Ethan and Nicholas kept staring at the fire, trying to ignore the eyes.
Nicholas looked toward Ethan and began talking to him: "How are you, boy?"
Ethan remained silent while looking at him with empty eyes.
He returned his gaze to the fire and continued his words: "Oh right, you can't speak… Alright, I have an idea."
Nicholas clenched his fist and raised his thumb up and said to him: "Do this gesture to say yes or fine or anything positive."
Then he flipped his thumb and made it point down: "And use this gesture to say no or I'm not fine or to express anything negative."
Then he opened his hand and continued his talk: "And use this gesture when you don't know something. Understood?"
Ethan replied to him by signaling yes. A slight smile appeared on Nicholas's face, he took a deep breath and said to him: "Good, this might make the time pass faster."
Nicholas looked toward the eyes and pointed at them with his hand saying: "Do you feel uncomfortable like me with these creatures?"
Ethan directed his gazes toward the eyes and replied to him yes.
The two pulled their gazes away from the eyes and kept looking at the burning fire as it was the only thing that made them feel some safety in this darkness.
Nicholas looked toward the sky to find darkness. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath while waiting for the guard period to end, until suddenly he began hearing a sound, it was familiar to him.
He opened his eyes quickly and began looking in every direction trying to know the source of the sound.
The sound began becoming clearer and clearer, while expressions of shock and surprise dominated his face.
Ethan noticed his strange behavior and looked toward him in surprise.
Nicholas looked toward Ethan and with expressions of shock on his face said: "Do you hear this? Do you hear this sound?"
Ethan raised his arm and signaled no.
Expressions of shock and surprise mixed on Nicholas's face and he said to him agitatedly: "What? You don't hear a woman's voice nearby?"
Ethan replied to him no.
Nicholas remained confused about what was happening, while the sound became clearer and clearer until he began hearing the voice clearly.
He turned and directed his gazes toward the darkness of the forest: "Is this an illusion? Could I be imagining these sounds because of the tension? Impossible, it's very real!"
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His train of thought was interrupted by the same voice, but this time he was able to hear it clearly and understand what it was saying: "Nicholas, is that you?"
His expressions suddenly froze after hearing these words.
He remained frozen in his place for several seconds until he suddenly spoke: "Mom?"
His pupils widened and he opened his mouth a little and began advancing toward the darkness slowly: "Mom, is that you? Did you finally manage to escape?"
The voice began replying to him: "Nicholas! It's really you, you've grown so much."
Nicholas kept heading toward the darkness slowly with tears in his eyes: "Mom, you really survived, you don't know how much I missed you, how long I've been waiting for you, how much I worked so I could reach you."
The voice replied to him: "Yes my little one, years have passed since I last saw you, and here I am seeing you now as a strong grown man. Come, help your mother my little one."
Ethan noticed that Nicholas was heading toward the darkness slowly.
He opened his eyes in panic and rushed quickly toward him who was heading into the darkness.
He grabbed him and began trying to pull him back to the campfire.
Nicholas got agitated and began hitting Ethan who was holding him with force: "Leave me you bastard, leave me go to my mom. She said to come help her, she must be fallen on the ground injured or her foot stuck in one of the trees."
Ethan kept struggling with all his strength to prevent Nicholas from going.
Nicholas kept hitting Ethan with such force that blood began coming out of his nose and mouth.
Ethan pointed his finger toward one of the areas as if asking him to look at it.
Nicholas directed his gaze to that place so his face hardened from what he saw and he suddenly stopped hitting Ethan.
The flames were lighting a small area of the place, and at the end of that light between the trees there was a mouth under between one of the trees.
It resembled a snake, but instead of its head there was only a human mouth speaking in a voice inaudible to Ethan, but for Nicholas it was his mother's voice matching the movement of that thing's mouth.
The creature noticed that they had spotted it, so it crawled quickly toward the forest disappearing into the darknesses, and with it the voice disappeared and silence filled the place.
Ethan left the shocked Nicholas and went to sit in his place.
Nicholas fell onto his knees with the shock still visible on his face: "Was all of this just a trick to lure me away from the group?"
He directed his gazes toward the injured Ethan, and blood was flowing from his nose and some swellings visible on his face.
He rose to his feet and headed toward the place where he had been sitting, with a feeling of embarrassment and regret inside him because of what he had done: "He was trying to warn me, and instead of listening to him, I let my emotions overcome me and started attacking him."
He looked toward the boy with expressions of regret and embarrassment clear on him.
He remained silent for some time until he spoke saying: "Sorry boy for hurting you. That thing really deceived me."
Ethan looked toward him with annoyance while wiping the blood from his nose.
The feelings of regret increased in Nicholas's heart: "I'm truly sorry boy, but her voice was exactly similar to my mother's voice."
Ethan ignored him and went toward his bag and brought some bandages from it.
He returned to his place and began wrapping the bandages around his nose.
Nicholas looked toward him and said to him: "What are you doing?"
Ethan looked toward him in surprise, and Nicholas continued his words: "Bandages aren't used on simple wounds, they're only used when you get a serious wound boy. Put the bandages back in their place."
Ethan heard what he said, and began removing the bandages from his face and put them back in their place.
Nicholas began taking a look around the place to find that the eyes were still looking toward them.
He took a deep breath and returned his gaze toward Ethan and said to him: "Sorry again for what I did. I thought it was my mother, that's why I got deceived by that monster. I apologize with all sincerity for my stupidity."
Ethan kept looking toward him, but the features of annoyance lessened a little.
He raised his arm and signaled yes, meaning more accurately that he forgave him.
A slight smile appeared on Nicholas's face and he said in a somewhat happy tone: "Thank you."
(End)