Chapter 19 We Found Markous Markous was circling three trees, unaware of the group or what he was doing. Standing only a couple of feet away, “Bro!” Steve yelled at Markous. “It appears like he is in a trance!” Camile observed the situation. “Markous thinks he is heading somewhere yet doesnt know he is circling a tree!” Merna suggested. “Look!” She pointed to his feet, “his shoes are missing!” The group spun about in all directions as they heard childlike laughter that was all around them. Fear in his voice, “We have until the moon is at high peak!” Steve yelled. “If it wasn’t for the fact we needed him to get out of here, I would have asked the entity to keep him here!” Emma brought her attention back to the issue at hand. For a second, Camile and Pierre started to laugh, forgetting about the eerie laughter surrounding them. Steve brought his attention to Merna, “Merna is there anything you could do to break this spell?” Merna rubbed her hands together and closed her eyes. “I will try …” Finally, Merna responded to Steve’s question. “I understand how the spell was casted, that isn’t the issue!” “What is the problem?” Emma asked with concern. “Markous willpower is so weak that he actually believes what is going on!” Merna answered Emma’s question. “What?” Pierre asked Merna. “The entity has full control over Markous, I don’t think it is a spell but mind control!” Merna answered. “Say what?” Pierre was surprised. Merna responded, “it isn’t a spell at all, this is mind control and it isn’t something I can just snap my fingers and make things better.” Merna sounded defeated. “What about picking Markous up and carrying him out of here?” Camile suggested. Pierre and Steve look at each other and start moving toward Markous. “This isn’t my idea of fun!” Pierre told the group.“We are doing this to get the fuck out of here!” Steve pointed out. Pierre attempted to stop Markous from moving. He tried to block his path and pulled on his arm. Finding that nothing he did would stop Markous. “My turn bro!” Steve stepped in front of Pierre. Steve tried to steady himself to lift his brother and place him over his shoulder. However, in doing so, he lost his balance, falling on his back. Markous believing he had tripped over a twig, got himself back up and trampled on Steve. Steve was rolling around on the ground; both hands were placed over his grind as he moaned in pain. Behind everyone, there was the sound of children laughing. “Do not go looking for them!” Merna declared. "Stay together!" “No shit!” Pierre said with sarcasm. “Besides the fact this situation is messed up, why?” Camile wanted to know. “Did you leave every single brain cell back on the road or are you a natural blonde?” Pierre gave Camile a dirty look. Merna snapped at Pierre, “you don’t have to be rude … Camile, why would there be children in the woods?” “Once you put it like that, it makes much more sense!” Then, finally, Camile started to understand why no one should go looking for the laughing children. “They are trying to split us up!” Pierre said what was on his mind. “The second we split up we are going to have more issues.” Merna pointed out the obvious. “Who is willing to place their charm on Markous neck to see if it will break the mind control?” Everyone in the group looked at each other, none wanting to give up the protection that had kept them out of immediate danger. After a minute of no one making a move, Pierre took off his charm and headed toward markous, “I want to get the fuck out of here!” Everyone watched as Markous continued to walk in a circle around a tree. Camile and Emma glanced at each other and simultaneously said, “I don’t think this is working!” Merna wrinkled her face, “We have to give it time to work, I am working against something that was never been human. Possibly billions perhaps trillion years old.” “Fuck this shit, I am done waiting!” Pierre yelled. “We don’t have any more time!”Pierre grabbed a thick branch and hit Markous over the head. With the blow, Markous fell to the ground with the impact and was rendered unconscious. "Can't control something that isn't conscious!" Pierre tossed the branch to the ground. “I wish I had thought of that!” Emma said with a smirk on her face. “Did that feel good?” Steve didn’t hide the humour in his voice. “Not as good as I wish it had.” Pierre said as he chucked the wood to the ground. “I normally would not have promoted such an event but it was effective!” Merna added her thoughts to the conversation. “Admit it, you enjoyed watching Pierre hitting Markous over the head!” Emma said with laughter. “My mother told me that if I have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all!” Merna said with a smile on her face. “Your silence is all we need!” Pierre was laughing now. Steve starts lifting his brother over his shoulder, saying, “Bro, you need to lose some weight!” “Dead weight is the worst to carry, when you can’t carry him any longer, I will take over.” Pierre told Steve. A male’s voice was heard around the group, “Tik tok little piggies, tik tok!” Merna yelled at the group, “stick together!” With fear in his voice, Pierre muttered to Merna, “we need to get out of here ... now is a good time!” Camile wrapped her hands around Merna’s arm, “I am behind you!” Emma held onto Camile’s arm, “lead the way and I will follow!” There was a lot of movement around the group, along with growling. Something had pulled on Camile's pants. Camile was the first to lose her nerve and bolted away from the group. "Something grabbed me!" Camile screamed as she ran straight in the opposite direction the group had been heading. With anxiety, Merna shouted, “stop running Camile … come back!” Camile did not listen. The sound of children laughing and the movement of the undergrowth could be heard chasing after her. “They are after me!” Was the last thing Camile said as she fell to the ground. As Pierre pointed out the obvious to the group, “we have until the moon is at its highest!” Everything was in chaos. All laughter and movement stopped! Pierre’s annoyance, “that is what I thought; let’s get Camile and get the hell out of this damn place.” “Does anyone know the way to the road?” Steve asked the group. “We were heading north when we entered the woods. We need to find Camile and head south.” Merna answered Steve’s question first. “How would you know which way is south?” Emma asked Merna as she kept near to her. “We have been walking towards the moon so we have to keep the moon to our right.” Pierre answered Emma’s question before Merna could. Emma nodded, understanding what they would have to do, “Okay sounds good to me!” Pierre spotted Camile’s body, “there she is. And ... She isn’t moving!” “I don’t want to be a pest but we have only a little over twenty minutes to find the road, Pierre can you carry Camile? We do not have the time to try to wake her up!” Pierre lifted Camile off the ground while Merna spoke, “done!”