Light snow fell slowly like feathers in the abandoned reserve. The low clouds gave everything a gray cast, but at least the divine beast had given them calm weather again on their second visit. Gale stepped over a toppled bicycle covered with thick snow.

  The five of them got here over an hour ago. Kyle and Clyde went west without saying a word. Ollie and Rachel didn't even comment. Ollie took the northern side of the reserve, while Rachel and Gale explored the east.

  "Find anything?" Gale called over.

  Rachel walked out of a shed, shaking her head. "Just garden tools and mouse nests. What about you?"

  "All the houses looked the same as yesterday," Gale said. He had checked out the backyard while Rachel had checked out the shed. It had nothing except a single pile of bones that was definitely not an animal. He didn't even want to identify whether it was a child or an adult.

  "It doesn't look like people just up and left. Looks like they were forced out," Rachel said, walking over to join him.

  Gale nodded. "Do you think the Silver Lions would do this kind of thing? Or maybe it was really just the government?"

  "Governments can't cover up something this big. This kind of doing smells too much of what happens in Aur," Rachel said.

  "Really?" Gale asked, more as a reflex than an actual question.

  She smiled at him, saying, "I'll get you a subscription to Aur Times when we're back."

  "Is it free?"

  "No, but you can pay me some other way," Rachel grinned.

  Gale gulped. He was already too much indebted to her. What else did she want? If she wanted his apartment, she could have it. It wasn't his anyways.

  Suddenly, his walkie app crackled and Kyle's voice broke through the static.

  "Yo, Team Dustbusters. We found something. Everyone get to the school gym building on the east side. Psssht over."

  Gale grabbed his phone and pressed the push to talk button, just like he was taught. "On our way, pssht over."

  "Gale, you don't have to say that last part," Rachel sighed.

  "But they said-"

  "No buts. Just don't," Rachel said, eyes looking the firmest they've ever been, making him shrink back.

  "Ok…"

  Rachel fished her phone out of her pocket and pushed the button on her own device. "Ollie, you heard that?"

  "Yeah," Ollie's voice came through the static. "I see the building. Meet you there."

  The gymnasium stood as a big square box against the low gray clouds. Windows were broken and boarded up. Double doors hung from broken hinges. Snow covered half the floor inside.

  Kyle and Clyde waited just inside, hands in their coat pockets.

  Gale and Rachel walked through the broken double doors while they saw Ollie jogging up from behind.

  "What'd you find?" Rachel asked.

  Kyle pointed to the corner of the gym. "Check it out."

  At first, it looked like nothing but trash and other miscellaneous items that were hurriedly put together. But Clyde pointed to the things on the floor, covered up by snow.

  "Bullet casings," Rachel whispered.

  "Not many," Ollie said, walking closer to look at them.

  "Amateurs. That's not the point," Clyde said.

  "Look at the walls," Kyle said.

  Looking around, Gale studied the holes in the gym wall. To him, all it looked like was a gun had just been fired wildly. But all the holes were around chest height.

  "Executions," Clyde said.

  Ollie frowned as he looked at the casings on the floor. "How the hell did you two know to go here?"

  Kyle snorted. "Special Investigations Division, remember? It's literally our job to know this shit."

  "Yeah, but seriously," Ollie picked up a casing. "We've been looking for around an hour. You two literally went straight here."

  The twins looked at each other.

  "Why wouldn't we check the gym?" Kyle said. "When you're looking for a mass killing, you start with the big gathering spaces."

  "Kyle's right," Clyde added. "Every horror flick and real-world tragedy plays out the same way. Bad guys gather victims in big open spaces. Gymnasiums, cafeterias, auditoriums."

  "And you know what's better than a gymnasium?" Kyle grinned.

  "A gymnasium with a basement," Clyde grinned.

  Ollie facepalmed. "Shoulda known."

  "Door's over there." Kyle pointed to a metal door half-hidden behind a fallen scoreboard. "Let's go, kids!"

  Clyde pulled it open, door creaking harshly against the rusted hinges. A stairwell went down into the dark, a scene they'd seen before and hopefully not a deja vu.

  "Ladies first," Kyle said, ushering Rachel in.

  Rachel flipped him off. "After you, asshole."

  Kyle laughed and went down the stairs, turning on his phone's flashlight showing the way in the dark. Clyde followed, then Rachel, who lit up her hand, Gale behind, and lastly Ollie.

  The basement opened into a large room that looked more like a parking lot. Boxes and shelves lined the walls, as well as high shelves in rows along the pillars.

  Kyle's flashlight couldn't reach the other side of the basement. Instead, Rachel's hand lit up brighter, enough to make looking at it hurt. It did the job, though, as her light hit the other end. It made everything visible and clear, revealing the story of this place all in one go. Piles of bones littered the whole area in multiple mounds, all of them human of all ages, from child to adult.

  "Well," Kyle said, "guess we know what happened to the missing residents."

  Rachel moved closer. "There must be hundreds here."

  Gale winced. His guess was right. These people didn't leave; they couldn't. All killed because of some stupid shard that the Silver Lions wanted. Walking around the room, something caught his eye. A paper, yellowed with age, under one of the shelves by the wall. He bent down and picked it up. Crayon drawings covered the whole page. From how crude it is, it was a child's drawing.

  "Guys," Gale called out, "take a look at this."

  The others gathered around as Gale held up the paper. It showed a child's drawing of simple houses with stick figures, trees all over, and a river.

  "It's a map," Rachel said, leaning closer to his shoulder.

  "Of the reserve," Gale said.

  It showed a layout, each building marked with wobbly handwriting. 'School' where they now stood, 'My house' next to a blue line that must be a creek. On the other side of the creek was labelled 'Ceremonial Grounds'.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  "Look at where this is supposed to be," Gale tapped the circle.

  Ollie put a hand on his chin. "About half a mile west of here?"

  "That's where the hotel stands now," Rachel said.

  All five of them went quiet, staring at the crayon map.

  "The hotel's built on their ceremonial grounds," Gale said. "That can't be a coincidence."

  Kyle whistled. "Building on top of sacred tribal land? That's some grade-A horror movie shit right there."

  "Could explain the weird stuff happening," Clyde said.

  "If the ceremonial grounds had some kind of spiritual significance," Rachel said, "and someone built a hotel on top of it... that could explain why it's digging. It's looking for something."

  "Or someone," Ollie said.

  Could it be Dyani that the thing was looking for? Last time they went up to the 6th floor, the snowball Dyani threw also caught them by surprise. This couldn't be a coincidence.

  "Let's go back," Gale said. "If that old clerk knew about the reserve, then he would also know more about the hotel."

  Suddenly, wind banged on the windows above the basement. It howled, and the open door created a harsh whistle from the gusts pouring down the basement.

  "Guess that's the divine beast telling us to leave," Rachel said.

  Gale folded the drawing carefully and pocketed it. The group made their way upstairs, finding the door flipping open and closed from the gusts. Heading outside, Rachel squinted into the distance. The divine beast was no longer at the edge of the clearing.

  They walked through the snow, following their half-filled footprints. Each step became more difficult as the wind picked up even more, blowing away their hoods. Only Rachel looked like she had a casual expression, while the ring's warmth helped Gale to not need his hood.

  "Can barely see ten feet ahead," Kyle muttered.

  Clyde pulled out his phone. "No signal. Again. Fucking perfect."

  The wind blew harder, making it hard to open their eyes. Falling snow became thicker and thicker until it was hard to see outside of their arm's length.

  "Stay close," Gale called over his shoulder. "Follow my tracks."

  "What tracks?" Ollie shouted back. "They're filling as fast as you make them."

  "We'll get lost," Rachel yelled.

  "I've survived worse. Just stay behind me," Gale said.

  The group hunched forward while Gale broke the path as he closed his eyes and fully relied on the tendrils to be his forward vision. Five minutes in, he checked behind him.

  "Everyone still there?"

  An empty white wall greeted him from behind. No Rachel, Ollie, or the twins.

  "Rachel?!" he shouted. "Ollie?!"

  Only the howl of the wind answered.

  Gale turned in a circle, looking for footprints, any sign of which way they'd gone. Nothing. The snow covered all traces, as if his friends were never there.

  "Kyle! Clyde!"

  His shouts died a few yards away. He tried again, louder.

  "RACHEL! OLLIE! ANYONE!"

  They disappeared. Left him alone. What would they do without him other than get more lost?!

  Closing his eyes, he focused on Breath of the Void, pushing the tendrils all over to find them. The tendrils went three feet, five feet, ten, and then stopped. Like hitting a wall. He pushed harder, feeling resistance. His senses couldn't get through whatever was around him, like the snow refused to let them proceed further.

  What the fuck! He's practically blind without his skill.

  Gale turned around fast. Dyani stood there in the white, easy to see despite the storm. Her dark hair hung around her small face. No hat or gloves. Just the same light fur jacket from before.

  "Dyani," he said. "Did you see any of my friends? They were just here."

  Dyani tugged at his sleeves. "Wanna play?"

  "I can't right now," Gale said, looking around again. "I need to find my friends, they're probably lost in the snow."

  "But I'm bored. I wanna play something," Dyani said, letting go of his sleeve. "Let's play fort defense again!"

  "I'll play with you next time, I promise. But right now, I need to find my friends."

  "You say that now, but you'll say that again the next time I ask to play." She whined. "The other kids said that too. 'Next time, Dyani. Go away, Dyani.' Then next time never comes."

  "It's not like that," Gale said, eyes still looking around and pushing the tendrils outward. "They could be in trouble. Lost. The storm's getting worse."

  "You're just like them. I thought you said you were my friend too." Tears pooled in her eyes, her small shoulders shaking. Soon enough, tears ran down her cheeks. She started sobbing, words almost incoherent. "You promised. You said you'd play with me!"

  Her cries got louder, turning the sob into a wail that silenced even the howling winds.

  Gale crouched down on one knee, leveling his face with hers. "Hey, hey. Dyani, it's ok. I'm not lying to you."

  She cried harder. Tears ran down her face as she wiped them away with small balled up fists.

  Dragging his knees over closer to her, Gale embraced Dyani, patting her back. She was solid in his arms. Cold, but definitely there, physical. There was no way she was a ghost girl with how she felt. And even if she was, she was a ghost with feelings.

  "I'm not like those other doodoo heads that ignore you and call you names," he said softly. "I do want to play with you."

  Her sobs continued against his shoulder.

  "But friends also take care of each other," he said. "My friends might die out here, Dyani. Dying is a painful thing, isn't it?"

  The crying slowed. She pulled back, wiping her eyes. "Yeah. I think dying hurts a lot. I think."

  "You see? I don't want them to hurt. Dying is painful," Gale said. "That's why I need to find them before they get hurt. You get it?"

  Dyani sniffled. "But you're the only kid who plays with me. Mom never can too. She's always busy with her cleaning jobs."

  "Tell you what," Gale said, holding her shoulders. "You're good at moving through snowstorms, right? Never seem cold or lost?"

  She nodded, hiccupping slightly.

  "So am I," Gale smiled. "How about we make a game of finding my friends? Whoever spots them first gets candy bought by the loser. Deal?"

  Dyani's eyes lit up. The tears vanished. She grinned, wide and mischievous.

  "Deal!" She jumped back from his arms. "But you're gonna lose. I know these woods better than anyone!"

  She laughed. "You're gonna regret making this bet."

  "We'll see about that," Gale said, standing. "Which way should we look first?"

  Dyani put a finger to her lips, thinking. "If I was lost, I'd go where it's warm. To the old cabins maybe?"

  "Lead the way."

  Dyani walked through the blizzard like it was just a light rain. Snow hit Gale's face hard but seemed to go around her. Wind that pushed Gale back didn't even move her hair.

  "Come on, slowpoke!" she laughed, skipping ahead. "You're never gonna win candy at this rate."

  Gale trudged after her, tracking her with the tendrils and staying close enough so they didn't get blocked.

  "No fair," he called. "You've got home-field advantage."

  Dyani stopped and waited, hands on her hips. "All's fair in hide-and-seek."

  "This isn't hide-and-seek. It's a race to find my friends, remember that!"

  Looks like Dyani wasn't even listening as she was already off again, running between trees. Gale swore and pushed harder to keep up. He had a lifetime of training and was now an awakened. Guess that's one way they said that people chase ghosts.

  After half an hour, there were no signs yet.

  "Dyani?" Gale called when he lost sight of her again. "Where'd you go?"

  No answer. Just howling wind.

  "Dammit." He stopped, turning in a circle. "DYANI!"

  He took a couple of steps forward before a small hand slipped into his hold.

  "I'm right here," she said, appearing beside him. "No need to shout."

  Gale jumped. "Don't do that!"

  "Do what?" She looked up at him, eyes wide and innocent.

  "I mean, don't disappear on me, please."

  "I didn't disappear. You were just slow."

  Gale squeezed her hand. "Let's stick together from now on, okay?"

  "Okay." She swung their joined hands as they walked. "But you gotta keep up."

  They moved through the forest, checking abandoned cabins and hunting blinds. Small buildings half-collapsed under who knows how many years of snow. Dyani talked the whole time, pointing out places she played hide-and-seek, trees she climbed in summer, spots where berries grew that she would go to whenever mom was gone.

  "My mom always said that I was blessed by this forest. I dunno what she means, but it makes it easy for me to move around even in snowstorms like this," Dyani said.

  "Do you remember what blessing she said it was?" Gale asked.

  Dyani's head snapped to the right, about 50 yards away.

  "What is it?" Gale asked, looking where she looked but seeing only white.

  Dyani pulled away and ran toward the trees.

  "Dyani! Wait!"

  She disappeared into the falling snow. Gale ran after her, snow crunching under his boots, but couldn't keep up. He pushed past branches heavy with a pile of snow, his face hit by needles. The wind died slightly under the pines.

  "Dyani!" he called again.

  He saw a flash of her dark hair behind a big pine trunk. Gale approached slowly, not wanting to scare her.

  Dyani crouched behind the tree, completely still. She didn't look at Gale when he reached her side. Her eyes fixed on something beyond the pines that Gale couldn't see.

  "What's wrong?" he whispered, crouching beside her.

  She pointed to the wall of white. "The deer is fighting your friends."

  Gale looked where she pointed, squinting through gaps in the trees. For a moment, there was only white. It was then the snow cleared for a second that he saw what was beyond.

  "Stay here," he told Dyani.

  She grabbed his sleeve.

  "I have to help them." Gale gently pulled free. "You said yourself. Friends take care of each other."

  Tears pooled in her eyes as she tugged at his sleeve. "Like mom took care of me when I was sick?"

  Gale patted her head. "Yeah, just like mom when you're sick and brings you candy everyday from work."

  A muzzle flash visibly lit up against the gray snow, and a shockwave trail followed it behind. That must've been Clyde. The others would also be fighting.