The closer they got, the more she could recognize. Liz noticed that the clothes they were wearing were really familiar. She swears she saw this yellow tunic somewhere. They scented through the cave and weren’t moving, so she thought they were also dead.

  Bloody handprints, smears, or footprints were scattered on the way to the cave. Torn clothes, broken jewelry, and hair strands led the way to the cave entrance. They were trying to run away, and when cornered, they fought for their lives.

  When Liz reached the cave, it was too late to unsee what she saw there, it was too late to never look there, it was too late to change anything.

  The badges were echoing in the cave like a broken record. Those four breathless, beaten-up bodies belong to her first, and only dear friends: TT, Luke, Leia, and Han.

  The place was a mess. There were countless traces from slashes on the ceilings, walls, ground, and bodies. A line of blood droplets and bigger blood puddles from open wounds that decorated the cave in scarlet had already clotted. Their clothes were ripped, cut, and stained with dirt and blood. They were trying to fight off an attacker to escape.

  TT had bruises all over his body, he had lost both of his eyes, his jaw was broken, and a massive stub wound was in the middle of his chest.

  Luke was amputated from his right arm and his legs below the knees. It seemed that he was trying to run away, but this monster didn’t let him. It looked like he died trying to curl away.

  Leia was leaning on the wall, her eyes were tiring with blood, and she died with the horror forever captured on her face. She was hiding behind Luke’s shield. Her body was pinned to the wall with Luke's sword, piercing through the shield.

  Han looked the worst. The youngest member was sliced in half, from top to bottom. When Liz saw his sides lying in the entrance, she thought of his parents, who would have to bury his body in these conditions.

  Liz was crushed. Her head was empty. She couldn't feel anything: no more anger, and no more fear. Something thick was stuck in her throat. Her chest was heavy, as if her necklace gained a couple of hundred pounds. Her hands were trembling, and she fell on her butt.

  The Hat Man went into the cave. He lifted Luke and gently laid him down near TT, then he walked up to Leia, closed her scared eyes, removed the sword and a shield, and brought her to the two of them. When he approached Han, he froze, unsure what to do. Then he just held his body together with both of his hands and, as gently as he could, transferred him close to his group.

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  The badges had stopped transmitting the message.

  “Seems that they decided it is enough.” The Hat Man said quietly, as if he intended not disturb the sudden silence.

  “What are you going to do?” He asked Liz.

  She was so lost in her own mind that she didn’t hear him talking. He repeated the question, and on the second attempt, she finally caught it. Liz raised her head to look at his face. She forgot he had a hat hiding his face. It made her feel even worse, because she thought he didn’t trust her.

  She slightly shook her head from side to side. Liz couldn't think properly. She just gave up.

  “I think we should go. We lost so much time already. I don’t think we are gonna make it to the labyrinth or the city today,” he slightly leaned toward Liz, “I hate to say it, but I don't wanna sleep surrounded by a bunch of dead people.”

  “We can’t leave them here!” Liz protested.

  “We have to.” The man spread his hand and said, “There is nothing more we can do. The guild will find them soon enough. They all have their badges on.”

  “This is probably why they turn the message off. They assume everyone who didn’t return is dead by now,” he murmured.

  Liz didn’t have the strength to protest. Her leg had given up. She couldn't even stand. She lost all control of her body. The man noticed she couldn’t walk, so he sat next to her with his back facing her.

  “Get on.” He said quietly.

  She leaned on his back, hugging him from behind. He lifted her so fast, as if she were a feather. Liz shrieked inside, her forehead pressed against his back. When she lifted her head, she noticed a wet stain on his cloak. She didn’t know she was crying the whole time. The warmth of his body soothed her, and she dozed off.

  When she woke up, they were already somewhere else. She was wrapped in his cloak, leaning against the tall tree. The campfire was cozily crackling, and it was already getting darker.

  Liz looked right, then left, and her heart sank. Her companion was nowhere to be found. She jumped up, terrified.

  “I’m up here.”

  She looked up, and there he was. Lying on the branch of the tree, right above her head.

  “What are you doing there?”

  “I was watching in case someone would notice the smoke, and came here.”

  She just realized that all this time, by running the campfires every night, they had exposed themself to everyone. Liz felt sickish.

  “Should we then just put out the fire?”

  “Why?”

  “What if the demon finds us?” She was so scared even of the thought of that. Her body was tightly tensed. She was trying to keep her hands from shaking by grabbing the clock as hard as she could (it would leave marks afterward).

  She dropped on her butt, curled up with her knees pulled to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs, and she was looking downward with the saddest face in the world.

  “Then I’ll just kill it,” he said, like it was nothing, an everyday thing.