2 kids

Midnight dancing surrounded by a dark forest.

Ashley.

It's breathtaking here.

The perfect scenery taken out of someone's imagination. An imagination creating perfect, surreal worlds. Where nature still holds the upper hand and where the law of nature counts. The birds wake up to the soft rays of the early morning sunshine, waking up the other inhabitants of this dark forest. And no humans step foot in their territory.

It's so beautiful and magical, I can't take my eyes off of it. The clouds look different – like puffy cotton balls just plastered into the sky. Put there by hand and painted a bright snow white. Somehow even the mixture of the blue and grey colours of the sky look fresh. Different than in New York. And the birds flying around – so free and wild.

It looks surreal to my eyes, so surreal I think I'm still on the bus, fast asleep and imagining it. I've never seen something so calm and ethereal, yet so lethal at the same time.

Someone yes, but not something.

A dark green forest is spreading ahead of me. Thousands of trees that have grown for hundreds of years, some almost pressed against each other, others creating forest corridors of all sizes. Some taller, some smaller trees, yet they're all standing proudly.

There's something magical to it. A touch of something ancient, but powerful and gentle. If fairies would fly around at night, with little magic wands in their tiny hands, I wouldn't be surprised. And if unicorns would run along the river, I'd only stare amazed.

Patiently staring at the forest I expect some dark demonic creature to attack me. I look around, scanning the darkness for some small yellow dots lurking at me. But I spot nothing. No creature lurking in the darkness, nothing unusually happening in the deep dark forest.

The forest remains a usual, still forest.

Chills run down my spine when I realise we'll be sleeping here for the following few days.

It's an unusual location for a music video. I expected a brighter place, somewhere where the sun shone for more than just a few short hours a day and where the birds sang throughout the long day. There's a deadly silence lingering everywhere around. Perhaps it's a perfect place for a heartbroken revenge themed song.

And it strikes me that Alex would love this place.

When Christina told Jonah and I we were going to Ohio, I got excited. I had never pictured we'd end up here.

Turning around, two things cause my mind to go into panic mode. One, I spot no familiar face. People are far away, passing back and front, yet I recognise none. Two, being turned with my back to the forest doesn't feel good. So I quickly turn around again, scanning the forest again.

It's unchanged, undisturbed. So peaceful. Almost as if a part of it was calling at me.

And somewhere in the very back, something like a clear light exists. A slope that goes down, and I'd bet the scenery below is just as breathtaking as this two sided forest. A meadow with bright flowers, and butterflies, and bees. A meadow so peaceful, and a river nearby. An entirely different scenery, universe, to the one I'm seeing. Yet so connected to this one.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

I'm startled by the deep voice coming from behind me. Unfamiliar, deep and rusty.

Very slowly, and carefully, I turn around. My mind and body fail at connecting, and a fight seizes them both.

A boy, around my age, stands about six or seven feet from me. His dark brown eyes shine softly under the few sun rays that pass through the clouds, and somehow don't accompany his equally brown and too straight hair. Hands stuffed deep into his pockets, exactly like Alex. But his posture isn't as elegant, as leisurely driven as Alex's.