Chapter Ten

Josh woke up to the blinking light of the sun glaring through his tent, and he yawned. His eyes narrowed a bit in confusion, and warning signs tingled when the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He quickly got dressed in his regular clothes and hurriedly made his way outside.

Leah and Jake were currently heating up the fire to get it ready for breakfast, but he looked around the surroundings of the campground, and Haley wasn't anywhere to be spotted. Jake gave him a weird look.

"Hey, man, what's wrong?" He asked his friend. Josh shook his head and looked at Leah. "Has Haley come out of her tent at all last night?" He asked her. Leah looked at him with a frown but shook her head no. He hurriedly made his way to her tent and unzipped it. What he saw inside made him sigh with relief.

Except, his brow furrowed. She was shivering, and it looked as though she was sweating buckets of sweat since her blanket was drenched and her cheeks were flushed red. He gently made his way into the tent and Leah and Jake looked in at the entrance.

Josh laid his palm on her forehead and frowned at his friends. "She's running a very high fever right now. I have no clue how to handle this situation guys." He pleaded with them. Leah snapped her fingers together as though she had an idea. "Jake, get some hollowed tree, make sure the bottom has no holes, and fill up one of the rug sacks with water by the river. We'll cut up parts of the blankets to use as rags. We can use those rags and soak them up with water and dab it on her forehead. Furthermore, we just have to keep doing it until her fever breaks." Leah explained, and the guys looked at her with surprise.

She rolled her eyes at them and started clapping her hands together. "Come on you two, Haley needs us." She ordered them and both she and Jake hurriedly got started with the handmade bucket and cut-out rags. Josh, in the meanwhile, just sat next to Haley in the tent and held her hand. "What made you so sick, Haley?" He whispered to her in worry.

He suddenly went ramrod straight when he heard the wind suddenly stop and the sun went dark. His ears perked up when he heard some rustling on the grass, and he jumped in fear when a loud "gggrrr" surrounded the tent.

Josh balled up his fists in anger and looked up at the tent ceiling. "Come on!" He screamed. A snarl came up from behind him, and he turned his head around so quickly and saw the shadow standing outside the tent. It was exactly what Haley described when she got that scratch on her shoulder. This creature really was lean and tall with spidery fingers, and he was surprised to see an actual forked tail that stunned him.

"Josh!" A distant voice called out to him, and he briefly thought that it sounded a lot like Jake. The demon roughly turned his head towards the sound, and fear ran through Josh thinking it was going to lunge for Jake. He turned towards the entrance of the tent. "Jake! Run man, that thing that attacked the girls is here!" He yelled out and suddenly, he woke up. He saw Jake in front of him inside the tent with his hands on his shoulders as though he had been shaking him to wake up.

Josh blinked in confusion. "What's going on Jake?" He asked his friend. Jake just looked at him incredulously. "What? Dude, you were screaming out loud and you suddenly blacked out on us. Why don't you tell us what's going on?" Jake asked him sharply.

Josh inhaled a bit and shook his head. "Something is messing with me man, it might be that creature that Haley saw. I could have sworn I saw it just now." He explained to them and looked down at his hands. Jake inhaled sharply.

He turned his eyes towards Haley who was still in a feverish sleep and sighed deeply. "I know Haley isn't in the best way to travel right now, but we need to get back to our village Josh. She needs help and this is starting to get too dangerous for us." He suggested to him.

Josh just hummed to himself in thought and looked at Haley. She looked so weak and frail and constantly shivered as though she was cold when she was actually burning. But, Jake was right. They couldn't stay here, it was time to go. "Alright, let's create a bed out of the wood we have or something use some of the tents to carry Haley through the woods. We're getting out of here." He told them and they instantly got to work.

By the time they were in the woods on their way home, it had already turned dark. Josh and his friend Jake were the ones who were pulling Haley along while Leah had a lantern in her that she used to help lead the way. Josh huffed a bit when rocks stopped Haley. "Hang on guys, let's take a break." He spoke out to them and sat down on a rock near Haley.

From the looks of it, her fever hadn't broken yet, and his heart filled with worry. Leah bent down next to him to look at her best friend. "How is she?" She asked him. He looked up at her with a sad frown and shook his head. "The same." He whispered. Leah sighed with regret.