Unseen

Grave In The Woods

"Man Yuki-san, you're cooking is great!"

"Oh, don't mention it." Yuki-san blushed as he took another bite of his bento proudly.

We were sitting in the summer heat, having a picnic outside the house. Honestly, it's not as hot as you think for the cooling forest is right beside us. The July heat can't get any worse than this here.

"If you'd known Yuki for a long time, he used to suck at cooking until his sister taught him how to cook." Kyouka casually said. I wonder how this girl is so open to this subject. He should be quite sensitive to this.

"Yeah, you should see me a few years back! I used to suck at cooking until my lil' sis came dragging me into the kitchen, she honestly mentioned that she was fed up with my cooking." Yuki-san rubbed his head in shame as he tried his best to cover up the fact that he sucks at cooking.

I can't really blame him though. He might've been a very busy person, not enough time to learn how to cook.

"For a short term memory person, I'm surprised you could remember that." Kyouka said, Yuki-san seemed offended for a while, but he shook it off chuckling at it.

"Wait a second. You never really talk about your sister anymore, did something happen? She doesn't follow you to visit us anymore." Oh my God, Kyouka. She has officially stepped on a mine.

"Oh, about that. She's actually really busy with school, so I don't want to disturb her with her studies." Lies. Yuki-san actually lied about his sister, why would he do that?

"Um, I'm going in for a while." I have to find out what's wrong with Yuki-san. First, he lied about his dead sister, then he shakes it off without a thought. Unbelievable.

"Actually I'm going in too, it's way too hot to be outside. I don't want to get a sunburn." Yuki-san follows along with me. Does he know?

"Cowards. Afraid of a little sun tan? Jesus, how much of pussy can you be?" Kyouka 'whispered' to herself, but she clearly doesn't know that we can all hear her as Ojichan whacks her behind the head.

Yuki-san and I made our way inside the house, but he breaks of off his destination and pulls me to his room.

"Don't tell them about her. They don't know."

"I can clearly see that, Yuki-san. Why do you have to keep such a 'big' secret from them? It's not like they'll freak out."

"You don't know that. I'm not the last Hasaki and if they know, they'll send me to live with my relatives. They hate me!"

"That's what you're afraid of? I can't even believe you!"

Yuki-san just sat down on the floor in silence. I'm pretty sure it was what I said, but I don't regret it. He's just afraid of living with people that hate him. He's old enough to live on his own, maybe financial problems? He can't be relying on my grandparents for so long, they'll be broke before they know it.

"You're not the first person who said that." Yuki-san started, "I might sound crazy, but please believe me. I feel like my sister is still alive somewhere, she couldn't have died back then. I was pretty sure that she got lost in this forest one day and she never came back. The police never found her body, which means she's still in there somewhere. 14 square miles of trees in there, I'm very sure she's still in there."

This conversation just got even darker than I expected. Although I don't really believe him, I have no place to argue. In fact, he could be right. Yujiro said she 'lives' in the forest, I can't ask her though, she doesn't remember anything.

I try to say something, even just a word will be fine but nothing comes out of my mouth. 

"E-excuse me." Finally. I bring myself to walk and I slide open the door leaving Yuki-san alone in his room. When I exit the room, I couldn't hear anything but silence that filled the room. I'll give him some time alone.

I really need to get to the forest, now. Nothing's stopping me now. I just have to use the back entrance, hopefully grandma doesn't find me.

I make my way down the hallway and I slide the backdoor open. I step out on the grass, not bothering to wear my shoes, I run into the bushes and I'm out of the woods (pun intended). I race through the forest, taking a different route than the usual, running about through nook and crannies trying to find the tree.

"Yuki-chan!!" I shout through the forest as I head deeper, hoping that the others don't hear me.

No reply.

I call her again and again but the forest replies me with silence. I head towards the river where she led me to but she wasn't there either. 

Night is slowly starting to fall upon the forest, I should really head back. After hours of searching and getting lost in the forest, sweat staining my clothes, how am I going to explain this to mom? I try to head back the way I came before, following the trail of leaves that blew out of nowhere.

Curiosity gets the better of me and I follow the leaves. They lead me to the trail, where people normally walk along if they visit the forest, I cross the trail to the other side of the trail. The leaves' trail is gone. 

I should probably follow the trail, it should lead me to the edge of the forest. I walk down the trail but as I go further, my nose generously picks up the stench of blood. I sweat like crazy thinking about going back, and as soon as I thought I was at the edge of the forest, I run like hell.

Eventually I slow down and head to a stop, the wind freezes my body as I try to move another step. I turn around to where the wind was blowing and I find a grave with flowers, a freshly made bento box, and a name carved out.

"What the hell..."