Kieran cursed next to me, quickly grabbing onto as many people as he could and pulling us behind the door, holding our breaths.
The footsteps stopped altogether.
"Hello? The prisoners aren't in their cells. This is a high alert measure; I want the castle on code yellow."
I gasped, Lucas quickly throwing one of his hands over my mouth in an effort to shut me up.
Cautiously, the guard put down his walkie talkie, quiet footsteps beginning to edge towards us.
My heart was thumping in my chest.
Please.
At the last second, he swept open the curtain on one of the windows and let out a sigh of relief. Wandering over to the door we were behind casually and pulling out a bolt, snapping the door shut in front of him.
He'd just locked us out of the very place we weren't supposed to have left.
We waited for the footsteps to disappear before breathing out heavy sighs of relief.
"Oh my god." Cara yelped.
"That was way too close for comfort." Kieran whispered. "Let's go."
We started edging forwards, until we were at a fast pace rushing through the tunnels in pursuit of Arya.
"Right tunnel. Faster."
With a collective nod we were rushing through the tunnels, finally arriving back at the dreaded boulder we seemed to always return to.
I finally let myself smile.
"Wait, Arya, what's that sound?"
She furrowed her eyebrows and shrugged, peering up through the water.
"Oh my god." I said, peering over myself.
"They're draining the moat. I can hear it." Kieran breathed out.
"It'll be at the top for 40 seconds before it starts to drain, that's how long it takes to open up the drains. They've only ever done this once my entire life."
"What do we do?" Cara yelled over the splashing sounds.
"There's nothing else we can do," Cara shouted, "Swim!"
And with those words, the four of us leapt forwards and attempted to stop ourselves tumbling downwards into the depths, kicking aggressively to propel ourselves upwards.
I could see the surface, and the layer of water still hovering at the top of it.
I slammed my feet down against the water, seeing my friends begin to excel until they were at the same level as me or higher.
The problem? Cara miscalculated. The minute we dived into the water we had thirty seconds. Ten seconds stolen from us when we were unable to hear the sound of the drains, too deep into the tunnels.
I was just two meters below the surface, my friends managing to drag their soaking bodies upwards to grab the rocky wall and help each other to pull themselves up.
Suddenly I watched the colour drain from Kieran's face.
"Elodie!" A deformed voice yelled.
"Shit." I spluttered.
The water level was finally going down and If I didn't make it down it'd drag me down with it.
One meter away.
For the second time, I screamed the word "please", filling my entire mouth with water but caring so little.
With one final kick of my legs, threw my arms up and my head surfaced.
I expected another drag downwards, but I felt air fill my lungs and warm hands holding onto my arms.
"Pull her up." Luke shouted. "Elle, grab onto to the rocks."
I did as he said, feeling the water levels move down my body and pass over my hips. Watching what would've been my fate.
When I was eventually helped onto my feet, I was checked over elaborately by my friends and then helped to limp back into the woods, where we expected our van to be. And hopefully the two younger members of four family safe.
Dragging ourselves forwards, trying to wring out the water from our clothes, two figures emerged from hiding inside the van. Realisation emitting in their eyes and running towards us.
"You're okay." Noah whispered.
My heart melted.
"We're okay, we're safe." Arya whispered to the two.
"What about Hunter?" Bryony said, sadly.
I crouched down to look at her then just shook my head. Her blue eyes welled with tears and she buried herself in my chest.
"I'm so sorry Bry, Noah. We couldn't get him out with us."
***
The journey home was most completely silent, the youngest of our group hanging their heads low and clutching onto each other in the very back seat.
Luke and I in the front seat, him attempting to kiss and put his hands where I wasn't exactly comfortable before we got into the car having had put me off making any kind of conversation with him whatsoever. Felt so very insensitive regarding the circumstance. And overall, made me feel a little sick.
Kieran, Arya and Cara sat in the middle seats. Arya nose deep into a book she'd packed before the trip. Cara asleep on Kieran's shoulder and Kieran staring out of the window absent-mindedly.
"Elodie." Luke said quietly, in an effort as to not wake Cara. "Look at the sunset."
I simply grunted back, resting my head against the window myself and watching it mist up with my warm breath.
This caused Kieran to perk up, directly behind me. He knew me, and he knew I loved sunsets.
Carefully, and without the knowledge of Luke, he wrapped a hand round the side of my seat and squeezed my arm affectionately.
I thought I'd feel angry, push him away. But I didn't. I felt so cold again when his arm retreated backwards that I pushed my arm round the side of the seat myself on the opposite side to anyone.
I held onto his finger for the entire six hours of the journey.
I felt no pang of dread like I did with Luke when he held my wrist.
But after an hour, anyway, I was fast asleep and the entire day drifted into just a distorted dream. Yet this time, I never felt myself creeping into the darkness that threatened to swallow me in my sleep.