"What happened to you?!" I ask her. Worried, I grab the bottom hem of her shirt and carefully lift it up. Before Syria has the chance to answer, a long wound with the length of a pinky finger becomes visible across the right half of her stomach. And a strip of duct tape perpendicularly placed on the wound, as if a 4 year old tried to fix the cut.

"I'm not sure. I think she cut me with something while I was passed out because I have no memory of her stabbing me with anyth-"

"Passed out?" I cut her off.

"Yes, after I saw you lying on the ground, I guess I involuntarily let out a scream and when she heard it, she came at me. I tried to run away from her but then I felt this stinging pain on the back of my head and that's the last thing I remember before waking up in the middle of the forest with this wound," she replies.

"Why the hell would she cut you and then tape it like this? It makes absolutely no sense!" Norah mentions.

The four of us stay quiet for a few instants, studying Syria's cut, until Daisy speaks out.

„Let's go upstairs and properly take care of that wound," Daisy says, "We're lucky I thought of bringing the first aid kit along."

„You're such a mom," Norah adds before both, Syria and Daisy head upstairs. I try to follow them but as soon as I reach the staircase, Norah grabs me by the arm and holds me back.

Once both girls disappear from the basement, Norah turns to me with a serious look on her face.

"What?" I ask cautiously, "you're scaring me, Norah..."

Norah keeps looking at me in a weird manner until I see a smirk creep on her face.

"Babe?" she finally says.

It took me a few seconds to realize what Norah was talking about.

"Hey, I'm here. I'm alive, babe." I hear myself saying in my head. The words I told Syria sooner when I tried to comfort her. Why the hell would I say 'Babe', I never use that?!

"What about it?" I try to pretend that it was intentional.

"Since when do you call each other that?"

Good question.

"I don't know," I say.

"I don't know, Chloe?" she insists, making me start to feel nervous about the situation.

"Look, it just slipped out, okay? Stop making a big deal out of it."

Norah's smirk fades into a grin.

"Oh my god, you're totally into her," she says amused. Not liking where this is going, I try to defend myself.

"What, no, I'm not!"

"You totally are! No wonder you were worried to death about her and treating us like shit when you found out that she had disappeared, too. Your reaction makes sense now," Norah adds.

"Stop speaking nonsense, Norah. I do NOT like her that way, we're just friends alright? FRIENDS!" I try to make myself clear. All of this was making me uncomfortable and I was starting to question myself with Norah's observation.

Norah stays silent for a while, probably noticing that I wasn't in the mood to talk about this. And in the midst of that silence my stomach starts to growl. Thank god, saved by the 'growl'.

"C'mon let's go upstairs, I'm hungry. And I bet you are, too!" I tell her before making my way up. Next I hear her footsteps right behind me. And just when I thought she had dropped the topic, I hear her talking.

"We're not done with this conversation. You can't run away from this, Chloe."

And I swear I can hear her smiling while she says that. I just ignore her and head outside towards the van, where the others are.

As we arrive, I see Daisy taking care of Syria's wound. While she tries to pull the tape off of the cut, I choose to look for something to eat.

"Who wants cold mac'n'cheese?" I ask them.

"That sounds delicious," I hear Norah saying ironically.

"If you want it warm then why don't you build a bonfire or something?" I suggest mockingly.

"Uhm no, I need food before doing something that productive. Just give me some of it, cold mac'n'cheese sounds great," she decides.

I shake my head before opening a can of mac'n'cheese and pouring it on two plastic plates. It looks so gross. Then I grab two plastic forks and give one to Norah, along with her plate.

"Remind me why we bought this, again?" I ask disgusted.

"Because YOU choose to buy it, remember Chloe?" Syria replies.

I try to recollect the memory of the moment in which I made that decision, but nothing comes into mind. However, when I think about the possibility, I would indeed be capable of buying this.

"Oh my god, what the hell is this?" I suddenly hear Daisy speak.

Simultaneously, Norah and I look in Daisy's direction only to see her holding a small folded piece of paper in front of her. I get closer to have a better look at it and see that there's blood on it. At first I'm really confused about where she'd got it but then I look next to her at Syria and her open wound and I start to put the pieces together.

"Did you find that- " I start before she interrupts me.

"Yup, it was inside of her," she clarifies.

"Holy shit, why would Adrianna do such a fucked up thing?" Norah exclaims next to me.

"Honestly, when did she become such a psychopath? First she kidnaps Eleanor, then Chloe, then she stabs Syria, puts some kind of paper inside of her and tapes it shut with fucking duct tape?! There is seriously something wrong with her," Daisy says furiously.

"I think I'm going to throw up," I hear Syria saying weakly. As I look at her I see that she is indeed pale on her face. Before I can react, Norah is holding up a water bottle.

"Here, drink some water. You've lost some blood and you're dehydrated."

Syria grabs it before bringing it to her mouth and carefully taking short gulps. While she does that I decide to have a closer look at the folded paper.

"Can I?" I ask Daisy while holding my hand out.

She takes a last look at the paper before placing it on my hand. I begin to analyze it and notice that it was systematically folded and not just recklessly scrunched up. So I try to cautiously unfold it, to see if there is anything inside. As soon as I manage to have the piece of paper unfolded, I begin to see words written in ink. And I know very well who's written them.

Now that I finally got my girl, you can go and find THE tree.

But hurry up, she's bleeding.

Good luck.

"The tree? What tree? What does she mean with this?!" Daisy says after reading what Adrianna wrote on the paper. While Norah takes the note from my hands, to read it herself, I try to think of what Adrianna could be meaning with "The tree".

"And she's bleeding? Is Adrianna talking about me or is this some kind of metaphor?" Syria says interrupting my thoughts.

"Maybe she's talking about Eleanor. She says that she's finally got her girl, which obviously is meant to be me. She still had me when she caught Syria and did this. So now that she doesn't need Eleanor anymore, she decided to give you guys clues to go find her," I think out loud.

"And she's probably next to a tree, one we should find" Norah adds. I nod in agreement.

"How the hell are we going to find THE tree? There are thousands and thousands of trees in this forest," Syria remarks, growing annoyed.

"I have no idea but we better be quick, because apparently she's bleeding," I reply in a serious tone.

"Syria, how did you get to the basement of this house?" Daisy asks unexpectedly.

"Uhm, I found a small trapdoor on the ground of the forest, not far from where I woke up. I wasn't sure if Adrianna was inside but as I analyzed it better I saw that there was some dirt and leaves on it that couldn't possibly be on it if she had entered. So I managed to open the trapdoor and decided to just see where it would lead. I was too afraid to stay in that forest, knowing that Adrianna could be anywhere near. As soon as I was inside I found a sack with some tools including big glow sticks. So I took one and I made my way through that tunnel until I finally got here. I'm not sure if I walked for 10 minutes or an hour, it's hard to guess when you're down there."

"Alright, let's take the tunnel, it must be the fastest way to get to the cabin. And Eleanor must be somewhere close to it," I interrupt Syria.

"Okay, but let's take our flashlights, it's pretty dark down there," Syria adds.

I nod before heading to the passenger's side of the Van to grab the three flashlights that we brought along. I go back to the girls and grab an empty backpack. I put two flashlights inside and give the other one to Norah. While Daisy finishes taking care of Syria's wound I grab more water bottles, some cookies and put them in the backpack, too.

"Good thinking," Norah comments while eating her mac'n'cheese.

"We'll need it. She'll need it," I say thinking of Eleanor.

"Here, we'll need this too," Daisy says while passing me the first aid kit, since she's done cleaning up the cut. I take it from her and put it inside of the backpack, too.

"You okay to go?" I ask Syria next.

"Yes, I think so."

"Okay then."

Not really convinced but too scared to be separated from her again, I start making my way towards the entry of the house. While the others follow me, I head down the stairs to the basement and towards the wardrobe that leads to the tunnel.

"C'mon we got to be quick," I tell the girls while they descend the stairs.

Norah walks past me towards the wardrobe until she's standing at the entry of the tunnel. Then she turns her flashlight on, illuminating our path.

"Alright, let's do this," she declares.