Safe. A word that doesn’t describe this. This is the most unsafe thing ever. Never before had those in our position made it this far. Or had they? Nobody really knows. Those captured are never seen again. So we will never be seen again, will we?

“I hear something.” Words whispered so softly I can barely hear. The voice of the boy I have never spoken to, until today. Oh, I’ve seen him around town, of course. Who could miss those eyes, that dark hair? And I know his name. Ryan.

“When I tell you to, run,” he says.

I look up at him. I swear his green gaze glows in the dark of the forest. And I can barely see him thanks to his midnight cloak of darkness.

“What about you?” I ask.

“Don’t worry about me,” he answers. But the look in his eyes make me worry more. Before I have a chance to say anything, they burst through the forest.

“Run away!!” A command not to be disobeyed.

As he fights them, I do run. But I DO NOT run away. No, not me. I grab a piece of pipe stuck halfway in the ground. Obviously they are overconfident, careless. A stupid mistake to leave anything that can be used as a weapon in these woods. A stupid, stupid mistake. And one they will regret.

I run back to the fighting. So focused on Ryan, they didn’t even notice me run away. They are stupid.

Or are Ryan and I the stupid ones?

Because as I attempt to help Ryan by bashing one of his attacker’s head in with the pipe, I feel myself roughly dragged down to the forest floor. But not before my weapon meets its target.

As he falls, I look up to see Ryan already restrained. Wait, when did this happen? Last I knew, he was fighting. And as I look into his eyes, he looks confused to see me.

“Why didn’t you run?” he asks.

But I can’t answer because, against my will, my eyes begin to close. The last thing I see before darkness takes me is Ryan’s worried gaze. That’s funny. Because earlier I could have sworn his eyes were an emerald green, not a blood red. Must be a trick of the light that isn’t here. And okay, this is weird. I see almost perfectly with a night vision I don’t have…