"Okay, so you guys have everything, right?"

I stood outside the door with the rest of the group, Lily and Josh opposite us. 

"Can you explain why you aren't coming with us again?" Jeremy asked, and we all groaned. 

"They've said it five times, Jeremy." Shane muttered, adjusting the strap of the old red backpack he had slung over his shoulder.

"We're going to see if we can find the other survivors that you said you got separated from." Lily explained. 

"To answer your question, yeah, we've got everything." Quinn said. "Thanks so much." 

"Not a problem." Josh responded, smiling. 

They had found a bunch of old backpacks and filled each one with extra food, water, and materials so we wouldn't have to worry about supplies for a while. 

"Good luck to you guys." Lily gave us the thumbs-up. "We'll try to catch up with you as fast as we can, and we'll bring some friends." 

"The more the merrier!" Jenna grinned.

"Alright, stay as safe as you can. Don't do anything stupid. We'll see you soon." Josh smiled, and the two of them started walking back the way we had originally come from. 

"'Don't do anything stupid.' Don't know if he's noticed, but nine kids are going after the most evil thing in this universe. That in it's own is stupid." Cameron commented. 

"Yeah, but you're forgetting one thing." Jeremy grinned. "We're gonna kick his-"

"Okay, let me stop you right now, 'cause I know exactly what you're gonna say." Jenna interrupted. 

"What? I was just gonna say-"

"PORCUPINES." Jenna yelled over top of him. 

*****************

We had to have been walking for hours when Skylar tripped over a tree branch.

"Ow, dammit." She muttered, pulling up her jacket sleeve to see that her elbow was bleeding. 

"Here, I've got bandag-" I started to say. 

"No, I can do it myself." She cut me off, reaching into her backpack and pulling out a bandage, sticking it to the scrape. She pulled the jacket sleeve back down, and stood back up. 

"You know, that can get infected." I said, remembering stuff my dad had said whenever I had accidentally cut myself or got a bad scrape. 

"I'll be fine." She muttered, and ran ahead to catch up with the rest of the group, who hadn't noticed her fall. 

"Okay then." I said under my breath, and ran to catch up. 

*************************

"So...where are we?"

We had made it to a small town. Around 15 buildings sat in a circle around a stone circle with a- was that a gallows? 

What in the Nether went on in this town that made it necessary for a gallows to be at the center? 

"Salem." Alyssa said, reading the sign over an archway that lead into the town.

"Okay, I've never heard of it. Has anyone else?" Skylar asked.

All of the other kids turned to Cameron. 

"Wha- hey, why are you all looking at me?" He asked. 

"You're the brainiac here, Cam." Jenna said. 

"If anyone would know about it, it'd be you." Shane agreed. 

Cameron shrugged. "Sorry, but I've got nothing this time. Never heard of a Salem." 

"Well, the compass points here." Quinn said. "Look. The closer we get, it spins around like it can't decide. There's a lot of magic around here, and not the good kind." 

"So, we've hit the jackpot?" Jeremy asked. 

"Looks like it." 

"Everyone be on your guard." Skylar said. 

"I was going to do that anyway." Cameron responded. "I don't like this place already. I mean, has anyone else noticed the gallows?" 

"Yeah. I figured it'd be better if I ignored it." I muttered. 

Alyssa looked puzzled. "What's a gallows?"

"You see that thing in the center of town?" Shane asked, and she nodded. 

"Well, they use that to hang people."

"...Hang?" Alyssa asked. 

"Basically force people to choke to death." Skylar explained. 

"Oh." 

"Yeah."

We all stood in silence for a bit. This was, on many different layers, stupid, and we all knew it. One mistake and we all could end up dead. 

But there was a possibility that we could all get our dads back here. 

It was Jenna who broke the silence. "Welp, we aren't gonna get nothing done just sitting here, are we?"

"Anything. Aren't going to get anything done." Cameron corrected. 

"Whatever, Mr. Grammar Nazi. Come on, let's kick some butt!" She grinned, walking towards through the archway. 

We all followed her, because really, what other choice did we have?

Almost immediately, two people came out of one of the houses, smiling and talking animatedly with each other. 

When one of them, a woman, noticed us, she stopped talking immediately and pointed. The other, a man, turned to see us. 

We all froze. 

They both smiled, and walked over to us. 

"Hello! Welcome to Salem!" The woman said cheerily. 

"Uh, hi?" Jenna responded. 

"What are children like you doing out by yourselves at this hour?" The man asked, a kind smile on his face. 

At this hour? 

I looked up at the sky to see that it was darkening quickly, the last few rays of sunlight ducking behind a mountain. 

Oh. 

"We...um..." Cameron fumbled, trying to come up with an explanation. 

"We're orphans." Skylar spoke up, and I stared at her. Where was this coming from? 

"Orphans? Oh, you poor things." The woman said, the smile dropping from her face. 

"We were hoping, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, if you would have a place for us to stay the night?" She asked, her normal neutral expression replaced by a pleading one. 

What was she doing? 

"Of course, that shouldn't be a problem!" The woman's smile returned, and she turned to the man. "John, can you see if the unoccupied house has room for...hmm, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine...nine children?" 

The man, John, nodded and walked towards one of the houses, going inside. 

"He should be back shortly." The woman smiled. 

Skylar nodded. "Thank you so much." 

"Oh, it's no problem at all." The woman said, looking around at all of us. 

Her eyes locked onto my dad's amulet that was hanging around my neck. "My, that's a nice...amulet you have there." 

I grasped onto it. "Thank you." 

"Wherever did you get it?" She asked. 

"It was my father's. Before he died." I said quickly. 

"Oh, I see." She smiled again, and I had to wonder if it hurt to smile that much. 

She turned as John came back out of the building, and that's when I noticed it. 

A small, seemingly hastily done tattoo of an "S" was on her wrist. 

It seemed like an interesting choice. What did the "S" stand for? Salem, maybe? I didn't know, but it gave me the creeps. 

"There seems to be enough room." He announced, smiling. 

"Excellent!" The woman turned back to us. "Children, you can follow John. He'll take you to the house."

"Thank you." We all said in unison, and started to follow John.

"What was that?" I asked Skylar, keeping my voice low. 

"Something I learned from books-always have an alibi." She responded, her voice quiet. "The orphans one is one of many, trust me."

I glanced forward, and I saw it. 

The exact same "S" was etched onto John's wrist as well. 

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