Twenty minutes of driving has passed by, (or has it been more?) and I think Kris is starting to become weary. Or even mad. Because he's stopped asking me questions, and telling me about his odd feeling about this, to which I shrug off, since I know that we'll be fine. I mean, even though it's been a while since I've eaten at this place, I'm pretty certain that we're on the right track. Maybe it's just taking a little longer to get to than I remember, because my instincts are telling me that we're okay. And that we're going to be a-okay, if we keep driving for another—

"Are you sure that we're going the right way?" speaks up Kris.

I blink at the exasperated look on his face, before keenly nodding my head. "Yeah, of course!" chirps my voice. "Just keep driving."

But Kris just frowns, about my nonchalant response. "That's what you've been saying for the past thirty minutes..." he mutters, in irritation. "And I don't know if you've noticed this, but the place is just getting more and more filled with trees..."

Yes, I am aware of this, and yes, he does have a slight point, but no, I'm not going to turn back now.

The stubbornness in me, causes my eyebrows pinch together. "But Kris, I swear!" I despairingly exclaim.

This makes him breathe out an unamused sigh. "You've said that so much, I don't even know when it'll actually mean something..." he mumbles.

"No really, I do swear!"

"Right."

"I swear on your eyebrows!"

"You swear on my—wait, what?"

"You heard me; I'm swearing on your eyebrows."

"Don't swear on my eyebrows!"

"Then how else am I going to make you believe me?!"

"By having the noodle place, actually appear?"

"But that's why I'm swearing on your eyebrows—"

"Why don't you swear on your own eyebrows?"

There's now silence, as I blink a little. "That...actually won't work..." I bit by bit say. "Yours are much fiercer looking than mine, so it's a lot more effective."

A twitch of annoyance is evident on Kris' face. He now goes to open his mouth to say something, but because he appears to be at a loss of words, he just resorts to taking in a deep breath, and slowly exhaling it out. Probably to restrain himself from throwing me out of the car or something, but he now continues on, in a much calmer tone of voice. "Well, the point is..." he steadily says. "You shouldn't swear on anything, at all. And especially eyebrows. My ones, to be exact. Because we need to figure out where we are, before we die or something."

I can't help but laugh, because he doesn't sound like his usual 'cool, calm, and collected' self.

"Oh relaaaax," I flippantly say, with a flick of my wrist. "Nothing's going to happen to us, so—"

Out of nowhere, the car comes to a gradual stop, and when we look down, to see the bright red 'E', lighting up the fuel chart, my jaw slackens, in disbelief.

"Empty?!" I squeak out, in horror. "Why is it empty?"

"Because you made me drive us out into the middle of nowhere," is Kris' irked answer. "I hope you're happy..."

My brows furrow a little. "Well, I do aim to please..." murmurs my voice. "But not like this!"

With the sun well and truly set, it makes me feel uneasy, with only having the moonlight (and a few streetlights) as our source of light. Kris' fingers are placed onto the bridge of his nose, as he quietly shakes his head to himself. He's probably wondering why on Earth he decided to trust me, and is most likely regretting himself, for not choosing something else to eat. I feel a little guilty for getting us into this mess, and so I'm determined to try and get us out of it. So with a positive mindset, I pull out my phone, and begin to dial in an emergency number.

Only to feel my spirit slightly tear itself in half, when the contents of my phone, suddenly disappear.

"No signal?" probes Kris.

"No," I unhappily cry. "My phone is out of batteries!"

Hearing that, Kris slowly turns his attention back to the steering wheel, and I can tell that he's disappointed. "And I don't have mine here," he quietly informs. "I didn't think to bring it with me, since we were just grocery shopping..."

My shoulders shrink down, seeing him like this. "I'm sorry," mumbles my voice. "If only I didn't suggest for us to eat pork noodles, then we wouldn't be out here right now...I mean, even something as simple as kimbap would have been okay."

Kris frowns, but it seems to be one of understanding. "Look, it's alright," he calmly assures. "We'll figure out something, so...it's okay."

I don't know why, but his words sound forced, so I'm not convinced.

"But you're mad, aren't you?" I cautiously ask.

Kris blinks at me, and appears to have trouble with how to answer that, and I just know.

"Oh, I knew it!" I blurt out, while shrinking a little down into my seat. "You're so angry, that you don't even know how to respond to me!"

The surprise on his face, tells me that he's startled, but then it's suddenly replaced with confusion. "Well, what do you want me to say?" he incredulously questions. "'Getting lost in this forest is the best thing that I've ever done; thanks'?"

My head shakes from side to side. "No..." I mumble. "I want you to use your angry bird powers, and fly us out of here."

Kris shows me a skeptical face, and I instantly chortle to myself.

"Geez, I'm only half kidding," I say, with a wave of my hand. "But anyway, I guess we should probably get out and start walking, huh? I mean, there has to be someone living nearby, or an emergency pay phone of some sort."

Agreeing to the idea, (since we don't have much of a choice, really,) Kris and I eventually step outside of the car, and into the night.

———————————————

I'm not sure how long we've been walking for, but I'm starting to grow impatient, and so I look over at Kris, to see how he's doing. And unlike me, he appears to be rather composed, making me secretly grumble to myself. There's too many twigs and wildlife to my liking, so I can't help but feel wary of everything that brushes against me. This would probably be a different story if the sun was out, but it's not.

My eyes glance over at Kris once more, to now see him pondering about something, and it makes me curious.

"What are you thinking about?" I openly ask.

Kris looks as though he wasn't expecting me to say anything. "Nothing, really," he says. "But...this place just looks familiar."

"'Looks familiar'?" I repeat, with a raise of my eyebrow.

"Yeah," he says. "Do you know Slender Man?"

Unfamiliar with that, I shake my head. "No, what's that?" I ask.

"It's this unusually tall and faceless man, who abducts people," is his answer.

I don't hesitate to shoot him an odd look. "Why would I know someone like that?" I incredulously question. "And how the heck does that, make you think of this?!"

Kris' face is still indifferent. "Because he follows his victims into bushy places like this," he coolly says.

My mind is too busy, filling itself with terrifying images of this mysterious faceless man, but I continue on, to put on a brave front. "Oh, I see," laughs my voice. "It's one of those dumb legends, isn't it?"

"Not really," answers Kris. "I've seen photos, of possible sightings."

A scoff comes out of me. "Psh, I bet they're all photoshopped or something," I dismissively say.

But Kris seems to think otherwise. "Actually, in 1983, a photographer was found dead in the woods, and the only thing that they managed to find, was his camera," he explains. "And on that camera, was a photo of this tall thing, with no face, just starring right at you. They say that he's always watching, but you just don't know."

A shiver runs up my spine at those words, as I nervously chew on my bottom lip.

It's night time, and the only sounds that you can hear, are our footsteps crunching on the sticks and leaves on the ground.

We're outside, and are exposed to whatever that lurks behind these trees, so hearing Kris talk about this slender thing, is making feel rather alert.

"...Hey, are you okay?" I hear him suddenly ask.

He sounds a little confused, but I'm too wide eyed to wonder why. "Of course!" I respond, a little too hastily. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well..." Kris frowns a little. "My blood circulation feels like it’s being cut off, from how tightly you're holding on."

This makes me blink—I'm doing what?

Looking down, I see that my hands are indeed, gripping onto his arm, and the realisation makes me instantly let go. "Oh, sorry!" I quickly say. "I actually have no idea how that happened, ahahaha! I mean, it's not like I'm scared or anything, since we all know that—"

Without warning, my heart does a ginormous leap, as I suddenly tumble down, onto the ground.

Something just touched my foot!

I let out a frightened yelp, as I fight off the thing that's clinging onto me. "KRIS, HE'S GOT ME, HE’S GOT ME, HEEELP!" cries my voice. "I DON'T WANT TO DIE, I DON'T WANT TO DIE, I DON'T WANT TO—"

"Calm down!" I hear Kris order.

But that doesn't make me feel any better, as my mind is still infested with the images of creepy arms, clawing the air for me.

"HOW CAN I CALM DOWN, WHEN I'M BEING CAPTURED?!" I wail.

"It's because Slender Man isn't real!" he abruptly yells.

My arms stop flailing at this, and I slowly look up at him, with blinking eyes.

Kris exhales out, before continuing onwards. "He's just a fictional character from a game, that I was forced to play," he says, not looking too amused. "That's all." 

I'm surprised by this, because when I look down at the floor, there really is just a harmless tree branch, with lots of leaves.

The same leaves that I was swishing my panicky hands through a few seconds ago, by mistaking them as tentacles...

"Oh..." is the only thing that I find myself uttering.

Kris shakes his head at me, and I'm pretty sure he's thinking about just how dumb it was, for me to come to such a conclusion. "Come on, we should hurry though," he beckons. "Before we actually do die out here..."

I'm in the middle of standing up, and almost fall back over, from hearing the last part of his sentence. "Can you stop bringing up death?!" I unhappily yell.

"But it seems to be the only way to make you walk faster..." mumbles Kris.

My lips purse together, into a tight and discontent frown. "Well, my ballet flats aren't exactly made for stepping on all of these sticks and stones," I mutter. "And besides, you having much longer legs than me, gives you a super advantage!"

Kris watches me grumpily kick a few rocks, and slap a few hanging branches out of the way, before letting out a sigh of defeat.

"Here," I hear him suddenly say.

And when I redirect my attention back over to him, my narrowed eyes, round into one of surprise.

Because the sight of Kris offering his hand out to me, doesn't seem to be a usual thing, and I think he thinks that I know this, with how he's now holding it out a little more.

"Take it," he beckons. "I know you've been wanting to hold it, anyway."

The slight teasing tone in his voice, takes me by surprise.

"That is not true!" I retort, within an instant.

But Kris doesn't believe me. "Then why were you clinging onto me so badly, before?" he points out, with a skeptical brow.

I don't want to tell him that it's because his story actually scared me for a bit, and so I frown some more.

"To keep up with you, of course!" is my confident response.

The unconvinced look on his face is still there. "Right..." murmurs Kris. "Look, don't make me repeat myself; take my hand now, or else I'll really call for Slender Man to take you."

I tense up straight away. "Hey, you just said that he wasn't real!" I yell.

Kris' expression flattens, and I can tell that he's had enough of this. "Well he will be, if you don't take my hand," he scolds.

I know that he's just being mean, and is trying to scare me, but my hand can't help but immediately grab onto his own, without another thought.

Kris appears to be surprised at how fast I've decided to cooperate with him, but so am I.

And as he now leads me forward, I become aware of how his facial expressions have softened.

Because seeing that tiny smile on his face, tells me that he knows that I'm scared, and that by offering his hand to me, is his way of saying sorry.