“Slate! Chloe! Where are you two?!” Indigo calls out.
“HE BETTER NOT BE SLEEPING OR ELSE I’LL MAKE SURE HE NEVER WAKES UP AGAIN!” Grant yells.
“That will not be necessary, Grant,” Steve states.
“Yeah, that would be unreasonable. We’d have one less person to help pay rent,” Reynold reasons.
“Yeah! He’s probably just hiding around one of these trees, waiting to ambush us!” Joey calls out, popping out from behind a tree.
Startled, Clint Seaton trips and falls down. Luckily, he was at the back of the line so nobody else tripped over him.
“Oh, ow!” Clint yelped.
With that, Slate Fisher woke up from his nap, realizing Chloe White was gone.
“Oh no... I lost Chloe... I have to find her before the others realize I’ve been sleeping...” Slate whispers to himself with a yawn.
Carefully, Slate Fisher scans the woods, looking for any sign of the girl.
“Chloe, where did you wander off to...?” Slate calls quietly.
“Oh, hey, there’s Slate!” Steve announces suddenly.
Slate Fisher’s heart begins to race as he realizes he has no excuse for losing Chloe White. The other six young men approach Slate.
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“Say, where is Chloe White...?” Indigo inquires, looking around.
“I... Um... She’s... She was following me! I uh, I bet she’s hiding as a prank!” Slate says.
“Ooh! A prank, huh?” Joey asks with a laugh, “Alright, Chloe! Give us your best scare!”
Joey Fielder runs off into the woods behind Slate.
“W-Wait!” Slate says.
“I say we follow him,” Steve says.
“Yeah!” Clint says.
Clint Seaton goes to take a step forward and ends up tripping over a rock.
“Ouch... I wish I wasn’t so clumsy...” Clint groans.
“But then you wouldn’t be Clint,” Reynold says, shaking his head while grinning.
A shrill shriek sounds and the remaining 6 men make a mad dash towards the sound. All of them gasp in horror when they see what Joey Fielder is screaming about. It is Chloe White, still impaled to the tree.
“She’s dead again! How dreadful!” Steve wails.
“SLATE! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!” Grant yells, grabbing a stunned Slate Fisher and shaking him.
“I... I... I don’t know how this happened! I kept an eye on her, I really did!” Slate says, crying.
“Well, it wouldn’t make sense to leave her impaled to the tree...” Reynold reasons.
Reynold Thornton gently tugs on the wooden stake and it becomes dislodged. Chloe White collapses to the ground and, at first, lies completely still.
“I’m so, so, sorry, Chloe White...” Slate says, sniffling.
Chloe White groans and starts breathing again. As if by magic, the hole heals up.
“What in the world?!” Indigo exclaims in confusion.
Chloe White opens her eyes and looks at the men.
“Oh... W-what happened...?” Chloe White asks, getting up off of the ground.
“We found you staked to a tree with this!” Steve announces, pointing to the wooden stake that Reynold Thornton is holding.
Chloe White shrieks in fear and runs off.
“Oh, gosh dang it, we did it again...” Indigo says, shaking his head.
“We really ought to stop showing her the very thing that killed her...” Reynold says, burying the stake in the soil.
“Hey, at least we know she is alright. If she wasn’t okay, she wouldn’t have been able to run off like that!” Steve points out.
“But we still need to do something about Slate!” Grant yells.
“I...I...I’m sorry!” Slate stammers.
“Should we go find Chloe White before she gets killed a third time?” Indigo inquires.
“Yes,” Steve says.
“Do you think whoever did this will return...?” Indigo asks, looking nervous.
“I sure hope not! That wasn’t funny at all!” Joey says.