Deceived

Him

"Okay honestly, I have had enough of people randomly popping out of nowhere for one day, alright?" I guess I must still be pretty angry.

"Whoa, chill man!" the boy says. "I didn't do anything.

I look him over. This kid looks like he hasn't seen a shower in days. And then the words are tumbling out before I even have a chance to think about what I'm saying.

"Did you happen to see a girl around here. She's about fifteen, brown hair, kind of on the short side."

A strange expression crosses over the boy's face, "Hmm, no I don't believe so but I've met plenty of people around here before. Does this girl have a name?"

I eye the boy suspiciously. Then I say, "Autumn. Her name's Autumn."

An even stranger expression crosses the boy's face, "No, doesn't ring a bell. But what an interesting name, given this time of year."

I narrow my eyes and growl, "Don't make fun of her name."

"Of course not. I didn't mean to offend you. Please, excuse my comments, it gets kind of frustrating living life in the woods," the kid has the slightest smirk on his face, "By the way, I"m Max," he adds, extending his arm to me.

I hesitate, then take his hand and say, "Zack."

Max's eyes narrow, "Wait, are you Zack Woodgreen?"

"Um, yeah. How do you know?"

"Au- uh, a girl I once met. She would always talk about you, how you have such a perfect life and how she wished she could be you. Well she never said it to me directly but I heard her talking in her sleep a few times."

I nod, absentmindedly. Why does everybody seem to know me? I don't recall being famous.

"Anyway," Max's voice breaks me away from my thoughts, "Why don't you stay the night. I can make us a warm fire, a little shelter too."

I just stare at him for a minute, not even realizing what he just said. I clear my throat, "Uh, no I should be going. I don't even know how I ended up here." What is wrong with me? I don't usually just go blank like that.

"No, you should stay," Max insists, "Maybe I can help you find this girls you're looking for in the morning."

Although I don't really jump at the idea of sleeping in the woods, the idea of possibly finding Autumn take all negative thoughts from my mind.

"Alright," I agree.

"Cool! Okay, follow me." We get deeper and deeper into the woods and I am lost in my own thoughts, not really paying attention to where we are going until I trip over something. I look back and find a foot. My first instinct is to scream. But then I get a closer look and realize that the foot is, in fact, connected to a leg which is connected to a body. It's a girl. I bend down and pull her out from where she is hidden under a bush. My heart literally stops beating when I see who it is.

Autumn.