Kyle looked to the sky, as if it would hold some answers for him.

The sky was almost white, with the dark, bare treetops giving it a jagged pattern around the edges of the clearing.

He wasn't sure how he'd gotten here, separated from the others, or when the snow that surrounded him had began to fall. Unless he was totally delusional, the group had entered the forest on a warm September evening. Although the Iowa weather was often hard to predict, this was extreme.

Kyle shivered as he took in his surroundings. There was not another soul in sight and he wasn't afraid to admit that he was scared.

"Jess?" He called. "Matt? Katie?" When none of them responded he grew desperate. "Anybody?"

Once again no one called back to him. This seemed to go on for so long that he almost missed when he finally got a response.

"Kyle . . ." A whispered voice called, so low that Kyle thought it was in his head at first.

"Kyle . . ."

"Who's there?" He asked nervously, trying to walk towards the sound but his legs refused to move. "Who said that?"

"Kyle . . ." The voice croaked again.

"Hello?" He yelled, panicking.

"I'm here!" The whisper turned mischievous and sinister before whatever was holding Kyle's feet in place gave way and he fell face first into the crisp snow.

"Ugh!" He groaned as he hit the ground and taking a mouthful of snow. He spat out what hadn't dissolved in his mouth and saw that small specks of blood were coming out with it. "What the hell?" He asked himself, wondering how such an injury could occur from such a short fall. However when he looked up, all thoughts of anything were gone from his mind in an instant.

When Kyle looked up from his sprawled position, he was confronted by a face that looked like a giant, white crow with a beak that was at least a metre long and solid, black, featureless eyes. If that wasn't bad enough, whatever it was was screeching at him, deafening him.

"Shhhheeeeaaaaaaaaaaaa!" The creature hissed.

"Holy shit!" Kyle cried in fear, quickly climbing to his feet and running away from it.

Just as he thought he would get away, he felt a sharp pain in his back before collapsing to the ground once more.

In agony, he risked a look back at what had happened to him, and was horrified to see that a large hook-like claw had pierced his flesh and was digging into his back, towards his spine.

"No! Please!" He begged, only to be ignored by the frightening animal.

Before he could say anything else, the claw began to drag Kyle's helpless body back to where he'd originally fallen.

"Nooooo!" He cried again before opening his eyes and squinting almost instantly.

Jess was standing over him.

"Are you ok?" She laughed.

His heart still racing, Kyle checked his surroundings to see that he was back where the kids had set up camp and nothing seemed out of place.

"Yeah," He hoarsely answered. "I guess I was just dreaming."

"About who?" He saw Katie smirking at him as she was packing away her tent.

"I'm amazed you didn't catch a cold," Jess told him. "You must have slept outside on the ground all night."

"After all my hard work setting up the tent too!" Joked Matt. "Well now you can pack it away yourself!"

"What time is it anyway?" Kyle asked, still nervous after his dream, but also confused now. Had he really fallen asleep on the hard ground without getting into at least his sleeping bag? And why was it only slightly lighter now then it was when he'd remembered everyone going to sleep?

"Six-thirty," Jess answered with a shrug. "I hated it too but we need to get moving."

"Well that sounds awful," He smiled, only for show though.

Something told him that his dream would stay with him all day.

*

After Kyle had packed away what little he'd taken out and everyone had had something to eat, the team once again began their descent to the bottom of the hill before they'd begin the climb up to the waterfall.

At first, everyone remained silent just like the day before but once the sun began to rise again, everyone seemed to come out of their shells a little.

"So Kyle, you still didn't tell us who you were dreaming about. Anyone we know?" Teased Katie.

"At least it's a nice day again today. I don't think I would've been able to cope if it was raining," Kyle said, deliberately ignoring her.

"I know what you mean. This might surprise you, but I do not do well with rain," Jess laughed.

"Tactically avoiding my question," Katie interrupted. "It's a bold strategy Cotton; let's see if it pays off for him!"

"What?" Jess giggled, even stopping to turn back and look at Katie to make sure she wasn't about to wander off in a delirious state.

"Are you serious?" Katie snapped back. "You haven't seen Dodge ball? What is wrong with you?"

"Uhh . . . I've got friends and a life?" Jess offered.

"Come on, even I've seen that!" Kyle shrugged.

"See! Brennan is almost cool! What about you Matt? You must have seen it?" Katie called up to the leader who was, as usual, about twenty paces ahead of everyone else.

Matt didn't answer.

"Matt?" Jess shouted this time, succeeding in snapping him out of his daze.

"Yeah sure, whatever," He said back nonchalantly.

Kyle and the girls shared a worried glance before Kyle indicated that he'd go and see if Matt was ok. The girls nodded their approval at his plan and so Kyle jogged ahead and caught up with Matt.

"Are you alright, man?" He asked.

"Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't I be?" Matt asked, not sounding convincing at all.

"I don't know, you seemed ok last night and this morning but whenever we're walking you aren't saying much," Kyle shrugged. He'd never been the best at talking about people's problems. This made his recent attempts with Jess even stranger.

"Maybe I'm just concentrating," Matt huffed.

"Ok, fair enough," Kyle surrendered.

"And besides, I thought you guys would prefer that I wasn't saying anything. Nobody ever wants to hear what I have to say anyway."

"Nobody thinks that," Kyle replied, then realised that a lot of people probably did. "Come on, you can talk to me. What's this about?"

"You don't want to know."

Kyle looked back to see that Katie and Jess were deep in their own conversation so he decided to press on with Matt.

"Try me! Look, this can be our bonfire moment. You know what Katie was talking about last night. It'll be a pretty long weekend if we don't talk. Don't you think?"

Matt hesitated, internally debating whether or not he really wanted to unload on Kyle, but eventually he reached a decision.

"Fine!" He groaned before explaining his current mood. "I just do a lot of thinking when I'm out here, you know? Everybody's always scared of this forest now but it's the one place that I actually feel safe."

"Isn't that a good thing then? That we're here," Kyle thought aloud.

"It is. When I'm here," Matt pointed out. "But that just makes me even madder when I get back into town. Or when I go home or go to school."

"What do you mean?" Kyle adjusted his heavy backpack, nervous that whatever Matt was about to reveal would make him uncomfortable somehow.

"I'm just sick of everybody blaming me and my family for what Cameron did, you know? It's like they won't ever let up. I mean let's be serious for a second. Do I look like somebody who'd be capable of killing someone?"

Kyle managed a small laugh before he answered. "Don't take this the wrong way dude, but I don't think you'd physically be able to hurt a fly. Even if you tried. And it let you."

"Don't push it. I can still get you lost out here," Matt smiled, satisfying Kyle a little bit. "But exactly! What happened to that kid . . . It was horrible. I mean, I get why everybody lost their shit when it happened, and I'll never forget about that for as long as I live. I'll think about what Cameron did every day until I die. But I just wish that instead of blaming us for it, people would realise that we're victims too," Matt was now wiping tears out of his eyes before they fell out on their own accord.

Kyle thought it best to just keep listening for now.

"He's still alive . . . but my parents still lost a son too. And I lost a brother. I kind of know how they feel. We understand what happened even less than they do. Is it selfish of me to think like that?" Matt looked to Kyle and he immediately knew that unlike most people, Matt didn't want him to just tell him what he wanted to hear. He wanted an honest answer.

Kyle thought for a minute, recounting everything Matt had said and suddenly felt a pang of guilt. He knew that he was just like the people that Matt was talking about. He had judged Matt Maguire based on the actions of Cameron Maguire. Although it was an entirely different situation, he realised that he would be livid if people judged him based on what his dad had done when he was younger. Katie would be angry (although she'd try acting cool about it) if people judged her based on the people she hung out with, and Jess had already made it clear to him that she was sick of having her life judged against what everyone expected it to be.

His thinking made his opinion clear.

"No . . . no I don't think that's selfish at all. I actually totally get it."

"Thanks," Matt smiled after a lengthy pause. It was as if he needed some time to process Kyle's answer. Now, it was time for him to answer another question. "And yes, I have seen Dodge ball!" He called back to the girls who were still lagging behind. "You're on your own Jess!"

"Fine! I'll get to it eventually," She laughed, happy that the overall mood of the group had seemed to have lifted greatly.

At least for now, anyway.

*

After several more hours of walking, and some much more light hearted conversation, Matt, the group leader, finally came to a halt.

"What's up man?" Asked Kyle in confusion.

This was their first stop for hours, having only stopped for food breaks and for Katie to once again catch her breath. She'd promised the group several times that she'd join a gym as soon as they got home.

"Is everything alright?" Jess asked, noticing that since he'd stopped, Matt hadn't taken his eyes off of the trail that was opening out before them.

"Tell me we're not lost," Katie sighed.

Despite the early morning sunshine, a thick sheet of cloud had appeared across the sky in the afternoon and although sunset was still a couple of hour's away, dusk had already descended on the wilderness surrounding them.

Finally, Matt diverted his gaze from the trail to nervously look at everyone individually.

"Are you serious?" Kyle cried. He hadn't known his mood to change that rapidly before.

"You're supposed to know this place better than anybody!" Jess shrieked.

"No, no, it's not what you think! You don't understand!" Matt yelled defensively.

"Then please explain! It's getting dark out here!" Kyle ordered.

"This path isn't supposed to be here!" Matt finally yelled in a panicked tone.

"What do you mean?" Katie asked.

"I . . . I mean it wasn't here before. This was just trees the other day." He explained.

The girls looked at each other while Kyle took a couple of small steps along the allegedly new path.

"This is weird." He stated.

"Weird how?" Jess asked, so scared that she was actually shaking.

"Well look at this," He said, pointing to either side of the clearing. "Some of these trees . . . it's like they were just . . . shoved over." Kyle didn't need to say any more. He knew that he was thinking exactly the same as everybody else was.

"Holy shit," Katie muttered. "You think this was the Gorgoya?"

"I'm not so sure," Matt spoke up, pointing off into the distance. "Do those lumps on the grass look like sawdust to you guys?"

"Someone cut the trees down," Kyle agreed. "At least some of them".

"I did not expect it to be this creepy when we actually found something." Jess gulped. No one replied, silently echoing the sentiment.

"What are we gonna do?" Katie asked.

For a while no one spoke. Everyone looked to someone else for any hint of a plan but no one came forth. Finally, after the deepest of breaths, Kyle decided.

"This is what we came for," He reminded them. "We have to go check it out. It's a waste otherwise".

"The waterfall is just up there!" Jess pointed behind them, shaking from both fear and the cold that had suddenly swept around them. "I'd much rather we went up there and set up camp instead!"

"Do you seriously think that you'll get any sleep tonight, not knowing what's down here?" Kyle argued. "If we don't like what we find, we can always turn back."

Although none of them were particularly fond of the idea, they all agreed to go along with it anyway. Slowly, they crept along the uneven ground that, until very recently, had been left untouched for potentially hundreds of years.

It seemed to take them an age, but the path in fact didn't last all that long until they spotted an upcoming clearing ahead.

"Any ideas where we'd be on the map right now, Matt?" Katie asked. She was walking in front of Jess, for once glad not to be at the back of the line.

"I doubt this part is even covered," He whispered. "This is basically like a hidden chamber near the peak."

"I knew this was a bad idea!" Jess sobbed.

"Uh . . . guys?" Kyle gulped. His tone conveyed to everyone that he was suddenly filled with an almighty fear. The remaining trio turned to see what had grabbed his attention, and as one they all gasped in unison at what he was pointing at.

Up ahead in the grey of the foggy clearing, stood a lone, black hooded figure.

________________________________________________________________________

EEEEEEK!

You can probably tell already that I LOVED writing this chapter! I swear, Kyle's dream sequence, I made a coffee but got so caught up in writing it that I forgot about it until it was freezing cold!

What do you guys think his dream means, if anything at all? And what about the end of the chapter? I hope you've got some goosebumps!

Finally, I previously mentioned that I'd always wanted to do a story on the family of a murderer, and the scene between Kyle and Matt on the hill was one I've had planned out for years. At least the conversation was anyway.

I hope you liked this chapter and would really appreciate any votes and comments!

But you already knew that ;)

And finally the most important question of all. Have you seen Dodgeball?