By Ashley-D

***Authors Note - This is one of those cutesy little stories everyone tries to avoid. It’s full of saccharine – well, in my opinion it is anyway. It was written – I’m not sure if it was 1997 or 1998 but I know it was ages ago I was written anyway.

"Taylor!"

Taylor rolled over, he’d been almost asleep, he’d began dozing off listening to music in his bedroom. Things had been hectic lately, he’d not slept for what felt like days. Coming home from a major tour and settling in back home for the first time in months made Taylor and his two brothers feel uneasy, restless and irritable all the time.

"Yeah, Ike, What?" Taylor called back to the brother he’d heard calling him from the hallway just a moment earlier.

"Phone," was the only reply Taylor received, groaning – hoping it wasn’t another crazy fan – Taylor dragged himself up, rubbing at his tired eyes, he made his way into the hall and downstairs, the phone was left off the hook on the small unit near the living room door. Taylor picked the phone up. "Hello?" he asked.

"Tay, its me…" came a very distinct voice, but for some unknown reason, Taylor couldn’t really place it.

"Uh…who’s me?" Taylor asked, a confused smile appearing on his lips as he leaned against the wall, wedging the phone in between his shoulder and ear, he fiddled with the cord absently.

"Its me, Hacker."

"Oh, right," Taylor rolled his eyes, wondering why he didn’t even recognise his friend Donald Hacker’s Voice. "Hacker, what's up?"

"Oh, from where I am, there’s this spider on the ceiling—" Hacker goofed.

"Oh, come on, if you’re gonna make small talk about spiders then why the heck are you calling me?" Taylor asked, tucked his hair behind his ear to keep it away from his face.

"Invitation to a camping trip, Tay. You’d love it…"

"A camping trip? Where?"

"To Burning Woods," came Hacker’s answer.

"Hmmm, burning woods? What's burning woods?"

"Surely you’ve heard about burning woods and all the caves down there, everyone decided for the weekend we’d go exploring the caves and stuff. We thought maybe you would like to tag along. We’re gonna do lots of fun stuff, and have a big campfire and stuff, we might even go rafting, there’s a river up there…"

"Maybe. Who’s all going?"

"Cody, Nigel, Blake, Bobby and me…"

"Um…sounds like fun, I’d love to really, but…y’know my mom would never let me go alone with you guys because none of you is a responsible adult. You know what she’s like…"

"So, ask your dad…"

"I would, but he’s in the UK working out some weird arrangements for us or something…" Taylor groaned. "I actually would like to go."

"Um…how about if you got your big brother to go with you? Your mom always says how responsible he is and stuff…"

"Ike? I dunno…" Taylor thought for a moment. "IKE!" Taylor yelled, putting his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone.

Isaac appeared from the kitchen, dishsoap in his hair. "What? I’m kind of busy—"

"What the heck—?" Taylor asked in reference to his brothers soapy hair.

"Zac," was all Isaac could respond with and Taylor understood.

"Okay, well, forget about that, Ike, you wanna go camping this weekend?" Taylor asked hopefully, crossing his fingers.

"Camping? With who? Where? When?"

"Camping this weekend, with me and Hacker and some other guys," Taylor answered simply, he gave a pleading look to Isaac.

"Why are you asking?"

"I thought you might like it."

"You mean because you think mom won’t let you go unless I do…" Isaac folded his arms.
"That too…" Taylor smirked devilishly. "But even if she wasn’t, I’d invite you anyway, you are my brother…"

"Where are you camping?" Isaac demanded immediately.

"Burning Woods," Taylor answered.

"Um…Burning Woods…? Should I have heard of that?" Isaac wondered aloud.

"Come on, Ike…make up your mind, I gotta let Hacker know now…"

"Oh, I don’t know, Tay," Isaac sat down on the bottom of the stairs and actually seemed to be contemplating the offer.

"I know you’ll love it, c’mon, you love camping. You used to love it when dad used to take us…"

"Taylor, I was the same age as Zac," Isaac reminded, then threw his hands up in surrender. "Okay, I’ll go, I’ll go, but this is the last favour I do for you," Isaac got up, turned and went upstairs.

Taylor grinned happily and went back to the phone. "Okay, Ike is gonna go," he said.

"Great, then that’s us all set. We’ve got 3 tents, I don’t know about the sleeping arrangements, you’ve got tents, haven’t you?"

"Me and Ike can bring our own tent with us. Anything else we should bring?"

"Yeah, make sure you wear good boots, bring a few water proof items, stuff like that, nothing too heavy though because you know we’re gonna be on big treks and stuff. My dad is gonna drive us up there on Friday afternoon after school…"

"Okay," Taylor agreed. "I’ll call you later about any other arrangements, okay?"

"Yeah, okay, Tay. See ya."

"Bye," Taylor hung up, then instantly headed for the kitchen.

"Mom," Taylor said instantly, looking at his mother who was doing dishes, and being helped by Zac. Zac had large amounts of dishsoap in his hair, and the front of his sweatshirt was soaking wet.

"Yes?" His mother asked in a motherly tone.

"Um…can I ask a question," Taylor leaned against the counter by the sink watching her hands splashing around under water.

"Sure you can," Diana Hanson answered, she seemed half in concentration of what she was doing at that moment.

"Promise you won’t say no?" Taylor pleaded.

"Is this a big favour your asking?"

"Mom, can I go camping with Hacker and the guys this weekend?"

"Certainly not," Diana answered.

"Hacker, isn’t he the guy who shot his parakeet with a BB gun?" Zac asked, smirking.

"Oh, shut up, Zac. That was an accident," Taylor rolled his eyes. "Mom, why not?"

"Your friend shot his parakeet?" Diana asked in surprise.

"It was an accident mom, he was five year old for Pete’s sake!"

"What was he doing with a BB gun at five years old?" Diana asked blinking.

"It was his brothers. Mom, why can’t I go?!" Taylor began to get agitated.

"Because I don’t like the idea of you going off to wherever without any one looking after you…"

"But Ike will be going too, he’ll look after me…"

"Isaac wants to go?"

"Yeah," Taylor nodded, he flicked some soap at Zac. "So can I?" He pleaded of his mother.

"Yes, okay, providing Isaac goes and you take your cellphones in case you two get lost."

"Okay, mom, it’s a deal," Taylor hugged her sideways.

"Can I go?" Zac asked instantly upon the moment hearing his mother agree to it.

"No," Taylor answered.

"Why not?!" Zac demanded.

"Because we’re gonna be doing a lot of trekking and stuff, and you’re not gonna last long. Think about it, no toilet, no refrigerated cans of soda…"
"I can trek good! I can walk for miles without stopping!"

"Zac…you said you didn’t even like Hacker!"

"Why not, Taylor?" Diana asked of Taylor, she looked at him. "Zac gets on fine with your friends, and besides, it would give me the weekend to myself almost – apart from having the little ones…"
Taylor couldn’t believe his mother was doing this. The only real escape he could get from the band and he’d have to take the whole band with him, it was bad enough the only reason he was getting to go was because he was taking Isaac, but now his mother was trying to convince him to take Zac too?!

"No," Taylor stated. "You can’t come, Zac…"

Zac looked almost tearful for a moment. "Its not fair! How come Ike gets to go when he doesn’t even like hanging out with your friends! You always play favourites with Ike!" he whined.

"Zac, keep your voice down," Diana placed a sodden-wet hand on Zac’s shoulder. "Please control your temper too," she added.

"Zac, I don’t play favourites with Ike…" Taylor tried to defend. He actually knew he did, but he knew it was because Isaac was less likely to embarrass him than Zac was.

"Yes you do! When we play games, Ike is always on your side, when you wanna go somewhere, you always ask Ike to come and never me. I’m so sick of it!" Zac stomped his foot. "You’d be glad if I had never even been born!" tears pierced his soft dark brown eyes then, threatening to spill.

"Zac—" Taylor was about to try and retort with something that would calm him and not hurt his feelings, then his mother gave him a look, Zac didn’t catch it. The look on Diana’s face said ‘take him or you’re not going’, Taylor looked helplessly at his mother, but her look become even sterner, her blue eyes piercingly cold.

"Um…okay," Taylor gave in to Zac. "You can come…I just didn’t want you going in case you got hurt or something," he lied.

"I can go?" Zac asked, the tears leaving.

"Sure," Taylor sighed.

Zac jumped up excitedly. "Yes! I get to go camping!! Its gonna be great!"

"Yeah, great," Taylor said unenthusiastically, and went to phone Hacker about the new arrangements.

Isaac, Taylor and Zac were dropped off outside Burning Woods alongside Donald Hacker, Nigel Grant and Blake Jackson. Their backpacks and tents and other various things were lying in a heap on the roadside, and they were standing around looking into the woodland area. It was bright and sunny, a warm glow illuminating through the trees, the sounds of birds singing, and the distant trickling of a stream. It was tranquil.

"Now where did Cody and Bobby say they would meet us?" Hacker was looking at a map of the area, it had been penned off in certain places.

"Cody said they’d sent up camp here," Blake leaned over and prodded at a place in the map with a chubby brown finger.

"Nah, that’s the river, you dolt," Nigel rolled his eyes and shook his head, he took the map. "Bobby called me and said they would camp in the clearing just a couple of miles ahead," he checked his compass and pointed to a dusty path leading from two other paths. "That way."

"Well, lets get going," Zac urged, bounding in front like a dog that had been caged up for too long, playful and bouncy, it disgusted Taylor, and he felt his cheeks reddening in Zac’s embarrassment. Zac was way in front, heading the way Nigel had pointed. Isaac tailed behind, taking in the scenery, and Taylor kept close to Hacker, Nigel and Blake.

"Why’d you have to bring Prozac?" Nigel said in a barely audible whisper.

"It was blackmail," Taylor stated. "Mom wouldn’t have let me come unless I brought him too, it hurt his feelings when I told him he couldn’t come you see, he was nearly in tears," Taylor rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Little brothers are such an embarrassment."

"Does he have to be so enthusiastic?" Blake asked, shaking his head at Zac who was merrily skipping down the path like a munchkin.

"Yeah, look at him, he’s running around like a puppy or something, don’t you guys ever let him off the leash?" Hacker chortled.

Isaac stepped up, hearing this. "Zac’s just excited, its been a while since he’s had a change to move around without having a bodyguard shielding him from girls trying to tear his clothes off of him," he said in a tone very bland. "We’ve all been cooped up in planes, trains, buses, hotel rooms, concert halls, you name it. Zac just likes to be free which is why he’s running around like that," Isaac shrugged and went off to meet Zac who was ahead of everyone else.

The rest of the walk was almost silent up in front, Taylor couldn’t really find anything to speak about, because everything that had happened to him recently was the stuff he’d told his friends over a hundred times already. It was all basically the same. Sighing, he continued the three mile walk, which seemed to take forever because they had to stop for breaks, it was hard work, some of the walk had turned up hill and then down hill and was slowing them down, then they’d managed to lose Zac and Isaac in the process, finding them both sitting in a clearing drinking cool water from bottles, and waiting for everyone else to have found them – it turned out the four boys had been going the wrong way, there was a marker on the trees indicating the right way.

The woods were very interesting, and a feeling of security lingered around, relaxing everyone a lot. The sound of the birds singing in the trees soothed their agitation of the long walk even further.

"The caves are down that other path," Hacker pointed out, he was studying the map, a look of concentration crossing over his face.

"What's so special about the caves?" Taylor asked.

"They’re like mazes," Blake shrugged. "The last night here we’re gonna stay in the caves on the east side of the woods, the caves are supposed to be massive…"

"Yeah, maybe we can stick Tay in and he’d be lost forever, then I can get his bed in our room," Zac suggested playfully.

"Yeah, right, not forever, Zac. If anything, those caves could lead to the centre of the earth," Hacker laughed.

"Yeah, I bet there's like all those thought-to-be extinct animals and dinosaurs down in those caves!" Zac giggled.

"The only thing we’d probably find is a bear," Isaac grinned. "Rarrrghhh!" he done an impression of a bear and chased after Zac.

Zac and Isaac were running wild the rest of the journey.

They reached a small campsite in a large clearing, the campsite consisted of two tents, a fire – not lit yet – and a few bags left out on the ground, then two girls appeared.

Taylor thought it was just a dream for a moment. That was impossible, how could they have a camping trip with girls? What if something happened?

"Cody!! Bobby!!" Blake waved to them.

Taylor looked at Hacker. "Cody and Bobby are girls?" he managed, he couldn’t believe this. What kind of camping trip was it going to be with girls hanging around their every move?

"Yeah," Hacker shrugged. "Hey, girls," he waved them over. All six boys met them halfway. "Guys, this is Cody Nimo," he motioned to a tallish red head, her long coppery hair hung in careless waves from a ponytail, her eyes were soft hazel, her smile was steady. Cody was curvy, the typical perfect figure of a fifteen year old cheerleader – which she obviously was judging by her team T-shirt. "And that’s her cousin Roberta Ford," Hacker motioned to the other girl, she had shoulder-length brown hair, pulled through the back of Seahawks cap, her eyes were so dark they could almost be black, she was almost to the point of perfectly thin, she almost seemed to be a tomboy, if it weren’t for a hint of mascara and lipstick, Taylor would have immediately assumed this.

"ITS BOBBY!" the dark-eyed girl corrected, folding her arms stubbornly.

"You didn’t tell me there were going to be girls," Isaac stated to Taylor in a harsh whisper.

"Well…Hacker didn’t tell me…" Taylor whispered back. "I thought Cody and Bobby were boys names!"

"And girls, this is Ike, Tay and Zac…they’re famous, you’ll have heard of them…"
"Oh, yeah, I have," Cody nodded.

"Who hasn’t?" Bobby responded to that.

Taylor couldn’t believe it. This camping trip was going to be a disaster, he could feel it now. Complete and utter disaster.

"Listen, me and Bobby went trekking around…there’s a clean water supply just five minutes away, in that direction," Cody pointed out, "and the caves are in the other direction…"

"Did you bring the raft?"
"Its behind the tents, it needs to be pumped up…" Bobby pointed out

"Okay…"

"We need to go hiking up a hill to get to the caves," Cody said, "there’s no point in doing that tonight since its gonna be dark in an hour or two. You certainly did take your time," she folded her arms, looking at Hacker in particular.

"We’ll admit it, we got lost, Nigel was reading the map and we got lost, but then Ike and Zac found your ribbon in the trees, so we figured you’d left it there to guide us," he shrugged, and held up an eggshell-blue ribbon. "Who does this belong to?"

"Its mines," Bobby grabbed the ribbon. "So guys, I think you better get pitching those tents, its not gonna be light soon," she said.

"Okay, Um…listen, there’s no point in us all doing this at once…" Blake set down his backpack and motioned for everyone to do the same.

"Yeah, I know, we’ll get all confused trying to do everything at once. Lets start on one tent at a time," Isaac suggested.

"I’ll go get some of the water," Bobby picked up a giant bottle. "Cody, why don’t you go find some more wood for the fire while the guys are getting the tents up?"

"Sure," Cody shrugged. "Try and be quick, the sky is looking a bit grey, hopefully it won’t rain tonight," she bit her lip.

"Yeah, okay, see you when we get back…" the girls went off on their way to perform their particular tasks.

As Taylor began putting up the tents along with his friends and his brothers, he somehow sensed that tonight it was going to rain tonight.

It never rains, but it pours, Taylor thought miserably.

After pitching the tents, which were pitched in a perfect circle including Cody, and Bobby’s tents, everyone sat down, the girls had packed sandwiches and had enough to go around.

"So about the trek tomorrow…" Hacker was sprawled out on the grass, the light of the sunset shining down and making his pale skin seem orange. "We get up at seven, prepare ourselves, and head out on the west, we should reach the caves around ten or something, stop for lunch, take a look around a little while, my bet is we’ll be back for three or four. But that’s if we don’t make too many stops and stuff."
Everybody let out a mumble of disagreement about not having too many stops.

Taylor, who was chewing on a ham sandwich, leaned back against an old wooden log that they’d picked to be a seat. "What if one of us gets lost?" he asked.

"Not bloody likely," Hacker said. "I want us to all stay in pairs," he said. "I guess we can start pairing off now," he said. "I’m with Cody," he said, - by now it had become obvious that Cody and Hacker were obviously seeing each other. Zac was probably the only one out of the group who wasn’t aware of this. In fact, Taylor had begun to realise Cody and Bobby had separate tents so that maybe Hacker could fool around with Cody in her tent and they’d get privacy.

"I’m with Ike," Zac stated calmly,"

"Me and Nigel," Blake stated as if he said the sentence every day.

Taylor was about to state who he wanted to go with but realised every other option was filled up. Hacker and Cody, Isaac and Taylor, Blake and Nigel. He realised there was only one option left. Bobby. He didn’t really want to go with a girl, but he had no choice. "I guess that leaves me and Bobby," Taylor tried to be plain about it.

"You’re the lucky one," Blake laughed. "She’s the best…"

"I didn’t see you jumping to team up with her," Taylor mumbled, though no one heard him.

Taylor climbed to his feet. "I’m gonna go check out the sunset," he said.

"You’re weird you know that?" Hacker asked. "We come out here to have a great time and you want to sit and look at sunsets and flowers and—" Hacker smiled. "Weirdo…"

"Nah, when he says he’s gonna check out the sunset he means he’s gonna go take a leak," Zac joked.

Taylor felt his cheeks going pink and his ears turning bright red. "I’ll be back a while," he added, then dashed off, ducking under some low branches. He didn’t know where he was heading, he didn’t care, he just wanted to get away from them all. Stuck with a girl he didn’t know, Zac kept embarrassing him and Isaac was taking Zac’s side it seemed, the whole thing seemed to be a nightmare. One giant living nightmare.

Taylor walked aimlessly, the orange-reddish light shining through the trees until he reached a babbling brook, the rippling water glittered in the last light of the evening, Taylor planted himself on a rock, and thought about a lot of things.

Why can’t I just enjoy myself? He wondered. Its not that difficult, I’ve been in worse situations and I have managed to crack a smile. But then he felt the answer was obvious, he felt he couldn’t be himself with Zac around to embarrass him, and with those two girls, Cody and Bobby around.

Why couldn’t it have just been me, Hacker, Nigel and Blake? Taylor wondered unhappily.

Taylor leaned down from the rock, his hand keeping him balanced. He stared into his distorted reflection, he felt the pendants of his necklaces belt against his jaw as he leaned down more. He reached down and let his fingers skim the surface of the freezing cold water.

"Taylor?"

Taylor didn’t expect to hear the voice, and he jumped, causing him to loose his grip on the rock, his fingers – for one moment – remained, but then slipped. He tumbled head first into the water, and practically somersaulted forwards and landed flat on his back. He was stunned for some moments, he looked up, he could see the early evening sky, that faint blue reminding him of his mothers eyes. "Owe!" he felt a rock jabbing at his butt and he moved. "Wha—?"

"Oh, god, I’m sorry!" came Bobby rushing over, she stood at the edge of the river, an innocent sympathetic smile on her face, she bit her lip. "Sorry, I thought you heard me, I made enough noise coming through the trees. Didn’t you hear me?"

"No, my mind was elsewhere," Taylor confessed, he thrust his head back to flick his wet hair away from his face.

Bobby stepped gingerly into the water, "Ooh, its like ice," she frowned. "Here, let me help you…"

Taylor grimaced and he took her hand, she pulled to help him up, but he deliberately copied her pull and she tumbled in beside him.

"TAYLOR!" she screamed in shock, she leaned up, her shorts and tee completely soaked, her Seahawks hat hanging from her hair. "You creep!" she admonished, "this water is freezing!" she lost her balance and tumbled backwards, a huge splash soaked Taylor even more.

Taylor grinned. "Now we’re even," he laughed, he got up, groaning, feeling the freezing water trickling down his legs and he winced. "Geez, it certainly is freezing," he wrung his hair out. "Damn, looks like we’re really gonna need that fire, have ya lit it yet?"

"Not yet, Nigel’s trying his damn hardest rubbing two sticks together, I offered a lighter, but he would have none of it," Bobby stood up, and waved it off with a flick of her wrist, she took her hat off and attempted to wring it out. "I’m gonna get you for this, Taylor," she playfully shoved him.

"Hey! Don’t shove me! You started it!" Taylor shoved her back, still smiling devilishly.

She shoved him again – harder – and he slipped and went back into the water, and he dragged her down with him. It was then he noticed her eyes, he hadn’t really looked at them. They were like too black coals against her golden skin, they were determined eyes, the eyes of a girl who liked to set her mind on things – and get what she wanted. He found her eyes alluring, because they were so dark. Before he could continue staring into her eyes, she dunked his head under the water, he let out a gasp of

"Didn’t anyone ever tell you two when you go skinny-dipping you’re supposed to take your clothes off?" came a very familiar voice.

Taylor and Bobby turned, in each others arms – unintentionally – and groaned, Hacker and Cody were standing hand in hand by the edge of the brook.

"I don’t think I’ll be drinking much of this water after you two have been fooling around in it," Cody grinned.

Bobby rolled her eyes. "Get real," she got up, and pulled Taylor with her. "The water is freezing," she mumbled, they left the brook, and somehow, without realising it, Taylor and Bobby followed Hacker and Cody to the campsite, hand in hand.

Taylor shivered, wrapping an old worn woollen blanket around himself, reached his hands out nearer the fire to get some heat. "Gosh, I’m soooo cold," he mumbled.

Bobby was resting beside him, clad in her tartan flannel pyjamas, her hat still on, and another identical blanket, she toyed with her damp hair shaking her head. "I can’t believe you pulled me into the water, you creep, I’m gonna get you for it, I swear," she pouted, then flashed him a smile, her dark eyes glittering in the light from the glowing camp fire.

"Taylor and Roberta, sitting in a tree—" Zac began the famous chant but Taylor reached out and whacked the twelve year old, causing him to fall backwards over the log, his legs hanging over the edge.

"Zac, I told you not to call me that," Bobby stated, she ran her fingers through her damp hair, smoothing it back away from her face.

"And we weren’t kissing, what makes you think that?" Taylor wondered, frowning at Zac, he wished Zac would stop this childish behaviour.

"You came back holding hands!" Zac admonished.

"We did not," Bobby and Taylor said in unison, then turned and looked each other with some puzzlement.

"Jinx," Bobby tried to say, before Taylor joined in with the same word "Jinx" in unison once again, they burst out laughing.

"So, we’re off through the trek into Burning Woods tomorrow, huh?" Blake asked, looking backwards into the dark woods, it looked spooky at night, in contrast to how it looked during the day time.

"Huh?" Isaac raised his eyes from the fire, he’d been mesmerised, "I don’t understand, I thought we were already in Burning Woods?"

"No, we’re not quite," Cody said, she leaned back against Hackers leg, and smiled attentively as he rubbed at her shoulders affectionately. "You’re not in Burning Woods until you get to the first caves."

"Why does it get called Burning Woods?" Taylor asked.

"No one is sure," Bobby shrugged, turning to Taylor. "But its haunted."

"HAUNTED?!" Zac’s eyes widened, and Taylor blinked.

"You don’t believe that, do you?" Isaac rolled his eyes, he’d long since lost belief in ghost stories…"

"Well, there was a murder in one of the caves years and years and years ago," Hacker said, matter-of-factly.

"Really?" Zac asked, he loved horror stories, he felt that this was going to be one.

"Yeah, something like that…" Nigel shrugged. "Some guy killed a woman there."

"No, get your facts right," Cody leaned forward, looking at everyone in this mysterious way. "Back hundreds of years ago, there was a village like around fifty miles outside of the woods, its not there now, its more woodland now, but there used to be a village. Anyway, y’know how in olden days if anyone was accused of being a witch or a warlock the townspeople would execute them? That was what happened. Except there was this young healer, I think her name was Iylanda or something. She was around your age…" Cody motioned to Isaac. "Sixteen-seventeen?"

"Seventeen," Isaac shrugged.

"Yeah, I thought so. So Iylanda was this seventeen year old healer, she’d lived with her grandma all her life, because her mom died in childbirth. Her grandma was a healer too, ya know, did a lot of that homeotherapy stuff, though in those days I don’t know what it would have been called. Anyway, the whole village got plagued with something, there's no telling what it was because they didn’t have the medical science to define it in those days. It was just a plague of something…" Cody shrugged. "And Iylanda cured it, she made some kind of medicinal potion from herbs and stuff, and gave it to the towns people and it actually made them better. What do you think happened?"

"They accused her of being a witch," Zac said knowingly.

"Yup," Bobby answered, joining in with the story she obviously knew well.

"So…what happened next?" Isaac asked, somehow fascinated with the story.

"Yeah, what?" Blake demanded.

"Well, her lover Gregor stood up for her, telling everyone she wasn’t a witch, turned out her lover was the son of a chief, and he was accused of being a traitor and also of being a warlock. He got into a fight with his own father, his own father killed him. So Iylanda got really upset, she went to the caves and sought the help of the real witches, who used to use them as their hideouts, but before she could even get them to help her, the townsfolk found them all and murdered them right there in the cave…"

Blake looked at Cody. "How’d you know all this…"

"Our ancestors were part of that village," Cody shrugged. "Our great-great-great-great-great-great Grandma or something—"

"We get the picture," Hacker nudged her playfully.

"Maybe your great-great-great-great-great Grandma was a witch?" Zac said playfully, his brown eyes glittering in amusement.

"We’re going to a cave where people were murdered," Taylor considered this. "Yeah, right, that sounds like a lie, that was a made up story to scare Zac and Ike or something," he shook his head in disbelief.

Bobby placed her hand on Taylor’s shoulder. "No, it isn’t, believe me. Our moms – they’re sisters – went up there with our grandpa like when they were our age," she motioned to herself and Cody, "and I swear to god, they heard screaming when they went up there. They got our Grandpa to check it out, but there was no one in the caves, but they heard the screaming…" she placed a hand to her heart.

"That’s a load of bull," Taylor rolled his eyes. "There’s no such thing as a real witch, everyone knows that," he laughed.

"Would you be willing to go into the Black Cave to check it out?" Cody asked, folding her arms.

"Um, sure," Taylor shrugged. "Why not, I know I’m not gonna find anything anyway…"

"But the Black Cave isn’t on our agenda," Hacker stated. "Isn’t the Black Cave on the other side of the woods? Its like a five-hour walk down there too! You’d not be back until about six or something!" he exclaimed.

"Look, we can make two teams," Bobby suggested. "I’m wanna check out the caves again, its been a while since I was down there," she said.

"You’ve been there before?" Isaac asked.

"Plenty of times, with my mom and dad, we camp here at least three or four times a year, that’s why I know my way around so well," Bobby explained. "Cody comes with us so that’s how she knows where she’s going too."

"Okay, who wants to go on the excavation to Black Cave apart from Taylor?" Hacker asked.

Zac put up his hand. "I do, I do!" he whined.

"Um…Zac, if you go, I have to go, remember, we’re a pair?" Isaac reminded.

"Well, maybe I can team up with someone else—"

"Forget it, Zac, I’m not going on the longer hike, there's no way I’ll make it with the amount of sleep I’ll get tonight, I’ll be sleeping right next to you and you snore up a storm," Isaac mumbled.

"Aw, Ike!" Zac whined.

"Okay, so its just me and Taylor?" Bobby asked. "No one else?"

"Nah, I wanna check out the other caves, the massive ones on the other side of the woods," Nigel explained, and Blake and Hacker agreed to this.

Bobby shrugged and looked at Taylor. "Okay then, it’s just you and me, Taylor."

Taylor raised his head from his sweater – which was being used as a makeshift pillow. He frowned, he’d heard something, he could have been sure of it. He’d barely fallen asleep, Isaac was restless, and kept shifting, and twice he’d belted Taylor in the arm with his hand as he slept. Isaac was always a restless sleeper. Zac on the other hand, just as Isaac had foretold, did snore, and ever so often mumbled in his sleep, and sometimes the occasional lyric to odd songs would break out of his mouth. Taylor found it hilarious, but tried to ignore it and get to sleep, he was exhausted.

Taylor lay his head back down and let out a sigh, the tent was dark inside, but with the moon being so high, it lit the outside of the tent up, making it seem to be a pale greenish-blue, Taylor traced his hands over the side of the tent, it felt cold and almost damp.

Then he heard it, it was almost a scream, or near enough to it anyway. He sat up, and instantly his head hit the camping light hanging from the hook in the ceiling of the tent, he let out a yelp, and held his head. He grabbed his sweater and pulled it on, then his boots, his pyjama bottoms covering his legs. He tried to be as quiet as possible as he unzipped the doorway and slipped out of his sleeping bag and outside, he zipped the flap back up behind him. Taylor recognised Bobby’s screaming, though he’d never heard her scream before.

He made his way to her tent, which was a very small pup-tent, he unzipped the flap and leaned in, Bobby was tossing restlessly, her arms flailing, it looked like she was almost convulsing. Short breaths and exasperated gasps passed her lips, Taylor climbed in, and finding himself at an unusual position – actually straddling her hips because the tent was too small for him to move anywhere else, he leaned down and he shook her gently. "Bobby," he whispered.

Bobby didn’t respond, she only flailed more, and attempted to unconsciously hit him, Taylor grabbed her wrists and leaned down, and into her ear, he spoke firmly, but not too loudly. "Bobby. Wake up."

"NO!" Bobby flew up, her head smacked against his and she let out a cry of pain as she awoke, she grabbed her head. "Wha—Taylor?!" she demanded loudly, almost shouting.

"Sssh!" Taylor placed his hand against her mouth. "The others are asleep…"

"What are you doing here?!" She asked in a harsh whisper, she pulled his hand away from her mouth, but hung onto it for some moments.

"You were having a nightmare," Taylor answered in his softest voice. "I heard you screaming…"

"Oh, yeah, now I remember…" Bobby looked distressed, her eyes went all funny for a moment as if she wanted to cry.

"What was it about?"

"I…There’s not enough room for us both in here, Taylor," she mumbled as if she were putting this off because she really didn’t want to talk about it, or she was afraid she would burst out crying. "I’ll tell you about in the morning…"

"No tell me now, I want to know, after all you woke me up and I’ll never get back to sleep…" he sighed. "Besides, you don’t look like you’ll be going back to sleep in a hurry…" he added. "And…also, I really want to hear – if that doesn’t sound to nosy…" he smiled weakly.

"You’re right…but what if we wake someone up, talking?" she asked.

"Well…" Taylor thought for a moment, he began sliding backwards out of the tent. "We’ll go somewhere where they can’t hear us," he suggested.

Bobby seemed to think about this, then agreed with a nod.

Soon, they were walking down to the edge of the woods surrounding the clearing, where they wouldn’t be heard and wouldn’t wake anyone up.

"So…what was the nightmare about?"

"It was horrible," Bobby leaned back against a tree, she closed her eyes for a moment. "I dreamed I was Iylanda, Taylor."

"What, the girl who was killed because she was a witch?"

"Because everyone thought she was a witch," Bobby corrected. "Taylor, I was her in the dream. It was so real, I was Iylanda, I was wearing this old-fashioned dress, y’know? And you were Gregor…and I was watching you being murdered by some guy and you died in my arms and there was blood all over me…and then I ran…and then I found the witches and then all the townspeople were finding me and killing me…" tears came to her eyes. "There was blood everywhere, my blood…your blood…" her voice came out in soft sobs.

"Hey, its okay," Taylor assured, he put his hand on her shoulder gently. "It was just a dream," he promised, he looked at her, her dark eyes were glistening with her tears. "Hey, no more tears, huh?" he asked softly.

But Bobby was still sobbing. "I don’t know why I can’t stop crying, I guess it was just…it all felt real…and…I saw you…you were crying for help and I couldn’t help and I—"

In order to stop her crying, to comfort her in some way, Taylor pulled her against him and hugged her. "I told you, its okay, I’m here, it was just a dream, just a stupid nightmare caused by that story Cody and You told, that’s all," he stroked her soft brown hair in a soothing way. "Maybe we shouldn’t go down to the cave tomorrow…"

"No…if I don’t go I’ll be chickening out, and I’ve done it before so I shouldn’t have a problem with it…" she wiped her tears, then lay her head against his shoulder for a moment. "I just freaked…there was too much blood…I hate the sight of blood, Taylor…"

Taylor held her helplessly for some moment, then was disturbed when a bright beam of light hit his face, almost blinding him, he looked to the side, squinting, seeing the lanky silhouette of Isaac. "Ike…?"

"Yeah, what are you two up to? Rendezvous by moonlight?" Isaac asked groggily.

"She had a nightmare," Taylor answered, rubbing Bobby’s back. "I heard her screaming and I woke her…she’s just had a bit of a scare, I’ll handle it," he said. "What are you doing here?"

"You go back to sleep, do you realise its four in the morning? We’re up in three hours to get ready for the hikes…" Isaac reminded.

"Yeah, I’ll go to sleep in a few moments, okay?" Taylor answered.

Bobby sighed and moved out of Taylor’s arms. "Isaac is right, we need all the sleep we can get, me and you have a five hour hike ahead, and we’re gonna be totally exhausted if we don’t get some sleep…"

"I hope you brought coffee," Isaac mumbled and disappeared off back to the tent he shared with Taylor and Zac.

Taylor watched Isaac go off, then he turned to Bobby, who was looking at him in a strange way. "What is it?" Taylor asked.

"Just the mess of your hair," she smiled weakly, and tiredly, she reached up and tucked his hair behind his ear. "I hope you brought an elastic band to tie it back with, because its gonna get in your way a lot tomorrow," she added.

"I think Zac has a couple of elastic bands," Taylor answered.

There was an uncomfortable silence, they looked to the silent camp, the campfire had long since burnt down, and now was just a pile of slightly glowing embers, smoking slightly, the sweet and musty smell of the smoke – almost like sandalwood – lingered in the air.

Bobby nudged Taylor to break him out of the trance he’d been in. "Wanna go to bed?"

"Hmmm?" Taylor was caught aback by the question , and for a moment, just almost completely misunderstood.

"Sorry," Bobby slapped her own head and rolled her eyes. "I mean wanna go to bed. That’s not an offer to sleep together or anything, I mean, lets go to our beds, our separate beds, our separate tents…"

"I knew that," Taylor grinned playfully. "Yeah, lets go back to bed, I’m kind of exhausted now," he confessed.

They began to walk their way back to the camp, as they reached Bobby’s tent – which was the nearest, Taylor bid Bobby a goodnight, and was about to make his way to his own tent when she grabbed his wrist and stopped him.

"Tay?" she asked softly, in a half-whisper.

"Yeah?" he asked, confused, what else would she want from him?

"Thanks," she whispered.

Taylor wasn’t absolutely sure what she was thanking him for, but nonetheless, he smiled and said "you’re welcome," and then he made his way to his tent.