. Do you agree with the second one?"

Christoph asked the remaining group of his students. Everyone nodded in unison.

"Well, then I'll have ro burst your bubbles. The answer is the opposite. We will not be choosing either of the roads. Look more carefully at ends of each paths."

Christoph then pointed at the ends of two paths. The paths were then slowly headed to the darkness inside the dense forest.

"That is where someone without any experience can get lost. Not only that... have you ever heard of the legend of lost roads."

Everyone shook their head in unison.

"The lost roads are the mythical phenomena which two or more directions of paved streets or roads will randomly appeared anywhere isolated from civilizations. We are now exploring deep inside the jungle, away from any person we know. So who would have made these paths in the middle of nowhere inside this creepy location. No one... and whoever went along those will never come back."

"What should we do then Mr Christoph? We have no other ways around."

The third student asked.

"Do you know where those paths lead to? That's right...darkness. And do you know what can never be shrouded in darkness? Light. We use these to navigate inside the unknown."

Christoph then pulled out candles from his bag.

"Light these up!"

He then handed his students matches to lit the candles. Everyone were lighting their candles but one didn't receive it. That student was wearing a red cap.

"You there... I didn't bring enough candles for you. So why don't you share it with others."

The red cap student then looked at other students and saw they were dirtied from all the climbings of hills and passing through all the muddy roads. He then looked at himself to see he was not as messy as them. He didn't want any further dirts on his body. To care for his own hygiene, he decided to refuse.

"Umm... I'm fine with walking alone. I can just use you guys as a beacon."

"Oh... well then okay. Take care!"

Christoph then took a lead into the darkness. The students followed him around nervously. 

A few far distances later, they could no longer see the entrance they once went through. They were now completely surrounded by pitch black biome. 

"That is quite strange. This is one large environment. Normally, when I cross these kind of areas, it would take no longer than 15 minutes. Now it's already been pass one hour."

Christoph complained in his disbelief.

"What happened in this kind of place Mr christoph? Can there be any other creatures hiding here?"

The forth student asked nervously.

"Well... I have been crossing these kind of places for about 12 times. I had never encountered any creatures or problems so far. About the folklore, it has quite ambiguous information. They said it's fine as long as you have a light source. they never mentioned about any monsters hiding... I think."

A while later, they saw the bright thing ahead.

"It's the exit! We're almost there!"

Christoph said in optimism. But that optimism suddenly disappeared as he felt a shiver in his spine. They were not the only one in here. Without thinking twice, he warned his students to walk faster with caution.

"KEEEEEEEEEE!"

A terrible sound came behind the group.

"EVERYBODY, RUN TO THE EXIT!!!!!"

Just as their teacher said, they dashed with all energy they had in their body. The wind from their speed make the candle fires unstable and wanting to be extinguished. The run was longer than they expected. Though the exit was right in front of them, it didn't seem to get nearer. And though the exit didn't get nearer, the sound of the monster however did. Christoph then thought for plan in haste.

"If we keep running like this, we would all become its food one by one. There must be some way to ward of this thing."

He then had an idea.

"Everybody! Remember the time before we went expedition into the jungle?! There was a festival in the town celebrating about its 100 year anniversary of their hero or something. Remember the time we played with fireworks and dynamites there?"

Hearing Christoph's words, the students immediately remembered they had some festival dynamites left in their bags. They then set the dynamites on fire and threw them toward the direction the sound came. The thundering sounds of booming fireworks echoed the entire region of darkness. The sound of monster disappeared after the dominant voice of the festival. The sound of dynamites were pumping out their adrenalines of hope. To their fortunate fate, the exit seemed to be closer as well.

As they all went outside, they were all been tired from all the running and didn't bother to do anything for about 5 minutes.

"Did... did everyone made it?"

Christoph asked while panting. No one can give clear answer from the exhaustion. Ignoring his own tiredness, Christoph got up and count his disciples.

"1...2...3...wait... where's one go? There are seven students. Where's the one with... red cap?"

In panic, he headed toward the gate they came out from only to find it was gone. 

It had been 10 hears since that day. Christoph quitted his job the moment after arriving back to their destination. His students begged him to stay implying it wasn't his fault. But he knew he had led them there. He overestimated his skills. He thought these everytime he remember the day. But he did have fun.

The End