UnKnown(PUBLISHED)

Six

Cold.
I felt cold. There was no breeze inside the room, but the air around me was hard. The air was squeezing my lungs, cutting off circulation. My vision blackened out, dots appearing instead of the scene before me.

Breathe. Just breathe.
1
2
3
Inhale... exhale..

No, it's squeezing too tightly. I tried to get away, backing up. I tried to breathe.

"Arianna.. Ari!" A voice cut through the darkness. I gasped for air, placing my hands on my chest as it heaved up and down. I swallowed, closing my eyes. Hands grabbed a hold of my shoulders, and before I could open my eyes, I was pulled into a hug. I wrapped my arms around the source and squeezed as hard as possible.

"It's all a dream... Right?" I whispered. If I spoke any louder, my voice would crack. I pulled away, looking up at Rylan, whose eyes said it all. This was not a dream, and I would not wake up. Everything that goes wrong or goes right is confirmed, no doubt about it. I took in a shaky breath as I peeked over him.

Maples' body lay limp on the bed, filing the sheets with crimson red. Her chest did not rise or fall, nor were there any movements to indicate life. Her complexion was pale, quite pale that she resembled a ghost. Her body was laid at a weird angle as her head slumped to the side-snapped and broken, with her hair covering up her face. If it were not for the blood, anyone would think she was sleeping, but that was not what caught my attention. As I crept closer, Rylan behind me, I leaned over a bit to get a closer look at the beautifully shaped knife dug deep into Maple's chest.

"Who did this?" Rylan whispered as he looked away from the body, unable to look at it any longer. With shaking hands, I pulled the knife out, the crimson red dripping off the tip. I wrapped the knife in an old shirt before turning away from the body.

"Do you even have to ask?" I looked up at him. Rylan shook his head, understanding. Only one person could have done this, and that would be Fay. She was still here, lurking in the shadows. Watching us... I shivered, glancing around the room.

...

I huffed as I placed Maple's dead body in the middle of the opening of the forest. No calls or texts have been made yet from Maple's phone, indicating that her parents must be sleeping or awaiting her messages. Who knows? But I do not know how long it will be before they discover what is wrong. Looking around the forest, there was nothing familiar to me other than the scent of the trees. At night, the forest looked not so welcoming, dark, and scary, with the trees looming over me, almost stretching to grab hold of me and drag me inside. But looking now, the forest looked more welcoming. The leaves on the trees glistened and shone with the rays of sunlight streaming down upon them. With the rain now passing, all there was left was the scent of the rain. The ground was still wet, leaving behind our footprints as we walked. The opening of the forest was immense, looking as if a treehouse could be built right in the middle of it, but to me, that was not the case.

"You alright, Arianna?" Rylan came up beside me, placing his hand on my shoulder. I snapped my gaze away from the opening and cleared the lump in my throat. This place triggered a memory, but it was too far from grasping it. Maybe if I stayed here a bit longer, I could remember. The memory would appear. I NEEDED to remember.

"This place..." I drifted off.

To save my family...

"What about this place? Are you remembering?" Rylan peered into my face, but I was not even focusing on him. I glanced down at Maple's body.

To save others close to me.

"Something is there, but... I don't know what. I can't remember.." I looked up at Rylan.

To save myself.

Rylan saw the look on my face and nodded his head. He rolled his sleeves up and kneeled, picking up the shovel he had gotten from the basement.

"You look around for anything. Try jogging your memory. I'll bury her." He said before starting to dig a hole. I nodded my head, running my fingers through my hair before proceeding to walk around the opening. But it was just that. An opening. A clear opening from the forest, a path leading straight to it if people were not so lazy to walk the whole way. Nothing was jogging my memory.

How could this place be something of my childhood? I thought, closing my eyes as I took a deep breath.

"You can't find me!" A child's voice shouted, unfamiliar to me yet familiar simultaneously. The child giggled, hiding behind a tree, but all I could see was a flash of black hair blowing in the wind.

My eyes snapped open as I gasped before abruptly turning around to find the tree. It was the only colossal tree standing in the middle of the opening, but it has changed. The memory that played in my head was that the tree looked new and beautiful, but the tree was now ancient. Some of its arms stretched high above while others held limp, almost touching the ground, but it was still covered with all the leaves. The difference between these trees and the other trees was the colors of the leaves. It was not just green leaves; there were many colors—green, red, brown, etc. To me, the tree looked so beautiful, so powerful.

I walked over to the tree, touching it as some wood chipped off. I closed my eyes, pressing my forehead against the tree as a tug pulled me against it. There's more to this tree than what I saw. I squeezed my eyes tightly, eyebrows drawing together.

Black hair... Maple did not have black hair when we were little, so it was not Maple who was in this forest with me... I opened my eyes at that realization. I stepped away from the tree, dropping my hand.

"Ari..." Rylan came up behind me with Maple's phone in his hand. "Her parents are coming.."

                              ***
My palms turned red from my nails digging into them as silence filled the room. With two hard words, I could not do anything more. Explain anything more. Tears streamed down the mother's face at this realization that her daughter was dead; the father was comforting her, yet sadness filled his eyes as well. I kept my gaze down at the ground, the guilt and the blame punching me in the chest over and over again. Rylan placed an arm around my shoulder, pulling me close into a hug, but I didn't deserve one. I don't deserve a hug. I squeezed my eyes closed.

"Where is she?" The mother finally spoke up.

"I buried her..." I looked over at her but looked down at my lap again. Maple's mother nodded her head, sniffling. They did question us on how their daughter had died. They even accused us of the murder, which I had quickly shot down, but how can I tell them the truth? They wouldn't believe us anyway. Not answering made them even more upset, and I couldn't have felt worse than I already did.

"Thank you."

The door closed, leaving Rylan and me still lingering on the porch. I ran my fingers through my hair, taking a deep breath. I could not afford to lose any more people, strangers, or people that know me. Playing the game, Fay created had to be finished quickly.

Turning toward Rylan, I wiped away leftover tears.

"I have to go back to that forest."