I silently grab the bag from under my bed and slowly, so it doesn't make any noise, put it on my back before grabbing the journal and tiptoeing out of the room. It's super dark out, and before I leave the house, I grab a flashlight and a few batteries from the drawer in the kitchen. Outside, the sky is cloudy. I can't see the moon or stars. I turn the flashlight on and point it towards the woods. I walk to where I saw the statue a few days before. I'm super jumpy and flinch at every sound I hear.
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Once, I think I hear something following me, and I want to turn back, but I decide to keep going. My brother's in danger, after all. I get to the statue, and there are no voices again. I walk around it, looking for a key or something to activate it, but there's nothing here. All of a sudden, I hear a noise behind me, and something grabs my shoulder. I scream, and it lets go. I turn around to see Roman covering his ears. "Dude, chill, please! I already have a headache," he says. "Sorry," I whisper, "but what did you expect, creeping up on me like that?" "I don't know; I just wanted to bring you back home." "Did I wake you up? I thought I was completely quiet. How did you know I wasn't just going to the bathroom?"
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"I wasn't asleep. I read your journal and just stayed awake till you left. Come on, let's go back; it's cold out here." "I need to find Cairo," I whisper. "The statue took him; I need it to take me too so I can save him." "Cairo isn't here. He's probably like, kidnapped, maybe; I don't know." "Yeah, by the statue!" He sighs. "Warren, the statue didn't kidnap your brother. It's just a lot of stone carved into...whatever that is." I ignore him and run my hands over the statue. Maybe there is a switch somewhere on it? Roman grabs my arm. "Warren, come on; it's cold out here, and if your mom wakes up, she's gonna be so worried." All of a sudden, the gem on the statue lights up, like when it did before it took Cairo. "See?" I say proudly. "Not a hallucination." Roman's staring at it in shock. "What the heck is happening?"
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