We had a short breakfast of assorted canned food, some apples and a bunch of berries and then began to discuss the latest note. Or clue. Or whatever you wanted to call it.

In the end, we'd all decided that we were splitting up again. Although splitting up wasn't always a good idea, according to the lines, we probably had to go east and west again as they obviously liked those Cardinal points.

This time I was going with Tanya. I wish Peter didn't do that. I knew I should've asked for a switch if I wasn't comfortable with it but then that wouldn't have been nice to Tanya. There was some sort of tension between us that I didn't understand. I mean, I knew I had a stupid little crush. And that was surprising to me because it has been a while since I'd liked someone. So this was all new and strange again. And I barely knew her. But is there really a reason why we like someone? We just do.

And anyway, she definitely didn't feel the same way about me. She gives me small smiles, chuckles at my jokes and compliments me but I believed she was just being nice to me. But then she wasn't really a ray of sunshine all the time so did that mean something? It was all confusing.

I felt giddy as we walked side by side. We walked in silence for a long time. Our hands brushed at one point and I blushed at the action. But she shoved her hands into her pockets. My heart sank. She was always doing this.

I decided to take my mind away from her and began to whistle as I stared at the uncountable stems standing all around us.

"What? Omg, that sounds so angelic," she said, genuinely surprised as she looked over at me. Her eyes shone.

I chuckled. "Yeah...it has a beautiful melody."

"What song is it?"

"Well, it's not a–it's not really a song. It's like thirty six seconds long. It's an interlude in an album."

"Well what's the name of the... interlude?"

"Online love."

"Awh, that sounds so cute."

"Yeah," I said with a half smile and began to sing.

"You have such a great voice you know," she said, once I was done with the second song.

I blushed. "I didn't know that. I just sing."

"You sing a lot?"

"I don't know," I said, rubbing the back of my neck with a chuckle. "I listen to music a lot. And I only sing when I want to get out of reality for a while."

She nodded but didn't reply. Her eyes were focused straight ahead as we walked as if she was thinking deeply about something.

"And you?"

She blinked and turned to me. "What?"

"Do you sing a lot? Or sing? Or listen to music a lot? Any of the above?"

She chuckled. "I'm not a good singer but I like to sing along to my favourite songs."

"What're your favourite songs?"

"Well, I love all the songs by my favourite artists, so..."

"So...?"

"Lizzy Mcalpine, Lorde, Gracie, Taylor swift."

"Oh wow."

"I know..." she said.

"You know what?"

"Nothing."

My forehead creased in worry. "Did I say something wrong?"

She shook her head without looking at me. Her eyes were trained on the ground in front of her as we walked in silence.

"I can't."

"You can't what?" I bent forward slightly so I could get a good look at her but it was no use. Her face was expressionless.

“I don't know how to do this."

I tilted my head at her. "Do what?"

“You ask a lot of questions," she murmured.

"Sorry," I replied, looking away from her. "I was just trying to get to know you."

"Why?"

"I don't know!" I blurted suddenly. "So maybe we could be friends? Because you seem like a nice girl? But apparently you don't want to have anything to do with me. You just find me unlikable for some reason."

“It's not that.” Her tone was steely.

“It's what then?”

She opened her mouth tentatively, shut it and then spoke, “Never mind.”

“No, what?”

She shook her head and kept mute. She hadn't given me eye contact for a while. "You're doing it again."

I sighed, running my hands through my thick hair.

“Just when I was getting this side of you, you close off,” I said frustration evident in my voice.

“What?” she asked, turning to look at me and finally giving me the eye contact I was looking for all this while.

And when she did, my heart skipped a bit, quite surprisingly to me. Her expression was one I'd never seen on her before. Her amber irises pierced into mine, melting my heart a little.

“That night, when you were showing me the stars, I thought maybe you were actually warming up to me. And now you start telling about yourself but then you shut off abruptly. I know that just because we found ourselves here together in this forest, it doesn't mean we must all be friends but I just..." I was going to say it. I don't why. I just had to. "I really like you but I know you don't feel the same way. I mean I'm just some lame seventeen year old guy, why would a smart, pretty girl like you like me?"

I sighed, my face burning a little at the confession. Surprisingly, she was blushing as well. Hard. What did I expect? I just blatantly blurted out my feelings for her.

“I'm sorry," she said after a moment of silence.

"You don't have to be." I wasn't mad. I knew she didn't like me. I just thought I could try to get to know her at least.

“What happened?” I asked suddenly.

"Huh?"

"Why don't you want to get close to people?"

I already knew. But I wanted her to tell me herself. Then maybe she'd know I understood.

"Oh."

I looked down and focused on the crunching noises of my feet as we walked.

“A guy I really liked dumped me.”

I feigned surprise and sympathy, wondering at the same time why he'd even do that.

“I'm sorry about that. He's a dick.”

“He wasn't,” she said, her voice soft. “That's the fucking thing. He was an amazing person and he said he…heck he acted like he actually loved me, you know. And he was my first love and I trusted him...”

“I'm so sorry about that. That really fucking sucks.”

“Yeah…I just find it hard to believe anyone can love me now. The whole thing really affected me…it changed me. And I really want to be my old, loving, friendly self but it's hard. It's hard to open up. Hard to trust. I don't know if I can trust again..."

“Peter loves you.”

“Meh, he has to. He's family.”

I laughed at that. “It's not all family that love each other.”

She shrugged, taking in a shaky breath.

“You don't have friends?”

“I have a best friend. Love her to death. She's probably on a hunt for me by now,” she said with a short laugh. “I miss her so much.”

“You're telling me all this," I began with a grin. "Does it mean we're slowly becoming friends?"

“I don't know actually.”

My shoulders slumped. "I appreciate that you'd want to tell me this though.”

She glanced at me for a long time but I didn't look back at her. My gaze was trained on the path in front of me. My stomach fluttered.

The fluttering in my stomach suddenly turned to churning as a thought suddenly struck me. Tanya couldn't be with me. Even if she liked me back. I wasn't in the best state mentally. I'd admit that these few days in the forest made me feel so much better, or maybe it just took my mind away from everything but still. After this then what? I couldn't drag her down into the deep abyss I was falling into. She had no idea how fucked in the head I was. If she did she wouldn't even be talking to me right now. So what was I even doing trying to get close to her? It was good she didn't like me back. She deserved better anyways.

“So um… what do you think we're doing about the clue?”

“Right,” I said running my hand through my hair and pulling at the ends. “It's something about the sunset right?”

“That's what you and Peter decided. And I still don't see how we know it's exactly about the sunset.”

“The sun rises in the east and sets in that west.”

“Uh huh,"

“Sometimes the most beautiful things happen when it's close to the end. Sunsets are really beautiful and they happen just before the day ends. It was a pretty easy one I think.”

“You know I want to say that it might be a bit complex than that but you and Peter did this same shit and you have found how many clues now?”

I chuckled dryly. “We never said we knew exactly what we were doing. We think we're doing shit like you said all the time and we're really grateful that we've been on to something this whole time and that we've found all the clues we've found.”

She nodded and didn't reply.

“What?” I asked, noticing the shift in her mood.

“I really don't know when I act that way. I'm just so used to it."

“I don't judge you anymore, Tanya, after I know your interesting backstory.”

She tittered and shook her head.
“You're funny.”

“I was bitten by a radioactive ventriloquist dummy."

She burst out laughing and a smile tugged at my lips.

There was that laugh. Reckless. Free.

“I feel comfortable with you for some reason. I guess you seem like someone who doesn't judge and you have a kind face.”

A smile spread across my face.
“I do look very innocent.”

“You do."

“Um…” she tried to say something but suddenly her eyes went up. “Hey the sunset is starting.”

I stared up at the sky through the trees.
She was right.

“We should stop and rest for a while.”

“Yeah,” she said. She sounded tired.

I dropped to the ground and rested my back on a tree trunk. She sat down somewhere a few feet farther and drank from her bottle.

I opened my bag up to grab my own bottle and in the middle of searching I found the arrow from before.

My eyes widened a bit. I totally forgot about it. Why did I even keep it in there in the first place?

I took it out and examined it. It was a beautifully carved one. I was gulping down some water and I almost choked when I found something interesting.

Correction, I did start choking. I was coughing violently. A few seconds later, Tanya was by my side, trying to calm me down by rubbing my back.

That wasn't really helping. I shivered slightly at her touch and my heart jumped a little but I managed to get everything under control.

“I saw something,” I mummured and she blinked at me. Her eyes went round and she began to look around us.

“What did you see?”

“This arrow,” I picked it up and turned it so the nock was facing me. Sure enough there was a white material embedded in the open hole.

“Hey, that's not supposed to be open.”

I managed to use my finger nails to get the thing out and my heart stopped for a second when I realized it was a piece of paper.

I opened it up quickly.

“finish what you start
You are not safe otherwise
Playing with your life”

“Oh so now it's a haiku?”

I glanced at her.

“I spend too much time with Peter."

+_+_+
A/N

Do you like poetry?