Unlike the previous challenge, this location wasn't all that extraordinary: we were in the woods not too far from Rutherford. But even though the location was comparably subdued from yesterday's, it was proving to be just as difficult.

The house was easy to find- it was an obvious sore thumb in the middle of nowhere. But in the woods, every tree looked the same, and we weren't even sure what we were looking for, or where to look to find it. The coordinates were hard to narrow down with the maps on our cellphones, and we were wandering around a parking-lot-sized radius of dirt and pine needles, repeating the poem in our heads as we scoured the ground and the branches we could reach. And, of course, it was starting to get dark.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" Daniel asked again. I bit my lip, wishing he'd stop questioning the situation and just help us search.

"We've triple checked it," Roy said, his voice sounding testy for the first time since I'd met him, "I'm pretty sure we're in the right place."

Daniel raised an eyebrow, obviously offended by the other boy's tone. "Okay, well then why aren't we finding anything?"

"Hmmm," Roy pretended to think, "Oh, I don't know, maybe because you haven't looked for more than a minute without stopping to-"

Roy was cut off by a loud rumble, the thunder echoing off the trees around us as we all looked at the sky, and then at each other in mutual disbelief. My stomach dropped. It could not be about to storm.

"We should go back to the car," Daniel suggested, tone already cooled down. I was grateful the thunder distracted him from the argument he was about to have, even if it did mean we were about to have a whole other problem.

"You can go if you want, I'm staying," Roy said. I noticed him shoot a glance over to Jade.

She met his eyes, nodding in response. "Same."

I guessed that was just how things were, whether I liked it or not-- Daniel was my boyfriend, and no matter what, they were going to assume that I would take his side.

Unfortunately for Daniel, they were wrong.

"I'll stay too," I added, feeling the first drops of rain land on my head. I shivered as they settled into my scalp and I quickly pulled the hood of my jacket over my hair.

"Maddie," Dan sighed, coming closer to me and lowering his voice as the other two walked away to continue their search. "We don't even know what we're looking for."

He grabbed my hand and I shrugged, trying not to let my decision sway under the weight of his touch. "Doesn't mean we won't find it."

He stayed silent, and I could tell he wasn't happy. It was more than the fact that he didn't want to be there. He didn't want to be involved in this competition altogether. I almost wanted to apologize for dragging him into it, but also knew I shouldn't feel the need to. He knew what he was signing up for, and if I was being honest, I still wanted him to want it. I wanted him to care about vengeance as much as I did. Shouldn't he?

The rain was starting to fall harder around us, the sleeves of my jacket turning a darker pink than they were a minute ago. Our hands were covered in water droplets, and I gave his palm a gentle squeeze before letting go.

"I'm going to keep looking," I said. I avoided his eyes, heading back over to a tree. Had I already looked around this tree? It was impossible to tell- we should've thought to mark the places we checked.

I had to admit that Daniel did have a point, it was hard to look for something I knew nothing about. I was nudging the ground with my sneaker, scanning for a hint of anything buried beneath the dirt as the storm poured down around me. The sound almost drowned out another roar of thunder that surrounded the woods.

I'd nearly circled the tree when I felt something cold and solid hit my forehead, causing me to flinch and step back to see a small metal key dangling in front of me, attached to one of the branches of the tree by a piece of fishing line.

"I found something!" I exclaimed, a grin appearing on my face as I tore the key off of the string and headed to the center of the search area.

The others gathered around, looking at the small, shiny object in my hands-- except Daniel wasn't there.

"Daniel?" I called for him, wondering if he really would've gone back to the car.

"Over here!" he shouted, and I saw him wave his arm from behind a tree. "You guys are gonna want to see this."

We rushed over to where he was kneeling in the mud, crouched over with his fingers digging in the dirt, uncovering something silver and shiny.

He looked up as we crowded around him. "I was going back to the car to grab an umbrella, and I felt the ground change under my feet. Any guesses what this thing is?"

Roy and Jade were on their knees next to him in a second, their fingers pulling back the wet dirt that kept crawling back on top of the object.

"Looks like a toolbox," I replied, getting down to help them.

"Guess we know what the key's for," Jade said, setting aside two handfuls of mud.

We fell into a silence as we worked, all eager to have our questions answered. A handle was soon revealed and Daniel pulled the box out of its grave, a metal lock clanging loudly against its side. I grabbed the key from my pocket and placed it inside, twisting. It popped open and I removed it, quickly throwing it to the side.

Four hands lifted the lid open and began pulling out the confusing contents of the box: four Halloween costume masks and four cans of spray paint. A folded piece of paper was revealed at the bottom once we removed everything else. Jade reached for it, opening it, her eyes scanning over the words as the pouring rain began to dampen the paper.

Her eyebrows raised, a shocked laugh escaping her lips. "No way."

"What's it say?" Roy questioned, leaning over the small hole in front of him. It looked like he was using all his self-control to not snatch it from her hands and read it for himself.

"Want to earn your first points?" she read aloud. Roy, too impatient to wait, swiftly scurried to her side to read over her shoulder. She continued, unbothered. "It won't come easy. To prove you're in it to win it, make a statement: graffiti your name across Rutherford's new basketball court. The bigger, the better. You have forty-eight hours to complete this challenge. Failure to do so will result in elimination."

Daniel shook his head, standing up and dropping his items. The replica of Freddy Krueger's scarred face fell to the ground and crumpled at his feet. "No. I'm out."

In my hurry, I hadn't even thought about what I was grabbing. I looked around- In my hands was the famous Michael Meyers mask. Jade held the slim, white Ghostface. Roy was looking down at the Jason-esque hockey mask in his hands.

"This is pretty intense," he stated.

"Intense? Try a crime. Damaging federal property? I can't-- I won't. Exploring old houses and getting lost in the woods is one thing, but going against the law... it's-- it's on a whole different level."

"Well..." Roy trailed off. I could tell even he was having trouble coming to terms with the severity of the challenge.

"He's got a point," Jade said. "We could get in serious trouble from this."

"We could," I agreed, knowing I'd already made my decision. "But we won't. Not if we do it right."

I glanced up to meet Daniel's eyes, which were staring at me in disbelief. Water was dripping off of his dark hair, down his face, and drops continued to saturate his already soaked clothes. I wanted to feel bad for not being on his side. But this wasn't about me being on his side or Roy's side or Jade's side-- this was about me being on my own side. I knew what I wanted, and if this was how to get it, I was willing to try.

"Plus, we're all juniors here, right?" Roy questioned, a smile tugging at his lips.

Daniel finally tore his eyes away from mine as he shook his head. "Senior."

Roy waved his hand. "Well, you already said you're not doing this anyway."

I almost wanted to laugh at his bluntness.

"Look, none of us are eighteen," Roy elaborated. "Say we did get caught-- we're minors and it's vandalism. What's the worst they could do to us?"

"Uh, restitution," Daniel offered, counting on his fingers, "Fines and fees, not to mention the hours of our lives we'll spend in court-- and how about juvenile detention? Does that sound appealing to the three of you?"

"So... okay," Roy nodded, absorbing the information, "Madeline's right, then. We make sure we don't get caught."

"Think about this," Daniel begged, "The Seven know who we are, remember? You have to submit a picture of your student ID to make an account on the app. Even if you don't get caught, you could easily be turned in. Mads, you of all people should know not to trust them."

"There's no reason for me not to trust them, but there is a good reason for me to hate them." I stood up, shaking my head. He still didn't get it. "Daniel, this is the closest thing to justice that I might ever get."

He sighed, swallowing thickly. His cheeks were flushed with color, and I knew he was embarrassed by having a discussion like that in front of Jade and Roy. I was a little too upset to care about our public display.

"It's okay if you don't want to do this," I continued. "I'm not asking you to. I'm just asking you to understand why I am."

"I do... I just hope that you understand why, as far as this challenge is concerned, I stop here."

"I do-- I think we all do."

Jade and Roy stood, nodding in agreement.

"Maybe I can help with whatever's next, maybe not. I don't know." He shrugged, crossing his arms. "I'll give you guys a ride back to the cafe. And then..."

"Then we'll talk to you when we're done," I finished for him.