Jenny looked at Nicholas with bewilderment and said to him, "What?" He replied to her with a mixture of amazement and shock on his features, "That's a man with a mask! The same thing happened to me before I found myself in that room!" Joseph replied to him with curiosity, "How exactly did you meet him?" Nicholas answered him, "Well, I was going to one of the rivers to get some water, but when I arrived, I found someone with the same description the girl mentioned - a person wearing an orange mask and black glasses. I was cautious of him, so I pulled out a knife I had and asked him to identify himself, but he didn't utter a single letter. Right after that, I lost consciousness, and you know what happened after that." Jesse scratched his head in confusion and said, "Strange."
Joseph interrupted their conversation, saying with amazement, "A person with an orange mask and black glasses?" His expressions showed that he knew who they were talking about. Jesse replied to him, "Do you know him?" Joseph answered while eating his sandwich, "Yes, that's Marcus, the current leader of the village." Nicholas looked at him and said in an angry tone, "Marcus! He's that bastard who locked us up with those monsters!" Joseph replied to him, "Yes, he's somewhat strange. He's a person who's hard to get to know. He only talks to me when there's a mission to do with him or alone. Other than that, he just keeps looking at me from behind his mask, strange guy, without speaking."
Jesse came to reply to him but stopped when he saw Jenny looking at one of the trees with terror dominating her face. He directed his gaze toward the place she was looking at, and expressions of shock and tension appeared on his face. Glowing eyes in the pitch darkness of the forest were looking at them with cold stares devoid of emotions.
Jesse quickly got up from his seat and grabbed his gun that was in front of him, pointing it toward them. The eyes kept watching them with the same stares. Joseph went to Jesse and lowered his weapon, saying to him calmly, "Don't shoot at it." Jesse looked at him with bewilderment and asked him about the reason, and he replied: "I know this thing. Mira told me about it. She said it won't do anything aggressive to you as long as you don't harm it. It will just be content with looking at you and will leave after some time passes."
Jesse lowered his weapon and kept looking at the monster's eyes that seemed like eyes floating in the darkness without a body. After everyone finished eating, Joseph told them they needed to sleep so they would have enough energy to get out of this forest in the morning. Jenny replied to him with her usual worried features, "But aren't you worried about this thing?" Joseph replied to her, "No need to worry. As I told you, they don't attack unless you attack them."
Jesse turned to the group and said to them in a somewhat loud voice, "We're not just going to sleep like this, right? We're in a forest; we might be attacked at any moment." Joseph replied to him, "Well, let's assign someone among us to stay awake for three hours, and when the time is up, he switches with one of us and goes to sleep." Jesse replied to him, "Okay, but what do you think about making it two people? It would be better." Joseph agreed with him and called the team to gather. He told them they would play rock-paper-scissors. "We'll divide into two groups, each with two people. Whoever loses between them will be the one to guard."
Jenny looked at him with bewilderment, saying, "But we're five people. How will we do it?" Joseph replied to her with a slight smile, "No need to think about this. You won't do the guarding - only the boys will do that." Jenny replied to him, "Oh, okay, thank you."
Joseph asked Jesse and Ethan to start first. Jesse approached Ethan and began playing "rock-paper-scissors." Jesse put scissors while Ethan kept looking at him with bewilderment. Jesse froze in movement for some time, then said to him, "Seriously, how do you not even know what rock-paper-scissors is?" Ethan kept looking at him with the same stares. Jesse put his hand on his face and began explaining the game rules to him. After he finished explaining, he asked him if he understood something, but he kept looking at him as usual. Jesse took a deep breath and said to him, "If you understood, raise your head up and bring it down at the same time, but if not, turn your head right or left, okay?" Ethan responded to him and answered yes.
Jesse asked him to get ready and they started playing "rock-paper-scissors." Jesse put rock while Ethan put scissors, so Ethan would be the one to guard. At the same time, Joseph defeated Nicholas in the game, so Ethan and Nicholas had to guard them for that night.
Jesse put his shirt on the ground and Joseph did the same thing, but he gave Jenny a blanket and asked her to sleep away from them in that area. Everyone went to sleep except Nicholas and Ethan, who remained sitting in front of a lit fire with silence surrounding them everywhere, waiting for their guard time to end.
Ethan kept looking at the burning flames with curiosity and admiration, while Nicholas kept feeling uncomfortable as he looked from the corner of his eye toward those eyes hanging in the darkness. He tried to ignore them, but he kept feeling uncomfortable and tense. He directed his gaze toward Ethan and said to him calmly, "Boy, how can you be comfortable with those eyes looking at you?"
Ethan looked at him with ordinary eyes devoid of expressions, and after several seconds, he changed his gaze toward the eyes hanging in the darkness with curiosity. The eyes began looking slowly toward Ethan, exchanging glances with each other. Nicholas remained watching in silence with feelings of anxiety dominating him.
He put his hand over his eyes and began talking to himself, "Man, staying with another person is supposed to help me reduce tension, but he's only increasing my discomfort."
Nicholas removed his hands from his eyes and raised his gaze toward Ethan, only to find expressions of worry on his face. He changed his gaze toward the eyes with bewilderment, and his facial features changed due to shock and fear from what he saw. Another pair of eyes had appeared from the darkness. Nicholas's heartbeat rose slowly, and he told the boy to stop staring at them.
Ethan and Nicholas changed their gaze toward the burning fire once again. Nicholas swallowed his saliva slowly while feelings of anxiety and discomfort dominated him.
(The End)
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