ONE RED NIGHT (II)

    They had barely walked half of the meandering footpath up the plateau when he only source of light they had flickered and went off leaving the group in an unnerving mask of darkness. They continued silently as each of them tried hard to conceal the hint of fear rising within them until the garrulous twin broke the silence,
     "I don't think there's any part going on around" Caleb said
     "Are you sure you know where you're taking us?" Taiwo put in. He had hardly finished his sentence when Emeka snapped at him.
     "you can still go back if you want, nobody invited you anyway." As they were arguing, Caleb pulled his brother aside.
     "Something is wrong Joshua,"
     "what is wrong?"
     "I don't trust Emeka any longer"
     "why?"
     "I think he's misleading us" Joshua fixed him a quizzical look and smiled ruefully
     "when did you become so paranoid?"
     "since I heard about his strange and weird pedigree"
     "two things are possible, either he's purposely misleading us or he's lost and had refused to admit it"
     "just follow me and stop making noise" his brother said as he walked off to join others. Caleb followed his brother reluctantly as he pondered over the possibility of a subterfuge. He wondered if this was a prank which his brother knew about somehow and he hoped it was just a prank, their thoughts and ideas had never varied.
     Caleb stole a quick glance at the luminescent hands of his wrist watch as they approached a deep gully, it read Eleven-thirty. They all stared wide eyed at the dark recess of the eroded gully accentuated by the shades created by the slender and frail branches of trees and shrubs at the edge.
      "we're not passing through here are we?" Paul asked showing his first sign of fear since they set out. Almost immediately, Emeka walked to the edge of the gully, turned around, grabbed a twig protruding from the wall of the gully and let himself down.
      "it's the only short-cut" was all he said before his voice trailed off amidst the chirping of insects. Paul followed immediately leaving the twins and Taiwo.
      Joshua nudged his brother and walked to the edge. He also grabbed the twig to begin his descent but something caught his eyes. He wheeled around and peered down into a shiny sinister pair of eyes. His body tensed as he stared ahead as if in a trance while his hands groped behind for support.
      "What is it?" the other two chorused and as if in answer to the question, a dark monstrous figure crept out of the gully. With bare and drooling saber-toothed jaw, it moved it's cat-like body towards them.
      "Jesus Christ" Caleb managed to mutter as he searched his memory of documentaries from 'Geographic channels' in a vain attempt to place a name on the strange creature.