I was worried.

We were all walking back to the shed, munching on berries that Michelle found for us with glum looks on our faces. The sun had successfully dipped below the horizon before we got back but I was lucky to catch a picture of the sunset at the lake while we tried to clean up as much as we possibly could. I took the picture right before the battery died.

As we trudged back in silence, I couldn't help but notice that I actually didn't seem so bummed out that we couldn't find our way out of the woods.

I was sure I didn't like the way I felt sore from sleeping on the ground, exhausted and filthy too.

I'm sure we all did. Tanya couldn't hide her tears when she realised that we really couldn't find a way out of the forest, Michelle didn’t seem too bothered. She  She wasn't planning on leaving before we showed up anyway and she already told us that she tried but couldn't find a way out. Peter seemed frustrated, as expected, but I think a part of his frustration came from the paper we found the night before. We agreed to keep it aside and talk about it later.

I sighed as we finally reached the shed.
I slung my backpack off my shoulder and took a seat on the floor while the others stood around.

“This is just crazy…” Tanya began. I looked up at her.

“Tanya, please not the time,” Peter started. He was leaning on a tree with his arms folded. His voice was strained and it came out in what was barely a whisper.

“No.” She was pacing back and forth between us. “No, it doesn't make sense. We walked into these woods through somewhere and we can walk out through somewhere, many places. We didn't even walk that far from where we…”

“Tanya we could–”

“No! We can't do anything. We're stuck here in the middle of these stupid trees and plants. And our families are worried out of their minds looking for us. We've been gone for how long? three days! We stay in a shed at night. Yes we've found a source of water and we have canned food and some fruits to eat so we won't die of hunger but then what? Staying out here is dangerous. What if there's some animal or crazy psychopath to come and kill us? And…and what about our futures? Our education, our lives!”

“Tanya.”

She turned to me and we had a brief staring contest. Finally, she looked away and dropped her arms down dramatically.

“Y'all want to act like this is all fine and normal? Fine.”

With that she stormed off. Michelle walked into the shed.

“Don't go too far,” Peter called out just before she disappeared into the trees.

“Siblings,” he scoffed as soon as she was gone.

I raised a brow at him.

“She's your sister?”

“No, cousin. But I live with her family so same thing basically.”

“Oh.” I nodded. “Who’s older?”

“She is. She's a lot more composed and responsible than she's acting though. It's just...she's got a lot going on in her life and this happening…I know it's crazy for everyone but for her…”

“Does she have a boyfriend?”

“No."

“Oh really? That's surprising..."

He chuckled, raising a brow at me. "She had one before but it didn't end well so she swore within herself that she'll never ever open up her heart again. I advised her that she shouldn't do that but, damn, it hurt her bad and she's not changing anytime soon. So I advise you not to even think about it.”

“That’s a bummer.”

“Do you like her?" he asked with a smirk.

“Even if I did, and even if she hadn't locked her heart up and thrown the key into an ocean, she seems way out of my league."

He chuckled. “Yeah, do you know how many guys she turns down on a daily basis?"

"Oh to be one of them..."

He laughed loudly.

“That guy must've hurt her real bad though," I mused.

“Yeah."

We were silent for a moment. Then the events of the night before came flooding into my head.

“Hey,” I said, getting up immediately. “About the note we found–”

“Oh, yeah…” He stuck his hand into his back pocket and it emerged with the note.

He unfolded it quickly and I walked over to stand behind him.

“I've been thinking a lot but I haven't figured out what it might mean.”

“Tried chemical symbols?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Ha-ha. No, I don't think it's going to work. It's some sort of jolly, sappy poem. I'm really lost.”

“Same,” I mummured as my eyes went through the page.

He sighed and folded the paper, sticking it into his pocket immediately.

“Let's go to sleep.”

We walked back to the shed without a word.

***

I lay at the edge of the shed so my back was against the wall. I was facing the side with the door and I sighed quietly as a light breeze seeped through the thin spaces between the planks of wood that the tent was made of. I shivered slightly. The night was silent save for the chirping sounds of crickets of course.

My backpack lay at my side. I could still remember the day I left home.

Home.

Ever since the accident, I never really thought of any place as home. House, sure.

I remembered the thought I had the first night in the woods. I hadn't thought of the incident or my sad life. I hadn't cried myself to sleep.

At that moment, I felt tears coming. It had been a while. I didn't really understand why I couldn't just get over it and never feel the pain anymore. Why are we able to remember things? And as long as you're alive you can never forget? That's fucked.

My eyes welled up with tears. It had been a while since I looked at my reflection.

As the fresh tears spilled down my face and rolled down the sides, the sudden realisation that I might be happier suffering in the woods than going back, finding the way, hit me.

Where the fuck would I go?

Who would I talk to? I didn't have any friends. I knew a lot of people but none of them really were my friends. Besides my best friend that's not alive anymore, of course. I was too busy being a depressed mess to think of having friends. And I knew that having friends would've probably made me feel better or something but I just couldn't. I didn't have the energy to socialise. To put effort into anything. People tried to be friends with me but I didn't reciprocate the energy. And I never really bothered about it. I never bothered much about most things since the accident.

Not even as I lay on the floor in the middle of the woods at night, with strangers. I sniffed and then froze to check if someone heard a sound.

No one moved for a while. But then two seconds later I heard someone slide themselves out of their sleeping bag, get up quietly and walk towards the door. I couldn't tell who it was unfortunately. Their silhouette turned around to check if someone saw them so I closed my eyes and lay still. After a few seconds of waiting they opened up the door as quietly as possible and walked out. They did it so stealthily that if I was asleep, I probably wouldn't have noticed.

I heard the crunch of their footsteps as they walked away. I got up as quietly as possible, my curiosity taking over me immediately. I looked back at ehe others. They were sleeping soundly. I made sure to close the door slowly so the creaking sound wasn't too much.

When I got out, I searched the area. The person might've gone far.

Well, what were they doing out?

I walked a few feet to the left and came out to a path. The person was on the floor a few feet further up and they were lying face up.

I tiptoed over to them. Unfortunately, I wasn't too stealthy because I tripped on a branch and the person scrambled up, frightened. They were about to take off.

“It's me, Larry!” I whisper shouted.

The person froze, staring at me from the distance for a few seconds until they spoke.

“Larry, the fuck you doing out here by this time?”

It was Tanya's voice.

“I could ask you the same..." I blurted.

She sighed and stared up into the sky and I followed her gaze. There were lots of stars up there twinkling brightly.

“I came out here to look at the stars."

“Oh, well that's cute.” I scratched the back of my head. "Sorry if I scared you, I was just wondering why someone would leave so creepily at night. I've watched too many horror movies, unfortunately for me."

She chuckled and sat back down on the ground, sighing.

"That's okay. I'm identifying the stars from here.” She looked at me. “Do you like stars?”

I shrugged and walked over to her, sitting down just next to her. “I'm not crazy about them but I think they're pretty…and I think people who like them are pretty.”

Why the fuck did I say that?

She tittered and shook her head, gazing upwards. "Which ones do you know?” Her voice sounded so far away, like she was up there with the stars.

“I don't know many, or enough for that matter. I know zodiacs though. It's just I don't know much beyond surface level. What about you?"

“I know a lot. Lots of constellations too. Cassiopeia, the one shaped like a W, can you see it?"

I shook my head. She pointed somewhere to the right. I shifted a bit so now I was sitting very close to her, so close our thighs were touching. There were layers of clothing between our legs but I couldn't help but shiver slightly at the contact.

I looked at the direction she pointed at. A lazy grin spread out on my face.

"Why do they call it a double U, when it's clearly a double V?"

She laughed quietly. I liked the sound of it. I liked that it was reckless and free. She didn't care if she sounded obnoxious.

"I've never wondered that."

"Show me another one."

"Okay," she said shifting away from me now. She pointed to two places for me. "Ever heard of the Polaris star?"

"I think so...I don't know."

"Ok so, here's how you're gonna find it. There are two constellations and they're shaped like dippers."

"Dippers?"

"Yeah, cups with a long handle." I nodded. "One looks like it's upside down. The bigger one, like the...papa. and the smaller one looks upright, you see it?"

I could. "That's interesting," I commented.

"So, you see the tip of that one? Just draw an imaginary line..." she traced the sky downwards. "And then it stops at this point, the tip of the handle of the smaller dipper."

"The mama," I joked.

"Yeah. So that point is–"

"The Polaris star."

"Yeah," she said through a smile as if proud of herself for teaching me this.

I was staring at the star, very little compared to the constellations around it.

Suddenly, something clicked in my brain.

I got up immediately and she turned to me.

“What? Hear anything?”

She got up as well, looking around cautiously.
“No…no. I just thought of…the star you just…it might be…”

“What? What about what I said? Say coherent things!”

“I think I need to wake Peter up.”

I dashed back to the shed, my heart pounding in my chest.

“Peter,” I whispered, shaking him slightly. “Peter, wake up. I think I found it.”

I realised that I sounded just like he did the night before.

“Mmm?” he stirred.

“Dude…I think I figured it out.”

“Figured what out?” Tanya asked from behind me and I jumped.

Michelle started to wake up and I sighed.

“What's going on? Is everything okay?” she asked, getting up slowly.

I looked back and forth between everyone.

Peter had woken up. He sat blinking and looking around wearily.

“Okay, everyone listen. Peter and I solved the clue. The first paper. The one we found in the hole we fell through.”

“Clue?” Michelle asked, very much awake at my words.

“Yes, the poem thingy is a clue. And Peter found it out somehow. And we went to a lake and we found another paper with the same handwriting and ink colour and…and there was something at the bottom that we used to confirm that–”

“Wait, slow down please and explain to us what's going on,” Tanya pleaded and gestured for me to sit down.

I sighed and sat down, crossing my legs.
“Where do I start?”

“The beginning,” Michelle said.

I took a deep breath, let it out and began.

“You all remember when we fell into that hole and Peter found that folded piece of paper sticking out of that twig?”

They both nodded.

“Great, so last night Peter told me that he figured it out. That it was a clue. And he was making a lot of sense with the things he was saying. In the end, somehow, he got fresh water from all those lines and he told me to follow him to the lake.

“I was totally confused and a bit annoyed with him but I followed him there and to my surprise, he found another piece of paper, just like that first one, with the weird lines and the same handwriting and stuff so now we all know that it's a clue. It's a goddamn clue hunt we're in.”

“So what about the thing you found at the bottom?” Tanya asked.

“The only way,” Peter began. “It's very inconspicuous. Just at the bottom right of the paper. And we also found it in the second paper. So we're sure they're connected.”

“Why didn't you guys tell us?” Tanya asked, folding her arms.

“Because we didn't know what exactly we were doing and…you didn't seem interested anyway. But that's not important, you both know now. What's important is that I think I figured out what the second clue is.”

“Really? What do you think it is?” Peter asked.

“Gimme the paper.”

He fumbled for it in his pocket and handed it over to me.

I scanned the lines.

I shook my head. I couldn't believe it.

“I could be wrong,” I started. “It's a very crazy coincidence but Tanya you gave me an idea."

“What do you mean?”

“Polaris star. That's what I mean. That star is somehow our clue. Look at this.”

They all inched closer.

“Or listen to this, rather.”

They moved away.

“Tanya said something about the star, the big dipper and little dipper and she made a joke about how the big one is the papa and I made a joke about how the little one is the mama."

“Oh my God!” Peter exclaimed. "And the Polaris is the child! Sort of..."

I nodded.

“Mom and dad always got my back…makes me feel safe as she holds my hand…he lifts me up and I sit behind his head…when I'm around them, I feel like a star! It's not exactly but it fits right."

“No fucking way…” Tanya said.

“Like a star…” Michelle mused

“We might be wrong,” I pointed out.

“We're still on to something. And it's a common way of seeing the star so it's not that outlandish,” Peter said, trying to assure me.

“Alright then, what do we do? Look for where a Polaris star is or what?”

“In the North.”

We looked at Tanya.

“Yeah, it's called the North star. It's always found in the North.”

“So…we go North?” I asked.

“I know where North is,” Peter said getting up.

“Wait we just walk north? Looking for what?”

“We don't know, let's go.”

***

“Hey, about the bottom of the note…” Michelle began, breaking the silence. We were walking North. To where? I had no idea. We were just walking North. Peter kept looking up at the sky, maybe to keep an I on the Polaris star.

“Yeah…it's definitely very creepy.”

“Yes but, what if…” Michelle began then stopped. “Never mind.”

“No, what?” I prodded. “What if what?”

“What if…it means that solving the clues is the only way to get out of the forest.”

“No fucking way…” Peter murmured.

I couldn't decide where to look or who to answer.

Michelle just said the most craziest theory which could be very true and if she was right then that would be a huge problem. And Peter for the third time, found another fucking folded paper, stuck to another fucking twig. And that was insane.

“Dak-Cho…”

They all glanced at me.

“Sorry I swear in Korean when I'm…” I scratched my head.

“Open it up, what does it say!” Tanya asked. My heart was beating so fast I was sure the others could hear it.

Peter's hand moved fast as he unfolded it. His brows rose as they scanned the paper. Then he read it out for us.

“Moving along together will be ceased
What you will need would be found in the east
Some setbacks are for the best
But will only be worth it after you go west
Whatever you find might be strange
But the eerie in the forest will never change
Along the way it might seem bland
But in the end it will feel grand…”

+_+_+
A/N

What's your zodiac and does your personality match with it? Also do you like stars?

*Dak-Cho - shut up