Young Writers Society

"Okay," Eliza said, beginning to pace around the room despite her hobble. "Susan, can you repeat the riddle again? Just so it's fresh in our minds."

Susan nodded, taking a deep breath before reciting it:


Eliza stopped pacing to listen, hand on her chin as she stared intently at the paper where it was written. "Jack," she finally began, turning to face him. "Did you say you heard of the name Akuji before?"

Jack squirmed at his place, which was a bit odd to see considering his built. "Yes, but I don't know what it means."

"Where did you hear of it?"

He sighed. "It was inscribed on a desk." He paused, looking from one side of the room to the other. "With what looks like blood."

His words hung in the air, and it seemed any second now he was going to laugh and say just kidding, it was just a joke, their faces were priceless. But of course, Jack was not the joking type, and this was a serious matter.

Moira seemed to be the first to crack. "Blood?" she shrieked, hands on her face. "You didn't tell me that you saw... that."

"What do you think it means?" Susan asked softly.

"I... I don't know," Jack said, growing pale. "But it was scrawled on the desk, quite messily, too." He furrowed his brows, staring at the floor. "Like it was out of desperation."

This time, Eliza was the one who seemed to diffuse the room, which was ironic since she was the first one to suggest that there were ghosts on this island. She nervously laughed, but it sounded forced. "Now, now. That's just speculation. We'll be fine."

"Will we?" Susan shrieked, eyes suddenly wide, like she was struck with a lightning bolt of sudden fear.

"Fuji," Jack gruffed, interrupting the train of thought. "The second line mentions Fuji."

"The mountain," Moira breathed out loud.

"On Japan," Susan added, quietly.

Jack nodded. "I saw there was a small mountain on this island. It's a small hill, really, but—"

"That's where we'll find the bones!" Eliza suddenly exclaimed with a victorious glint in her eyes. The others turned to her with confusion, so she started to pace with her hobble again. "The riddle said we free the soul in Fuji, which we can assume to be the mountain-hill. And the next line says we burn the buried treasure located in graves. That has to be this Akuji's bones. Burning them frees their soul." She stopped, then sheepishly added, "Trust me, I've seen enough Supernatural to know."

Jack decided to ignore her last sentence about getting this information from a TV show. "And so that means..." he began, but didn't finish.

Eliza smiled. "Let's go free our friends and family," she said with a smile.

The four of them had been trudging along for what felt like days and Susan was starting to run out of energy.

"When you said it was close by, exactly what was your definition of close?" asked Eliza, just ahead of her, looking slightly grumpy. They'd found their way out of the creepy village and darker part of the forest and were now trudging along another stretch of it, this time plagued by more normal issues like bugs and the fact that they'd done far too much walking for that particular day.

"Just a little bit more," said Jack. Jack and Moira were walking side by side, a few feet in front of Eliza while Susan was slowly falling behind all three of them. "I remember seeing it quite clearly. I don't forget a place that easily."

"Nor is there really a place to rest in this thick of a forest. We'd likely only find a decent place to sit down once we actually find this hill and get away from these trees," added Moira.

"Yes, the hill did seem to be fairly devoid of trees, there were a few plants here and there, but nowhere near as much as down here," said Jack.

"That's probably because its haunted by all the bones and whatnot," said Susan, piping up from behind them. "At least that's how haunted places usually are, barren, cold and dark."

"I second that," said Eliza, turning to Susan who smiled back, although with her current level of fatigue it probably looked more like a grimace.

"As much as I would like to dismiss that at silly, I can't help but agree because that village was definitely cold and dark," said Jack.

"And very much haunted," added Moira.

"Yeah, but still I think we really should hurry up and find a place to rest," said Eliza, turning back to Susan. Susan gave her a grateful smile.

Jack turned back to them to see how far behind Susan was and the look on her face. He seemed to understand and whispered something to Moira.

"It really isn't all that far," said Jack, picking up the pace just a little.

Meanwhile, Eliza slowed down, falling in step with Susan.

"Are you okay?" asked Eliza.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" said Susan. Talking was somewhat painful at the moment with her lungs on the verge of giving up, but she was a lot more comfortable around Eliza since that moment they'd shared in the village and it felt good to have someone to talk to.

"My leg will be fine," said Eliza, "well, it's not great, but I think I can handle it."

"I'd offer to carry you but we both know I can barely carry myself at this point," said Susan, blushing slightly, "not that I want to carry you or anything because that would be weird...I mean..." Susan shook her head. Where on Earth did that come from?

Eliza, thankfully, had probably attributed the blush to her being tired and laughed. "Yeah, I couldn't offer to carry you either."

"Maybe we could lean on each other then, "blurted out Susan before she could stop herself.

She was saved from having to hear a reply by Jack calling out.

"Here we are. I give you, the umm...Mountain of Despair," he announced, "sorry...that was probably a bad choice of name."

"I think it suits it," said Eliza, turning to face it. Susan followed suit and couldn't help but agree.

Without them paying any attention to where they were going a small hill had somehow managed to creep up on the horizon and not too far from them was a barren looking hill. A sparse few plants, looking like bushes of some kind, covered in random berries was the only vegetation visible for some reason. Usually in barren places, you found dead grass but Susan didn't question it. Some of those berries were probably edible and that would come in handy later.

The hill itself simply felt desolate. It was hard to see what exactly made it that way. Maybe it was the lack of greenery, the lack of the usual chirping of birds and bugs, or just the fact that darkness was beginning to fall. Either way, it was definitely not any one's idea of a vacation. Apparently, only the paradise like beaches around the island actually looked any good. That's how they lure you in. This is far too close to a real life horror movie.

"So, up we go then?" Susan asked, voice nearly a whisper.

"Yes," whispered Eliza.

"Hurry up then," announced Jack, "I think once we get around halfway up, it'd be a good place to find some food and then catch some rest for the night."

The four of them made their way to the small hill.

It wasn't very long before they were around halfway up the hill. Like Jack had said, it really wasn't all that big and the gentle slope meant it wasn't particularly tough going, especially since the trees had rapidly dried up making it much easier to walk. It was certainly better to walk slightly uphill than get whacked in the face with branches and pricked on random things every few seconds.

"This should do it," Jack announced as they came to a place that seemed to level out a little more. There was a few trees to provide a nice bit of shade should they run into some kind of rain and an abundance of smaller twigs to spark a fire of some sort to keep them mostly warm. They water they'd managed to collect from the trap at the beach before coming here meant they had a bit of water as well. All they needed at that point was something to eat and they could at least get through the night.

"I think we should look for some food," said Eliza, voicing Susan's thoughts.

"Yes, that should be our main priority I think, before it becomes too dark to see where we're going and what we're eating. We wouldn't want to accidentally poison ourselves after all," said Jack.

Susan nodded frantically at that last part.

"Let's split up then," suggested Eliza, "Susan and I will take the left side of this and you guys can take the right."

Jack nodded and quickly left along with Moira.

Susan turned towards Eliza, who gave her a warm smile.

"Are you sure you have enough energy to go look for food?" she asked.

"Again, shouldn't I be asking that question?" asked Susan.

"Fine, let's both stumble our way through this then," said Eliza.

"Agreed, Captain Hamilton. Lead the way, then," said Susan, trying to inject a bit of humor into the situation. Eliza laughed and gestured grandly in front of them.

"Ladies first," she said. Tired, but with a smile on her face, Susan started in the direction of some trees that looked like they were full of berries, Eliza walking beside her.

Susan stumbled onto the first patch of berries they could and manage to pluck some of the lower hanging ones. She was just about to pop one in her mouth when Eliza slapped it out of her hand.

"What?" asked Susan, frowning.

"That's really tasty," said Eliza, "but it would also be the last berry that you ever ate."

"Ohh," said Susan, going red all over again. "I am really stupid, aren't I? I know nothing about what's edible and I just gobble up the first thing that looks juicy."

"Oh trust me, you aren't stupid, you've just never done these things. I made enough stupid decisions when I was first getting in these things. Believe me when I say, everyone has to learn which berries are good and which berries can kill you," said Eliza, offering her a comforting smile.

"Really, I thought it was like a superpower where you can just magically sniff out what's good and what's not," said Susan, somehow keeping a straight face.

Eliza opened her mouth to explain. "No, it's just st..." She trailed off as Susan snorted trying to hold in her laughter.

"Oh you, "said Eliza, lazily clapping her on the shoulder. Susan let it out finally, laughing for a solid minute. It felt good. This night was way, way better than the previous one where she'd been moping around thinking of her family.

Eliza suddenly removed her hand from Susan's shoulder, and suddenly she felt colder, which was crazy since Eliza's hand hadn't wasn't even that warm thanks to the cold surrounding them. Deciding that was something she really didn't have time to be thinking about Susan pushed it to the back of her mind and faced Eliza again.

"So do you see anything that we could eat?" she asked quickly.

"Not yet," said Eliza, looking around them, "but...I am positive that we will run into something pretty soon."

"Let's keep looking then," managed Susan, "although you should probably take the lead this time."

"I think that will be the better option," said Eliza, with a wink, "after all, I'm the one with the superpowers."

"Lead the way, Nature girl," said Susan, winking right back.

The two of them walked around for at least another half an hour as they inspected various trees, Eliza nodding in the negative for most of them but they eventually managed to locate a couple of trees that Eliza declared safe to eat after a couple of experimental sniffs and careful examination.

With their bounty acquired and tucked away carefully into their pockets, the two girls made their way back to the place where they'd decided to spend the night. They arrived to see that Jack and Moira had already arrived. Jack had apparently been quite busy because a small fire was already going in a small area at the center of their makeshift camp.

The two girls produced the berries and offered it to the other two.

"Did you guys manage to find anything?" asked Eliza as they sat down.

Susan also sat down nearby, looking expectantly towards the two adults. Older adults Susan corrected her thoughts. They were adults too after all.

"Not much," said Jack, "I didn't recognize too much of what was out there, and nearly everything I did recognize was poisonous."

"So, he's Nature man," commented Susan, causing both of them to break into laughter.

Jack and Moira both looked at them like they'd gone crazy.

"Sorry, inside joke," explained Eliza, "please continue."

Jack shook his head at them and continued his story. Apparently the two of them hadn't actually managed to find more than a snack for themselves which they'd eaten as they were waiting for the girls to get back which is when they'd decide to also build a fire. Jack had apparently been considering coming after them to see where they were before they showed up just as he was about to leave.

"Well, I suppose we'll eat this bunch then and we can retire for the night," said Eliza once Jack was done.

"That seems like the best idea," said Jack, "it's probably pretty early to retire for the night but I think we all need a nice long break after well...what happened today, not to mention it's probably a good idea to poke around potentially haunted tombs in the light of day.

No one had any objections to that statement and the rest of the night passed quickly as they divided up the food and quickly ate it, making small talk occasionally but mostly just individually reflecting on the day that had passed. As much as adrenaline had kept them going throughout the day, the days events were starting to catch up to them.

One by one, they formed their own little areas and nodded off to sleep. Like the previous night, they decided to sleep in shifts except this time they decided staying up in twos would be much more effective. Since it was clear that Susan was the most tired out of the lot of them even though she didn't say anything and Eliza's foot was acting up again, Jack and Moira volunteered to take the first watch.