Smoke and Shadows: Unveiling Secrets in the Tall Grass

The next couple of days passed slowly. The nightmares stopped when I slept, but now I was living in one. I couldn’t feel anything else except fear. The fear killed all my other emotions. I didn’t feel anything except fear when I stood in front of my mother's coffin; I didn’t feel anything except fear when the dirt covered her; and I didn’t feel anything except fear when Theo and Leigh stood next to me trying to give me support. Not even when Theo told me that he saw Isaac acting weird the other day. I didn’t care; I couldn't, even if I wanted to. I didn’t feel anything except fear when Theo and Leigh left me standing alone in front of my mother's grave and when I left my mother alone in her grave and went home.

Five days passed. People came and went; I stayed, and so did my fear. When I went to sleep, I felt like choking. When I woke up, I felt like choking. I would see things; someone was watching me from the shadows in my room. I started sleeping with my lights on.

On the sixth day, Theo came to my house. I didn’t expect him to come.
"I know you’re having a difficult time, but we need to talk. It is serious."
Theo never joked; when he said he was serious about something, I knew he wasn’t lying.
"Lead the way." I said so and followed him.
"For the past 3 days, Leigh and I have noticed someone always following us."
I froze in place. Could it be that The Crow is targeting them now because they are my friends?
He noticed how nervous I was.
"Don’t worry, they haven’t done anything yet. But we know what they’re going to do; we know their plan."
"Who?"
"Isaac and his friends, of course; what do you mean by who? Who else could it be?"
I realized I slipped a little, but not too much; I could still use the "tired card".
"Sorry, I am a little bit tired these days, if you didn’t notice already."
"You remember the kid at the market, the one with the broken hand?"
"Yeah, what happened to him?"
"Well, we kind of forgot about him, but he didn’t forget us." He waved his hand, showing me to continue walking. "This morning he found me. He told me that he heard the two guys that broke his arm talk about their new secret hideout, and there they have something made to hurt you because you ratted them out."
"But why did he find you? How did he know we were friends?"
"Well, fun fact: Emily is his sister."
"Emily Johnson? The nerd?"
"Yup, so he found me that way because he didn’t want to bother you because, you know."
"Yeah…. So did he say anything else?"
"Yes, he followed them, and he knows where their secret hideout is. And like I said, Leigh and I are being followed, so I think he plans to use whatever he builds there on all three of us. He must’ve found out somehow that it was us with the smoke bombs."
"I don’t really care about Isaac right now, Theo." I couldn’t even continue what I was saying; he cut me off.
"I know Adrian, but this might be dangerous; Leigh and I can’t handle this on our own, and it might help you think of something else right now."
He was right, and I hated the fact that he was always right.
"So what’s the plan?"
He smiled and said, "We will attack them first again."
He led me to another abandoned ramp; this one looked in even worse condition than the other one. The grass was very tall, and nature completely took over. It looked like no human had stepped foot in this jungle. Leigh was already there, sitting behind a tree, looking at a small hut next to the river—another fishing hut, I assumed.

She looked happy to see me, and I was happy to see her.
"Adrian, you decided to come!"
"Shhhh," Theo hit her on the head, "don’t be so loud."
"Don’t worry, I only saw Matt, and he left some time ago." She hit him back.
"So should we just go down there and check what they built?"
We looked at each other. "Was it really that easy?" We thought to ourselves.

We moved slowly through the tall grass. A gentle resistance in my legs told me to go back; they don’t want us here. With each step, a different sound was produced, and the scent of grass was earthy and fresh. I enjoyed moving in the grass; I felt free.
"I just hope there aren’t any snakes." Leigh was going last, her hands on her chest; she looked scared.
"Just go slowly and watch where you take your steps." Theo led us.
"I can’t really see anything." I was a little bit worried about seeing a snake now as well.
The abandoned fishing hut looked exactly the same as the last one: it stood there forgotten, the wooden walls and the roof were full of holes, and the paint was peeled. All around it, the vegetation took control: vines crawling up the sides, the tall grass hiding the hut from any unwanted visitors.

"So do we just go in?" Leigh asked and looked around herself to see if anyone was coming.
"I guess?" Theo thought for a second. "Let’s all rush in to see what is going on in there—hopefully not more animal bodies."
They opened the door, we went in, and I heard a click. Something exploded; the smoke filled the room; my eyes began to hurt; and I couldn’t see anything. I somehow rushed out and fell to the floor. I couldn’t see anything going on around me; tears went down my face and wouldn’t stop. My skin was burning, like needles were all over my body. I was in so much pain that even blinking hurt like hell. I had difficulties breathing; I was coughing, and I could hear Theo and Leigh coughing as well. I somehow slowly opened my eyes, and I turned around to try and see what was going on. Behind the tall grass, four silhouettes came out, and I recognized the voice of Jake.

"I told you guys it was going to work!" He was uncontrollably laughing. "They walked right in!"
"Good job, Jake; that was an awesome idea to steal my father's pepper spray." That was Isaac. I couldn’t see him, but I knew he had that grin on his face.
"They won’t die? Right?" Tom sounded worried.
"So what if they do? No one will find them here." Matt brushed him off.
Someone was approaching me; he bent down and punched me in the face. Blood started coming out of my nose. He grabbed me by my hair and whispered to my ear, "How could you lie to me? You think I wouldn’t find out? Now he is back, and he came to me for help!"
"What do you mean?" I had difficulties talking.
"He left me a message the day you used the smoke bombs. It's a good thing I was there earlier, or else I wouldn’t have seen it. He needs my help; he knows how to contact me, and I am helping him again, and I guess you don’t." He laughed and pushed me down in the dirt.

"Let’s go, guys." The same voice said, "We taught them a lesson."
I could hear them all laughing as they left us there.

It took me about 30 minutes, but I started to feel better, and I could actually see something now. Leigh was lying on her back, her hand over her eyes. Theo was sitting, looking at his feet.
"Well, I must admit," Theo slowly stood up, "that was pretty fucking smart."
"Oh, shut up, Theo." Leigh looked mad.
"Can you check? Did that idiot break my nose?" I stood up as well.
"It doesn’t seem so," Theo touched it gently, "who was it that punched you?"
"I don’t know." I lied.
"It was probably Isaac." Leigh was still rubbing her eyes.
"What now?" My head started to hurt badly.
"No idea; we will have to figure something out to get them back for this, something big." Theo looked like he enjoyed this little war.
We sat down by the water, waiting for our swollen eyes to come back to their normal size. We were thinking of ways to get them back for this; we had to figure something out, something fast. We need to give them back twice as hard before they attack us again. It took us a couple of hours, but except for the redness, our eyes looked okay. It was time to go home. Enough adventures for that day.
"Thank you," I said.
"For what?" Theo looked puzzled at me, as did Leigh.
"For today. Even though it didn’t go as planned, for the first time in days, I forgot about everything else. Thank you."
"You’re welcome; we are always there for each other." Theo slapped me on the back.
"Always." Leigh smiled, her eyes shining brighter than the brightest star in the sky.