“Where the hell did she go?” Paige burst out of the restroom, looking around wildly. Ethan watched her, taking a moment to figure out what she was talking about.

When it struck him, alarms sounded in his head. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He turned to Kyle, who had come out a little before him. “Did you see Charlotte when you came out here?”

‘No, I didn’t.” He groaned. “Please don’t tell me we’re going to try to go after her, too. We almost died last time we went looking for someone.”

Ethan didn’t know what to do. Their little traveling band was swiftly dwindling. He didn’t want to be the next to disappear or face some worse fate. “Look, we couldn’t go out to find Billy. I doubt we’ll be able to, or be allowed to, find Charlotte. I think it’s best we all stick together.”

He could sense Paige’s irritation, as well as a growing sense of dread. “Agreed. We should do what we were all supposed to do in the first place. We should go back to the room we were given and try to get some rest. By late morning, I would expect the monks to be back with their sacrifice, and we can leave.”

Ethan had put his all into studying culture and religion. He liked to think of himself as an expert. But Paige had been interested in the subject matter long before college, and he had nothing on her when it came to true knowledge. She would have the most information and the best course of action, and at this point, even she seemed a little uncertain.

But he trusted her opinion and nodded. “Come on, Kyle. Safety in numbers.”

Kyle followed them but scoffed. “Yeah, we have so many people now. We’ve lost almost half our group, and there’s no telling what sort of crazy demon torture they’re facing.”

Ethan couldn’t remember the last time they’d heard a scream, and Charlotte hadn’t made a sound that carried back to them. He didn’t say it out loud, but he doubted either of them faced any sort of torture at this point. They were both likely dead, whether at the hands of a crowd in a demonic sacrifice or by some supernatural entity wreaking vengeance.

When Paige didn’t say anything, either, Ethan knew she had come to the same conclusion. He wished he could do something to soothe her. After all, this trip had been her dream, and with everything that was happening, it was more like a nightmare. Even he couldn’t find any joy in the situation anymore. The chances of finding Billy and Charlotte alive and well were slim to none now, and all he wanted to do was go home.

As they trudged back into the makeshift bunkroom, Ethan closed the door solidly behind them. He didn’t want anything – natural or otherwise – following them, if he could help it. He knew there were still a few monks here. Some were praying, others sleeping, and a few standing guard over the temple. The last thing he wanted Paige to have to do was answer questions about where the other two had gone.

“Why don’t you two get some rest? I’ll stay up for a bit and make sure everything is quiet. We can take shifts,” he offered.

Kyle shook his head. “I’m exhausted, but there’s no way I’m going to sleep tonight. I’ll have night terrors about those ghosts coming after us. Besides, those pallets are about as soft as concrete.”

Paige shrugged and settled in on top of one of them. “I don’t know if I can sleep or not, but I’m at least going to try to relax and rest my body. We’ve got a hike ahead of us in the morning to get back to town and hitch a ride out of here.”

He again kept his mouth closed, but Ethan worried about that. If word got out about the devastation they’d caused at the temple, would the villagers still be willing to give them a ride? Could they safely secure transport back to the airport? He couldn’t be certain, but it would be riskier if they stayed the two extra days they had originally intended. By then, news would definitely have spread, and they would be lucky if they didn’t have a lynch mob at the hostel, carrying them off to their deaths.

It wasn’t right to speak ill of the dead, but until he knew they’d lost Billy and Charlotte, he cursed them for their negligence.