i. forest, night, and dim light

“Wendy?”

Joy looked around her surroundings. The forest in summer was beautifully dyed in green. From the dead trunk she was standing on, she could see bushes and wildflowers among tall pine trees. The soil covered in fallen leaves was a little damp from this morning rain, leaving a nostalgic scent she loved.

 It was a breathtaking scenery, especially in the last sunlight of the day. The landscape before her was slowly engulfed in the golden glow.

“Wendy?” She called out again. There was no answer but her own resonating voice, then quickly followed by hollow silence.

Panic started gnawing her mind. Where the hell is Wendy? How could she leave Joy alone like this? She took out her phone from the pocket of her jeans and held it high in the air. There was no bar in the reception signal icon. What was she expecting? It’s a remote area far from human civilization, and Joy was in the very heart of it.

Joy sighed and started to walk again. She could only depend on her memory and intuition about the route back. She wasn’t even sure of it, but hell, she didn’t want to stay here in the unknown land without any effort to make her way out. In the end, she realized it was a dumb solution because now it seemed that she was swallowed deeper into the woods.

How did she end up like this? She recalled that she and Wendy went to the forest to take a photo of mountain eagle they spot in camp earlier. They argued that they shouldn’t go too far from the camp, and then Joy’s eyes caught a sight of the particular bird flying above them and she started to chase it. Only then when she obtained the picture of the bird, she realized somehow they had separated.

And now, here was she; alone, lost and unprepared. She only brought her camera and phone, and she didn’t even wear her jacket. Her long sleeved t-shirt and jeans were ridiculously useless against the cold as the temperature going down with nightfall approached.

 Hugging herself, she decided to sit down and leaned her back against a big chunk of tree trunk. Maybe it would be better if she waited until tomorrow, maybe the teachers would find her by the morning. She would never know what kind of creatures lurking in this place after dark. Maybe she should sleep on the tree branch, like what Katniss Everdeen did in The Hunger Games. Only then she was aware that she didn’t have ropes and sleeping on the tree would likely resulting in injury if she fell from it.

Joy was sure that she did something awful in her past life. This wouldn’t happen if she didn’t. The girl sighed even louder as the day grew darker. The rustling sound of tree leaves joined by the pathetic hum of the nocturnals created a terrible lullaby, and the cold breeze made her shivered even more.

The girl snapped when suddenly she caught glimpses of a silhouette moved between the trees. She stood up on her feet quickly and tried to focus her eyes to that silhouette. Joy never believed in ghost or myth, but seeing something like that nevertheless made her questioned their existence . This was the last thing she needed. Some kind of wraith or spirit or will o'wisp? Don’t joke with me, she mentally grumbled.

And at last, she saw it. The silhouette slowly emerged into a figure of a tall and lanky boy. His blond hair made such a contrast with the dark surroundings. A backpack was mounted on his back and when he lifted his face from his phone, he seemed as lost as her.

Joy let out a relieved sigh when she realized that there was no ghost here. A human presence somehow made her calmer. But then she thought, what if he was no good man? She was so preoccupied with worst scenarios in her head that she didn’t see him walking closer to her direction.

 Creak.

Both of them jumped in surprise upon hearing that sound of fractured twigs beneath his hiking shoes. Joy let out a muffled scream and the boy staggered back, almost hit the tree behind him. Both of them stared at each other and for some moment there was only silence between them. When she got a better look of the lost boy, her jaw dropped.

Zelo?

“I know you!” she exclaimed. The boy seemed confused with her sudden statement.

“Sorry?” He repeated. She couldn’t believe this. Of course, she knew him. They were classmates, okay? How arrogant this kid could be.

“God, we are classmates. Are you trying to say that you don’t know me?” she snorted. The boy made his way to her and shook his head in an apologetic manner.

“Sorry. I dropped my lenses.” Once he was only a few steps from Joy, his eyes dilated in surprise and he let out an amused chuckle.

“I know you. You’re Joy,” he said.  

Joy barely knew that his sight was that bad. Still, she was happy that he recognized him.

“What are you doing?”

“Why are you here?”

Their questions came out from their mouth at the same time, and when they realized it, the two of them cracked into laughter.

“You first,” he said once their laughter was subdued.

“It just happened. I got separated from Wendy,” she answered. “You?”

“I planned to sneak from the camp and went camping outside with some friends but now I got lost by myself,” he explained. “Really, I was just so stupid,” he cringed.

“So we’re both stupid and lost,