The forest was immersed in darkness and was haunting. Frogs were croaking, igniting the horror of darkness. "Really dude? Is this the right time to call your mate?" I was already terrified enough. It was so dark that I couldn't even see anything beyond the trees around me. The trees were so tall and never-ending, and it was like touching the sky. I blamed myself for not learning how to climb a tree. If then, I would have used it as a ladder to either reach the stars and stay there for a while as a refugee or block an airplane flying over for rescue. Anything I would have done to escape this creepy forest and its creepy frogs

As each minute passed, it got more intense—both the darkness and my fear. There was no flashlight, and my phone was already dead. "You little piece of shit!" I shouted in anger and threw my phone away. By the sound it made, I figured it should have hit a tree.

The whistling wind and rustling leaves made my legs tremble. The branches of the trees were moving hither and thither, and I felt like they were coming after me.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! How did I come here? Did I sleepwalk into this forest? Why the fuck is it so dark in here? Man, where are the fireflies?" I shouted in rage, hitting my leg against the bark of a tree.

Just then, I remembered reading the flash news in the newspaper this morning. It said, 'Is our city safe in the hands of a serial killer roaming our streets? A press conference this evening with the city council regarding the safety measures.'

I was stupid enough to remember it at this moment. It was like adding fuel to a forest fire. "What if he is here? What's a better place for a serial killer to hide besides an isolated abandoned forest?" My imagination only worsened the situation. Fear was eating me from within. I felt like I was trapped in an infinite loop in a never-ending forest.

And suddenly there was a streak of light. A light that lasted less than a second. I believed it was magic. My stupid mind started believing even lightening to be magic, an illogical magic that would get me out of these horrifying woods. It was quickly followed by thunder. It was so loud that I had to close my ears.

When the next streak of lightning bolted, I saw a man running. He was running towards me. I was afraid. I was so afraid that my throat choked, and I couldn't even utter a word. I barely breathed. It started sweating even in this chillness.

I stood frozen, and my heart hardly beat. I didn't know where to run or what to do. And when the next lightning strike came, he was so much closer to me. His face was painted black, and it freaked me out. In less than a minute, I fainted out of fear and also due to a lack of stamina after roaming over the woods, which seemed to have no exit.

When I woke up, it was already raining cats and dogs. I wiped my face with my hands and looked around to ensure I was safe. My heart started pounding heavily once I saw that man sitting behind me, leaning over the tree. Every serial killer has a way of killing people. I wondered what it was. I started imagining every possible way this might end tragically. I swallowed my saliva in fear and tried moving. But being tired and hungry, I couldn't push myself beyond an inch.

"You should try and relax." A familiar voice came out of his mouth. It was broken, and I barely heard it. But it was enough for me to guess that it was a familiar voice. That sent a wave of chillness into my steaming heart. At least he was not a bloody serial killer.

"You are?" I asked him in a wearied voice.

"I'm T." He said this as he stood up. His name was weird, and I thought I might mishear it due to the heavy rain. His figure reminded me of someone, but again, I couldn't even make any wild guesses. He gently placed his hand over my shoulder, helping me to stand. I tried pushing him away with my left-over strength.

"There's no need to protest. C'mon, I'll help you." He again tried to make me stand. With no option, I stood up, holding his hand, and leaned over a tree for support.

"I'm just here to help you." He said it in a worried tone.

I looked away as if I didn't hear it. In my entire life, I haven't seen rain this wild. The sky was tearing up, and the water was pouring down as if the oceans had shifted from land to sky. The droplets falling were so heavy and furious that my head started aching. Sometimes even the things we love the most won't make sense if we are in a bad state. Situations hold the dictatorship in our lives. Right things in bad situations are still pointless and hopeless, just like the rain this evening. It didn't give me the hope it used to. I stood pointlessly and hopelessly.

"Don't you want to get out of this forest?" He asked.

"I terribly wanted to." I stood straight, hoping to get out at any cost.

He grabbed my hand and started running. The same me who couldn't even stand a little while before, now starts running at the mere thought of getting out of here. I closed my eyes and wanted to open them only if I could sense light. I was blindly running behind him, holding his hands. I didn't know how I believed him even without a second thought. But something in me urged me to. We were running for so long that my knees felt like tearing up. I was panting. I barely breathed through my nose. He seemed quite okay, as if going for a morning jog.

I started counting from 1, and when I hit 100, I decided to leave his hand and take some time to breathe. As I counted 83, I sensed light. It penetrated into my eyelids and said hello to my eyeballs. But the rain didn't stop yet. However, the intensity was reduced. He stopped running and turned around, leaving my hand. I mildly opened my eyes, as they felt sensational after seeing the world in light for a very long time.

There were flowers. Colorful tulip flowers everywhere. I couldn't believe my very own eyes. We stood in the middle of a tulip garden. They were white, red, pink, orange, and yellow, each in a row. It was a treat for the eyes, which had been bound to darkness for a while. The smell of them, along with the smell of sand, made my brain ring. The sky was a little clearer, far better than the one in the forest.

After sightseeing for a while, I turned to look at him. The paint on his face had already washed off a little due to the rain. But he wasn't aware of it. I didn't utter a word as I wanted to look at his bare face, waiting for the paint to wash off clearly. A drop of it fell into his hand, and when he looked at it, he was terrified. He was terrified at the mere thought that I might see his very own face. He glanced at me suddenly. His eyes tried to impart something. It lasted just a nanosecond. But I sensed an urge in my heart. I felt something different in his look. It was pacifying and soothing.

He turned around and started running. It was like he got lost in a flash. With a blink of an eye, he was gone. Long gone, maybe back into the woods. But in some corner of my heart, I wondered if he was the one behind those letters. I wished I had held his hand, made him stay, and seen his bare face. The face I've wanted to see for quite some time now.

The mild pain in my stomach hit me hard. It was hard enough to wake me up from this absurd world. When I opened my eyelids, I was in my room, on my bed, holding my quilt firmly and breathing hardly. Only when my alarm beeped I sensed it was a dream. Still, I was panting at the mere thought of it.

It was the second time in a row that I had a similar dream. I had no clue why I had this strange one. My mind itself creates a dreadful situation and calls upon a mysterious lad for rescue. It was trying to impart something to me.

Maybe I was too tired looking for him, and so my subconscious decided to reverse it for good.

"It was just a dream, El. Just come out of it already." I tried convincing myself. My heart was still racing, and I was sweating profusely. Above all, I was more worried that I couldn't get to see him.

"But why the hell do I still feel cramps in my stomach?" I was irritated.

"Oh, no! Please don't be." I was frustrated at the mere thought of getting my periods on the very first day of a week.

•=•=•=•=•

"What might be the password?" I squeezed my brain, demanding an immediate answer.

"It was written, the password is your heart. That means the password is ElenaDavis'sheart, right?" I looked at the ceiling as if it would answer me back.

"Nah! It's too long. It should be Elena'sheart or what if El'sheart?" I sneakily tried it on my phone. But it was an utter flop.

"What if he shuffled the letters? He is already good at it. But I still couldn't find his name with the shuffled random letters he's giving me, then how can I find one for mine?" I was demotivated.

With little clinging hope, I tried even permutations and combinations, finding out how many possible combinations could be formed with the letters in my name. But nothing seemed to work out.

I tried to be more logical this time and kept murmuring the specific words your heart. "Yes! I got you, man." I shouted as I deciphered it. I was stupid enough to try my name while the password was already well given.

"Are you alright, Elena?" Ms. Mila asked me to keep her book aside.

"No! I was just... I'm all good. Sorry for interrupting your class." I stammered. I felt embarrassed in front of everyone. Kia gave me a confused look and asked if I was daydreaming.

"Oh, no! Enough of these dreams." I sighed and typed yourheart as password, hiding my phone. And for my luck, it worked. It logged in. I was full of beans but decided to look into it later. I stuffed the phone back into my jeans pocket and tried listening to whatever Ms. Mila was saying.

"So what do you guys think about life in space? Does anyone have a desire to live in a world beyond ours?" Ms. Mila asked as if she had a free ticket to the space.

"Its ridiculous." I said it in a monotonous voice.

"Oh Elena, do you mind clarifying it?" She crisscrossed her arms, waiting for my theory.

"Well, obviously, I am intrigued by the findings and discoveries in space. Many things are coming to light, and we now have a better understanding of the more mysterious ones. But that doesn't mean we have to leave our planet and find home in some other place."

"Isn't it going to be a scientific achievement that the world hasn't witnessed yet?"

"Yeah, totally, it is. But why are we planning to leave Earth and find home in an untouched land in the first place? Because the world is so polluted, corrupted, and prone to many pandemic diseases? If so, then we are the only reason for all of this. Instead of leaving this planet and going all the way to pollute another, we can better make this place more livable. How many planets are we going to jump to, wanting a peaceful life despite realising we are the ones spoiling it?" Words just poured out of my mouth.

"Well, everyone has a different perspective. And yours is also kind of one. I respect your way of thinking." She gave an acknowledging smile.

I didn't know where it came from. I felt like I was on a space mission where there was no return ticket. It freaked me out. I was worried that I would never be able to find him.

"What was that for?" Kia shrugged as Ms. Mila walked out.

"You're one of your kind." A mellow voice came from behind me. To my surprise, it was Henry.

"So who else is of my kind?" I asked him.

"Just you." He laughed.

"That's unfair." I replied, making an angry bird face.

"But I kind of disagree with you."

I guessed it should be about what I said to Ms. Mila.

"What do you think?" I turned over and leaned against the desk, facing him.

"Can you imagine living a life somewhere where there is no chaos, no violence, no nothing? Just a few people, the people whom we love, and a peaceful, happy life to live." His tone made his point very obvious and left me no reason to refuse or oppose it.

"Well, yours is another kind." I replied.

"Another kind?"

"Another kind of perspective, as Ms. Mila said." I gave him a formal smile.

"Well, are you still working at the library?" I asked him, as I hadn't seen him after my first visit.

"Umm.. No, I quit it, probably the day you visited the library for the first time."

"Did I do something?" I asked him, as he sounded rude to me that day. I was worried that maybe I had done something to provoke him unintentionally.

"God, no, Elena. I quit it as the freshman year commenced." He said.

"Thank God! I feel relieved now."

"Don't mind." He continued, "Well, I just need to go." He stood and walked out abruptly, ending the conversation. I did not wonder as I got used to it.

"You are quite making a show today." Kia again tried asking about my weird behavior.

"It's nothing, Kia. It's just the stupid letters and everything going around." I said, faking a smile.

"What letters?" She asked curiously.

"Not today. I'll fill you with it, maybe some other day."

She understood me and didn't demand a response. Instead, she started talking about something.

"Letters. When you said that, I just remembered how Ryan used to write poems for me."

"Does Ryan write you poems?" I was intrigued.

"Yeah! Not now. But when we were in high school. Just a few." She smiled.

"That's cute." I grinned.

"Btw, most of them are funny." She continued, "One time he wrote me a poem, and I couldn't stop laughing after reading it."

She cleared her throat and started telling the poem with facial expressions.

"I'm a puffy pizza,
You're oregano & chilli flakes.
Without you
I'm bland & dull.

I'm a jumbo burger,
You're the juicy, crunchy patty.
Without you
I'm insipid & empty.

I'm an ice-cream,
You're crunchy choco chips.
Without you
I'm unappetizing & boring."

"Is he a foodie?" I interrupted her, trying to control my laughter.

"God, He is." She guffawed.

"But it's such a cute poem."

"Yeah, sometimes he does very little things to make me smile like this." She sounded happy and content to have him.

It's weird how sometimes we do things we never dreamed of doing just to make someone smile. For their smile, we would climb all the mountains, swim over all the seas, fly all over the sky, and even write a poem without knowing what grammar is. It's not how much bigger things we do; it's how much effort we make. Love doesn't always come in big packages; it oozes out of even the very little things. Like they say, wonders never cease to exist, the little things we do to make our loved ones smile also never cease to exist.

•=•=•=•=•

Hey peeps!

I'm at a point where it's really hard for me to write a chapter without letters in it.

There's definitely one waiting for you in the next chapter.

See you there!

•=•=•=•=•