A few days later.
"Is he gone yet?" asked Maddie as she whispered and she looked at Matt.
"Yes he's gone, I can't hear him anymore" said Matt as he replied and he did not whisper.
"Gosh finally" said Maddie in relief.
"How long do you think we have till he comes back?" asked Annie as Matt and Maddie turned to look at her.
"Well judging from his schedule, whenever Curtis goes scouting alone, it takes him 15 to 30 minutes" said Ollie as they all turned to look at him.
"Well that's a good thing, we have time to plan" said Maddie.
"Yes, but don't forget that we have to finish up setting the camp before he comes back, or else he will be suspicious of us" said Annie, the sky was starting to get dark, and they did not have a fire burning yet, they still had to set their tents, and Maddie would have to make them dinner.
"Alright, alright, so before we actually start setting up camp, we need to discuss our plan, this is the only chance that we will finally get to bust Curtis and find out what he is actually up to" said Maddie.
"Don't say it like that Maddie, you make it sound like Curtis is a criminal, he's not" said Annie.
"Okay, okay fine, but what's the plan?" asked Maddie.
"Well according to what I have seen and observed, Curtis always leaves the camp early in the morning, before the sun rises" said Ollie.
"And how do you know that exactly?" asked Maddie as she narrowed her eyes at Ollie, he gave an oddly specific report.
"Well because I made sure to wake up early before anyone else, and I heard Curtis come out of his tent and walk away, I did not try to look at him or come out of my tent because I did not want him to notice me" said Ollie as he explained.
"But he seems to wake up at about the exact same time every morning" said Ollie.
"And you are sure about this?" asked Matt.
"Very sure, I wake up early, but to catch Curtis, I had to wake up earlier" said Ollie.
"Alright" said Annie.
"I think that we have observed him enough, we should just follow him already" said Maddie as she found Curtis' behaviour weird, every time they set up camp, in the name of scouting the area, he would go away alone, and return back late, and he would wake up early in the morning and would not return till they were all awake and waiting for him, Maddie did not trust Curtis at all, after all it was clear that he was keeping many secrets from them.
"I agree with Maddie" said Annie as she nodded her head, she wanted to know what was wrong with Curtis once and for all so that she could help him, after all, they were all here to help each other.
"How about we follow him tomorrow morning?" asked Ollie as he gave his suggestion.
"I think that Prince Oliver is right" said Matt as he nodded his head.
"Ollie" said Ollie as he corrected Matt as Matt did not seem to care at all.
"Okay, then if we do follow him tomorrow, then doesn't that mean that we have to wake up very early?" asked Annie.
"Yes, we have to" said Ollie.
"And we also need someone to volunteer to watch Curtis all through the night, and to alert the rest of us when he wakes up and leaves" said Ollie.
"I will do it" said Matt.
"Are you sure Matt?" asked Maddie as she looked at Matt.
"Of course I am, I can miss one night of sleep, it won't do me any harm" said Matt as he smiled, the truth was that he actually wanted to test how long he could go without sleeping as a half vampire, half witch.
His father had told him that he himself could go close to 30 days without sleeping, so Matt wondered if because he was only part vampire, would he only be able to do half of that.
"Wait, how long can you go without sleeping?" asked Ollie.
"Well I don't know, I never tried, but I want to now" said Matt.
"Awesome" said Ollie as he smiled, he did not want it to look like he was treating Matt as his biology project, but he was just in awe of being with an actual hybrid he found Matt very cool.
"Just don't overdo it Matt, we don't want you getting tired and fatigued, and end up passing out" said Annie.
"Oh Annie you worry too much" said Matt as he looked at Annie and he smiled at her.
"I don't think that I am, we do need you in good health" said Annie.
"I will be fine Annie" said Matt as he smiled and Annie just hoped that he would be.
"Anyway, so it's settled, Matt stays watch, and tomorrow, we follow after Curtis" said Maddie.
"That means that we have to go to sleep early, just so we won't be tired" said Maddie.
"I agree, that is a good idea" said Ollie as he nodded his head.
"Alright, alright, so we have our plan, now we should go do what we need to do so Curtis won't suspect anything" said Maddie.
"Alright" said Ollie, Annie and Matt as they nodded their heads.
"I will get started on the fire" said Matt as he walked to start the fire.
"Annie, do you want to help me set up the tents?" asked Ollie as he looked at Annie and he smiled.
"Of course" said Annie as she smiled and Ollie smiled at her.
"And I will make dinner, there, we all have work to do now, so go, go" said Maddie as she smiled and she walked to Curtis' bag.
After a few minutes.
"I can hear Curtis's footsteps, he's on his way" said Matt as he was done setting the fire, and Annie and Ollie were almost done with the tents while Maddie was almost done with dinner, which was oatmeal, they really did not have a lot of variety here, not like they had a choice, but cold soggy oatmeal, was for dinner.
"Well we are almost done" said Ollie as he smiled.
"I have to say that we are good at this" said Annie as she smiled, it was getting easier for them to do all of this, she was proud of them.
"Yes we are" said Maddie as she smiled.
"Oh Curtis, you are back" said Maddie as she smiled and she looked at Curtis.
"Yes… I am" said Curtis.
"Well dinner is made, the tents are up, the fire is made" said Maddie.
"You can help yourself to dinner if you want, but I am rather tired, I am just going to go to sleep" said Maddie as she smiled, she was not really in the mood for oatmeal tonight.
"Okay…" said Curtis as he found that Maddie was acting weirder than usual, but then again, she was Maddie.
"Yes, so goodnight" said Maddie as she yawned.
"Goodnight everyone" said Maddie as she walked to her tent.
"Goodnight" said Annie as she smiled and Maddie smiled at her.
"What's for dinner?" asked Ollie as he looked at Maddie.
"Oatmeal" replied Maddie as she smiled and she entered into her tent.
"What is wrong with Maddie?" asked Ollie as he looked at Annie.
"I don't know, she did say that she was tired" replied Annie as she smiled, and Curtis just shrugged off his thoughts.
…
Early the next morning.
"Hey Annie… Annie, wake up" called Maddie outside Annie's tent as she whispered and Annie opened her eyes as she rubbed them.
"Annie… wake up" said Maddie once again as Annie got up and she walked out of her tent.
"What?" asked Annie as she yawned.
"Curtis is gone, come on let's follow him" said Maddie as she looked way too excited to do this.
"Okay" said Annie as she yawned, the sky was dark, so dark, as if it was in the middle of the night, even though it was morning, and it was cold too, Annie was grateful that she was wearing her sweater right now, or else, she would be freezing.
"Good Morning sleepy head" said Ollie as he laughed and he looked at Annie as she yawned, she was the last one to wake up, and yet she was still so tired, maybe this was too early for her.
"Good Morning" said Annie as she rubbed her eyes, she did not know why, but she had been sleeping heavily than she used to before, it alarmed her, but at the same time, she thought that maybe it was because of all the stress of moving from one place to another.
"Hey, why are you going with your backpack? isn't that too heavy?" asked Maddie as she looked at Ollie, he was carrying his backpack along with him, which was weird.
"You never know if you might need anything" said Ollie as he smiled at Maddie.
"*Ugh* Whatever Blondie" said Maddie as she scoffed at him.
"Come on, he went this way" said Matt as he led the way into the trees, there was a little forest, although it was not so thick, Matt could hear footsteps.
"Okay" said Maddie as she followed after Matt, while Ollie followed after her along with Annie as they walked through the forest.
"Stay close" said Matt as he kept his voice low, Curtis was not too close, but they could not risk him hearing them.
Maddie stepped on a twig as it broke with a snap and she stop walking as she thought that maybe Curtis had heard that.
"It's fine Maddie, he didn't hear it" said Matt as he could not hear a change in Curtis steps, he kept on going in the same direction, and he did not seem to notice them at all.
"Wait, he stopped moving" said Matt as he stopped walking and the others did to as he waited to hear Curtis moving, and after a few moment, he started to move again.
"I can hear water running" said Matt as he heard Curtis stop again and he could hear the calm, peaceful sound of water running.
"Over here" said Matt as he walked ahead, and he could see the end of the trees as everyone followed behind him, and they hid behind the trees.
"Hey, I see Curtis there" said Maddie as she whispered and she saw Curtis bend down next to the stream as he looked down into the water.
"What is he doi…" said Matt as he stopped talking when he suddenly smelt blood, it was fresh.
"Wait is that…" asked Ollie as he saw the ground around Curtis start to get red in colour.
"Blood!!" said Annie and Maddie at the same time in fear.