"Mmm?" I murmured.

I felt like I was being shaken violently.

"Larry? Larry, wake up, we gotta go. We wanna know if you're coming."

My eyes shot open and I sat up immediately, blinking. My brain was foggy for a few seconds before the words I heard got registered into it.

"What?" I yawned, staring at a strange face looking down at me. Tanya.

The sky was a lighter shade of blue. I could see the trees, the fallen leaves, the weeds and bushes clearly now. The chirping of insects were gone and the air was still cold and damp. I looked down at my grey sweats which were now dirty then looked up, suddenly realising that I could see the faces of everyone so much better.

Since Tanya was already in front of me, she was the first person I noticed. She had dark brown hair that fell just a few centimetres past her shoulders in waves. She was pretty. That kind of simple, gentle pretty, with the faint freckles that ran across her pale face. But the kindness of her face clashed so much with the rest of her, the way she talked, moved, the clothes she wore and also the way she was staring down at me as I studied her. I was forced to look away.

"We're leaving," she said impatiently. "You coming?"

I got up immediately and grabbed my backpack. She walked off and started to follow the others behind.

"Wait, hold on, you know where we're going?" I asked and joined the trail.

"Yeah, I ho-I do," Peter started to explain for me from his position at the front of the line. He was tall, I noticed. But not as tall as I was. I could see his short red hair bouncing slightly as he trudged on. "And now that the place is illuminated enough for us to see where we're going, it's best if we start moving immediately. Tanya is upset with me and I'm terrified she'd kill me if I don't get us out of here sooner."

"You better know what you're doing," Tanya hissed at him.

"Where's Michelle?" I asked, suddenly remembering that she said she was going to "go back" tomorrow.

"Here," she chirped.

She was in the middle of Tanya and Peter, walking silently. I still couldn't see her until I bent slightly to the left, clutching my backpack tightly. My brows rose at the sight of her ragged dreads falling down and resting atop her shoulders. With her dirty faded jeans, washed out plain green t-shirt and worn out combat boots to complement the hair, she looked fierce.

If I saw her this way at first, I definitely wouldn't have been surprised when she pinned me down like that.

"Didn't you want to go back?"

"I do," she said. "But I wanna figure out if there's actually a way outta here."

"Michelle, what do you mean by that statement?" Peter asked. I felt my shoulders tense at her words.

She shrugged. "Don't mind me."

Thoughts of the day before came rushing back to my head as I trudged along with the others. I tried to not overthink it and focus on the present moment.

Where would I go if we found our way out of the forest? Would I really want to go back? I wasn't 18 yet so I couldn't live on my own. And I didn't really like the idea of living on the streets.

What did I get myself into?

We emerged into a path that was laden with fallen leaves. The trees around us had already shed half their leaves while a good percentage of the ones left on them had already changed their colours.

"Uh...guys?" Michelle called out.

"What?" we chorused as we trudged on. I was enjoying the crunching sound the dried leaves made when we stepped on them. We weren't walking in a line now. Instead we were spread out randomly as we moved.

"I dunno, I think-"

"Woah!" I shrieked as I felt myself slip. I heard the others' screams but I didn't have the time to look at them because I was suddenly falling. I landed on bare soil that had twigs and stones scattered around. Fortunately they didn't hurt me, save for a few scratches. The dried leaves that were once in my path were all around me and some more were still falling after we had all fallen into what I realised was a really wide hole. The fall wasn't bad but it shook me.

I cleared the leaves from my body and got up when I got over the initial shock, suddenly noticing the net of ropes lying on the floor.

"What the...?"

"Tanya, Michelle, you okay?" Peter called out.

"I'm doing great, thanks for asking," I murmured, picking a few leaves off my clothes.

"Right," he replied sheepishly. "I was just looking out for the ladies."

He looked fine, though he also looked a bit shaken by the fall. His hair was messed up and his clothes were dirty.

"We're okay but Michelle is a little injured," Tanya called out from a few feet away from us. Her voice shook.

We walked over to them.

"It's okay, it's nothing."

"Are you sure?" I asked her.

"Yeah, just a scratch on my shin. I'll be fine."

"Okay, we should get out of here," I suggested and the others agreed. Tanya and Michelle moved off immediately, straight to the edge of the hole.

The hole was wide but luckily it wasn't that deep so we could easily climb out with one another's help. But as I followed them behind, I couldn't shake off the feeling that something wasn't right. No one said anything about it but this was obviously a trap for someone or something. But it didn't make sense. The ropes on the ground didn't capture anything or anyone. Whatever thing that was supposed to fall into this horribly made trap wasn't meant to be captured. No one could be that stupid.

So what was...

"Hey guys."

We halted right at the edge of the hole. I turned around and noticed Peter crouched in the middle of the hole where a bunch of twigs lay.

"What is it Peter?" Tanya asked, annoyance evident in her voice.

"Look, I found something stuck to a twig."

"You found what?" I asked walking over.

Tanya sighed heavily. "Who cares? Let's just find our way out of here before it gets dark. Or before my mom and dad file missing person reports! If they haven't already..."

"Hold up, let me just take it out."

A few seconds later we were all standing behind Peter. We watched as he slipped a folded piece of paper out of the twig it was lodged in.

"What the hell... paper? Peter-"

"Hold up, would you?" he said as he unfolded it quickly, his hands shaking. "It was just there in the middle of this pile of sticks. That's really weird. And I can't help my curiosity. I promise, once I open it up, we go on our way."

I crouched to his level and looked into the piece of paper once he opened it up completely.

"What's it say?" Michelle asked quietly from behind me.

I peered into the paper. There were nine short phrases handwritten neatly with black ink. After the first three lines, there was a gap before the next two, and another gap afterwards before the last four. And that was it.

At first glance, I couldn't comprehend what it meant. Peter read it out.

"Flies high into the sky
air I breathe
All around me

Laughter in the air
Rekindles a glow

Yellow, sweet like butter
Cloaks the metal bird
Makes up everything
Shiny, grey, soft, flames."

"It's uh... like a poem."

"I think so...but-"

"Oh fun! Now, let's go."

Peter got up and stuck the note into his hoodie pocket with a sigh.

"Yeah," he said, leading the way immediately.

We walked in silence for a couple of minutes, eyes alert, watching out for any other "traps" that might've been set. So far, fortunately, we'd found nothing.

"But don't you find it a bit strange?" Peter asked, breaking the comfortable silence.

"Maybe some rando lost their love poem as they walked through these woods. You think too much," Tanya said.

I felt my face scrunch up slightly at her words.

Oh so she was one of those girls that made me hate the female species.

"It is weird," I said, backing Peter up. "That paper was too neat to have been lost in these woods all this time. If it was, like you said Tanya, it's supposed to be in a worse condition. It's like that "trap" thingy was made deliberately for someone to fall in there without getting caught. And it seems like the person was supposed to find that paper. It was literally sitting in the middle of the hole, sticking out so conspicuously."

Peter's hair shook as he nodded vigorously.
"Right!"

Tanya turned around to face me and rolled her eyes playfully, turning back immediately. I felt myself blush a little.

Okay so maybe I didn't really hate the female species.

"Well, still. What are you going to do about it?" she asked.

Peter shrugged and said nothing. And we stayed silent like that for a long time.

+_+_+
A/N

What do you think about my poem? *Smiles mischievously*