"Juliet where are we even going?" Max whined from behind me as the sun started setting.
"I'm assuming the line ' from where mother came' means where mom was born. He gave these to me in a certain order, and that's how we have follow his directions." I said when we stopped to rest after 2 days of non stop walking.
"But the first line is 'twists and turns'. What's that mean?"
"We're moving sort of across the country, we have to turn and twists, whatever that means but that's what I think it means."
"That's a bit too literal for a riddle. It probably has a double meaning." He sighed, drinking out of the water bottle he had snagged before we left.
"Well, I'm guessing he wants to end this where it began."
"End what? We weren't even alive at the time. Why are we having to fix this?" He sighs falling back and putting arm over his eyes.
"Who knows why Xaiver does anything. He waited 20 years to make a move."
"Technically 16"
"Whatever." I say rolling my eyes at him.
"Let's get moving. We're about an hour away now." I say getting up and refilling my waterbottle in the clear pond we've been at for the past hour.
"How do you know?" He asked sitting up and raising an eyebrow at me.
"Where do you think those 100 dollars came from on your birthdays and Christmas?" I asked standing up and screwing the top on before walking off.
"Wait, those came from you?" He asked jogging over ams falling into step with me.
"You may have not liked me but I still wanted you to be cared for. So yes, I worked more and harder to get you 100 dollars just in case you needed it for food or anything. I would also watch the party's for both occasions. I know where my home was. And the abandoned territory next to it became familiar to me for a while." I said simply before continuing to walk a bit faster than him hoping he'd drop the topic.
"Did you go hungry?" He asked quietly.
"I only used money for clothes honestly. I hunted and ate raw meat in wolf form. Sometimes if I was lucky I'd get some meat from the market and cook it over a fire." I said shrugging and putting my water bottle in my bag.
"I-"
"Don't. The past is in the past, and nothing will change that. So stop feeling sorry about it and drop it. I've moved on and you should too."
"Alright alright, i get it. What do you think will be waiting for us?" He the questions as we continue to walk.
"Most likely a trap. But he's insane and playing mind games so who knows." I respond.
We walk the rest of the way in silence and stop once we're at the end of neutral territory.
"Before we do this, I need to know that we're ok. I won't walk into this unless we both know that we can trust each other." Max says, turning to me.
I sighed and looked up at him, thinking of how to word what I wanted to say.
"I forgive you, Max." I said quietly and he relaxed some, pulling me into a hug that I gladly returned.
"Forever?" He asked, and I smiled a little at the reference to words spoken from younger versions of us.
"Always." I simply responded pulling back and looking over the riddles.
"Let's do this." I said and we both began to walk into the woods of unfamiliar territory.
As we began to walk in pace with each other, we walked over a pile of leaves which collapsed under our feet.
It was about a 15 foot drop and I landed on Max, who let out a loud omph as I knocked the wind out of him. It was dark and wet, and I groaned before sitting up and slowly standing up.
I grabbed the flashlight in a side pocket of my bag and clicked it on, looking around.
"Max, you ok?" I asked finding him sitting on the ground.
"I'm fine. You?"
"Peachy."
"Where are we?" He asked looking up at me as I helped him stand.
"Well we aren't going the way we came." I said looking up with the flashlight, seeing the rectangle hole we fell through.
"Wonderful. What now?" He asked as I dug out my spare flashlight and handed it to him.
I was about to answer when I heard a clicking noise come from my pocket, and I pulled the compass out to see it pointing East.
"Twists and turns, stone can't break bone" I murmered and Max looked at me confused.
"The riddle. The wall and ground is stone, or something like that, and when we fell we didn't break any bones. The twists and turns are these corridors." I stated looking into the blackness to find that there was another hallway connected to the one we were in now.
"Yeah these are corridors." I said as he looked around.
He looked at the compass as it stopped spinning, and the needle pointed to the end of the corridor.
"The directions to get out, at least I think. Now come on, I don't want to be here longer than I have to." I said placing the flashlight on my shoulder and using a strap to keep it there as I began moving down the hall.
The needle in the compass started moving and by the 8th turn we made I got was losing patience.
"I never liked mazes." I mumbled as I kept following the dang thing.
"They are annoying." Max commented.
I sighed and then stopped when the needle abruptly pointed to the right in the middle of a hall.
I turned and looked at the blank wall, sighing when I didn't see any indication of a path.
"Wonderful, we're lost in a creepy and dark maze." Max said beside me and I rolled my eyes.
I put the compass away and started feeling a long the wall, even pushing it a couple times.
I huffed and turned to lean against the door when it made a creaking, nails across a blackboard noise and it slide open, which scared me, and caught my attention.
Once it was fully open I grabbed Max's hand tightly, cautiously stepping into the small room with a spiral stairway heading up.
"Let's go meet our grandpa."
YOU ARE READING
The Runner {Editing}
WerewolfI've been running since I was 16. I'm 20 now. there's a price on my head, there's no one I can trust but myself. I'm a rouge, and I travel alone. I prefer it that way. That is, until Stefan comes into my life ...
