"Reece–can you slow down?"

The bustle of cars masks my voice, making it nearly impossible to hear. I could see Reece in front of me, nearly standing up off of his seat to pedal as fast as he could. My legs burn as I keep pace, aching as I continue. Reece takes a right at the intersection, waving his arm forward as he disappears around the corner.

Rain begins to fall, puddling up in the crevices of the road. My bike kicks up water off of the ground, my feet slipping off the pedals as I attempt to go faster. I grab my hair and push it back, looking forward as I turn the corner to catch up. I didn't know exactly how far the City Hall was from the park, but Reece knows this place like a map.

I turn the corner and see Reece is stopped, looking to his right. I catch up to him and look at the large white building in awe. I turn my head to look at him, his eyes glowing from the reflection of the street lights.

"I can see why you're mesmerized," I say while folding my arms. "Looks like a new building, although the soil it sits on is historic."

Reece gets off of his bike, standing to its side as he holds it upright. He walks down the path, but I quickly grab his arm.

"Don't you think we should be sneaky about this? I don't want us to run into more trouble."

Reece scoffs at my question. I didn't expect him to be so upset, and I wonder why he would've done that.

"No," he says in a low tone. "We've already been through so much tonight, it can't get much worse."

He walks away and I follow behind, also walking to keep pace. I respect his tenacity to want to find the treasure, but I don't want the two of us to get into more trouble.

What good is this adventure if we don't even make it back alive? If this is only the beginning, I can't imagine the people that'll be guarding the treasure.

Reece holds his head down, water rolling off of his brown bangs. He walks over to the right of the pathway and onto the grass.

"You're right," he says softly.

Reece stops and turns around, looking at me from a distance.

"I don't want us to get caught. I'm sorry about all of this, Vince. I'll be more careful."

I wasn't expecting any sort of apology from him. He's always been the wildest person I've known.

Reece begins to walk again as I jog to catch up.

"It's fine Reece. I was the one who found the book anyways. Let's just—be more careful from now on."

Reece nods as we continue to the side of the building. The dim lights mixing with the fog made it hard to see. As we approach the side of the building, we place our bikes down and look around for clues. I knew I wasn't able to take out Auriferous in this weather to risk damaging it. As the two of us look around, a car pulls up at the front of the building and stops. A flashlight shines from the window, immediately making me slam my back on the wet wall.

"Reece, get back. Someone's looking over here," I say quietly.

Reece sits low to the ground, hidden unless someone comes over. The flashlight goes off, but the headlights of the car do too.

"Maybe we should leave Vince. I don't like the looks of this one bit, we can escape through the woods behind here." Reece stands up straight, staying close to the wall. He bends over and picks up his bike, waving his arm at me to get going. Looking around in a hurry, I grab my bike and begin to walk slowly. The two of us make our way back to the right, turning around every other second to watch the person behind us. A man gets out of the driver's door and closes it shut, searching around the front of the building.

"You think he's looking for us? Is that the guy from the park?" Reece was nervous, hearing his bike jiggle as his hands shake.

"Hard to tell, let's just go and we'll avoid him. Plus, he might not even be looking for us."

We turn back around and head into the woods, avoiding anyone we see at all costs. The leaves from the trees block out the rainwater, dying down the weather for the time being. The rocky and uneven path made it nearly impossible to ride our bikes. Roots protrude from the ground as we stumble our way through.

"Do you know where this leads to?" I ask Reece in confusion. "I barely know the city, let alone where the woods lead us to."

Reece shrugs his shoulders and stares at me.

"Beats me. But hey, we're alive and we didn't have to interact with that guy. We can always turn back if we have to."

I'm the worrying type, so his words didn't help me. If we go too far and lose our sense of direction, there is no way we'd be able to get back.

Maybe we should just stay put and wait here. No one would even come and look for us.

A sudden branch snaps behind the bushes to our left. We both turn our heads quickly, nearly breaking our necks. We stand still for a moment, unknowing of what to do.

Could it be an animal? Could this be a person?

In a moment, a bear slowly trickles out from behind the bush. It smells around, looking up at the two of us standing in front of it. My body shakes and my chest begins to tense up. The mental flight or fight reaction kicks in, terrified of what the bear would do next. I look at Reece, making direct eye contact with the bear. He begins to flail his arms up and yells, attempting to scare it away.

"Reece stop! That'll just make it worse!"

He stops and says, "I saw somewhere that scaring the bear will make it go away."

As soon as he finishes speaking, the bear roars as it stands on its hind legs. The two of us drop our bikes and sprint away, making a beeline down the path. I had no idea if the bear would chase us, but I wouldn't stick around to find out. Reece stays close to my side, panting while running for his life. I never would've thought we would've encountered a bear, and hopefully we wouldn't have to again. Reece trips over a root, sliding headfirst into the mud. I grab him by the arm and pick him up, almost dragging him as I run. Dirt smears all over his flannel and jeans, his face and body covered as well. I could see the bear making up ground from behind. Without blinking an eye, Reece runs ahead of me to lead the way.

"Turn here!" Reece yells at the top of his lungs.

We take a sharp left, sprinting into the deep woods. Knowing the bear would have a hard time chasing us here, we'll surely get lost if we continue.

"Reece, let's not go too far! We don't want to get lost," my voice trembles as I try to yell.

"Are you crazy," he says. "I'd rather find my way back here than die to that bear!"

He did have a point. We could always turn back around in the same direction later on.

I begin to yell at Reece saying, "Maybe we should mark-" being cut off as the two of us suddenly fall into a pit below.