The sight of the towering trees still took your breath away every time you lifted your eyes up to the forest roof. The way the gentle sunlight filtered through the leaves and branches of centuries-old cinnamon trees look like a hidden wonderland, a secret path to a forgotten time. The wind smelled sweet here, and you took a moment during your hike through the more level part of the forest to shut your eyes a moment and just feel the way the earth breathed around you. This was your paradise, you thought. These cool, secluded parts of the forest near your home, this was the bright place where you could be yourself and love the things that were so hard to love at first.

When you opened your eyes, they rested on the beaten trunk of a large tree with branches like arthritic fingers. You smiled and rushed toward it. Upon reaching the trunk, you put your hand over it and felt the bark. “Hey, Kris!” you said, calling back to your boyfriend without turning to him. “I think I found it! You said it was a camphor tree, right?”

When he didn’t answer, you turned round to beckon him over and inspect the tree himself. But to your surprise, your voice reached no ears at all, for Kris was nowhere to be found. How strange, you thought. You were sure that he’d been following behind you this whole time. You pursed your lips, gave the tree one last look, and then started to retrace your path through the woods.

“Kris?” you called out, but no one answered. After five or ten minutes of walking down the path, you were starting to get worried. It was getting late into the afternoon now, and you would have to return home, and your supplies would run out soon. Plus, it could get cold in the woods and you wore naught but a few thin layers.

“Hello? Kris! Where the heck did you go?” you continued to call out his name, getting more and more panicked each time. You weren’t sure who you were more afraid for: Kris or yourself. You had no doubts that Kris could take care of himself in these woods, but this was your forest, not his; you knew your way around. Your originally calm heart began to pick up in pace as more anxious blood rushed through your veins.

Your eyes darted from one place to another. Every little sound became magnified: the scurry of mice, the hoots of owls, and the telltale sounds of crickets anticipating nightfall. Soon, you noticed that even your walking pace was starting to quicken and our breathing became thicker. Your anxiety was at its peak when you heard the rustle of movement behind you.

You whipped yourself around with a gasp and wide eyes, but there was nothing there. “Kris?” you said shakily. The forest responded with only an echo and the faint sound of wolves howling in the distance. You turned and went back to your trek. The rustling resumed.

With a breathy gasp and a whine, you turned back around. Nothing, once again. But this time you weren’t so sure of that. The hairs on your neck and arms stood on end, and a ringing in your ears brought about the sensation of being stalked. But by what, you had no clue.

You turned back but this time you turned your leisurely walk into a slow version of running. You occasionally looked over your shoulder to maintain that no one was following you. But then the rustling started again. Louder now, and the thumping of footsteps accompanied them now. They came from behind at first, but when you stopped, the rustling and steps continued. And this time they seemed to come from everywhere.

Frantic and terrified, you stopped and looked around you for something you could use as a weapon. The sun was beginning to set now. The once beautiful forest was gradually transforming into a never-ending, nightmarish labyrinth. For a split second you stared dead ahead in the direction from which you came. Your heartbeat overwhelmed every other noise as everything narrowed into one dark shadow in front of you: the unmistakable silhouette of a wolf, with its bared teeth and yellow gaze.

You backed up slowly at first, but when the wolf bolted toward you, you turned around and broke into a sprint, one clear, shrill scream gushing from your throat. The entire forest rushed past you like a storm as you ran, dodging boulders and branches and raised roots. The rustling behind you was as loud as ever, and even when your legs burned and acid built up in your thighs and lungs, you could not, for the life of you, even bear to think about slowing down.

Snippets of your life flashed before your eyes, and Kris was in a few of those torrent memories. You thought about stopping to find Kris, your beloved boyfriend, but the more survivalist, instinctive part of your brains kept telling you to forget Kris, he’s gone. The wind came clear out of you as the toe of your boots got hooked under a raised tree root.

You sprawled on the floor, stunned and terrified, with nowhere else to go. You grabbed a branch. With the fire to live burning bright in you, you rolled over and prepared to face the beast. The wolf jumped high in the air and pounced in your direction so fast that the only thing you could register was the grey and the brown. You screamed once more right before it could land on top of you.

“Woah, hey!” a gruff voice called out instead. Something reached out and tore the branch you held out of your hands. “Put that away! You could seriously hurt someone with that!”

When your eyes opened wide, they rested on Kris’ face instead, who leaned over your fallen frame and was laughing like a hyena. Your breath came out in labored tufts as you tried to register what had just happened.

“Kris?” you said, reaching up to him as you sat up. “Was that – ?”

“Hey, calm yourself,” he said, pressing his palm to your face, although he was still laughing his head off. “Yes, that was me the whole time. You should have seen your face! You were so scared! Oh, man, that was priceless!”

Slowing down your breaths, you lowered your eyes to the floor. Kris. The wolf. The forest chase. It was all a prank? One of his silly practical jokes? Your face flushed a deep shade of red. You were so angry and scared that tears had started to cloud your eyes.

“Hey – ” he started to say, but before he could say anything else, you had gathered an armful of leaves on the floor and shoved it in his face.

“You heartless jerk!” you cried. You grabbed more fistfuls of leaves and threw them in his face. Kris brought his arms up to protect himself from the leaves and the occasional pebble that your fingers managed to scoop up. “Do you think everything is a joke? What if I had some serious heart condition and your childish little prank killed me? And to think that I was here worried for your sake while you were off planning this stupid little – ”

“Hey, watch the rocks!” he complained, trying to grab your wrists. “I’m sorry! I just couldn’t resist! And besides, you were the one so distracted by everything that you barely noticed that I was gone! How could you not notice?”

“Don’t change the subject!” you said, standing up suddenly and trying to reach the branch he’d taken from you. “You know how skittish I am! And I trusted you with that information! And here you go, taking advantage of my little girlish fear of wolves – ”

Kris laughed, swiping the branch away from you again. “I was just teasing you,” he said with a slight smirk. “And besides, if you’re so scared of wolves, why’d you start dating me?”

You kicked another pile of leaves at him, and you grinned evilly seeing the way it was starting to stick to his beloved designer shoes. But his question did start to plague you. Why date Kris despite your Lupophobia, your irrational fear of wolves?

With the question resonating in your mind, you were suddenly reminded of how worried you’d been for his sake. Putting his practical jokes aside, you suddenly reached out and slapped him across the face. Kris, stunned, put a hand to his face, cradling the cheek that you struck. But before he could even register the pain, you had your arms around his torso and your head resting against his chest. He forgot you’d ever hit him.

“That was for scaring me, you ,” you said, finally calming down enough to still your heart and let a few tears stray down your face to relieve your eyes. Kris tentatively started to wrap his arms over your shoulders. Something you loved about Kris was his imposing height; it made you feel feminine, but more than that, his hugs made you feel safe and guarded.

“First with disappearing like that and then using your stupid shape-shifting ability to get the best of me,” you mumbled into his shirt, still slightly upset. But the feeling of relief washing over you at being in his arms once more was starting to take over.

“Ugh,” you said. “You have absolutely no idea how crazy worried I was when I thought you got lost. This was supposed to be a relaxing hike together, remember? Way to screw that one, Wu Yi Fan.”

Kris laughed. You only ever used his full name when you were upset with him. But you used it, too, when you wanted to be completely honest with him. Kris tightened his embrace and rested his chin on your head, rubbing your back soothingly.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” he said. “That wasn’t cool.”

“Nope,” you said, agreeing. Kris felt a small twinge of guilt, but he could feel your smile against his heart. Your once racing pulse began to slow down and in time, it began to beat in time with Kris’. Maybe it was a little stupid of you to go against your instincts and date Kris despite your fear of him. But the fear of having him wasn’t what kept you together. Your greatest fear wasn’t Kris at all; rather, your greatest fear was being without him.