Chapter Three

Rose and Tygra are searching the woods in their own directions each thinking about Drake.  Eventually the four girls reunite unexpectently and...

 

    Rose sighed quietly to herself as she came to another dead end, a perplexed look falling over her delicate features. “What’s going on? I could have sworn this was the right way.” She turned around, not quite sure where to go. Each pathway she had taken all ended the same way; suddenly and with a blockade of trees.

    She swallowed, thinking hard about her current position. “I know if I turn back and follow this path until the forked pathway that I can turn right; that should take me back towards the meeting point.”

    As she turned to follow her own directions, Rose couldn’t help but think of the reason she was out here in the first place. Drake. Though she seemed to be getting lost constantly, she hadn’t seen one sign of any humans passing by these woods recently. She hadn’t seen anything suspicious at all. As Asha had stated earlier, it had seemed to her that he had just vanished into thin air.

    But that can't be...she remembered how great Drake was at hiking through the woods. And he had lived by these set of woods for quite some time. She found it hard to believe he would get lost so easily the way she had.  “He probably would be laughing at me right now.” Rose couldn‘t help but smile at the thought. ”Just as he had before…”

 

    “Come on you guys! This isn’t funny!”

    Rose had followed the rest of the group into the woods and had just bent down to tie her shoes laces when she had lost sight of the others completely. She now stood where she was; alone and afraid.

    “You guys-”

    She cut short as she felt a hand fall onto her shoulder, causing her to scream in fear. A firm hand was then clasped over her mouth as she was turned to face the person behind her. He lowered his hand, allowing her to speak. “Drake…”

    He smiled at her, amused. “I was wondering what had happened to you. When we reached the house and saw that you were gone, we thought maybe you got lost-”

    “I-I was not lost!” She cried, biting her lips painfully in an attempt to stop her tears. She had been so relieved to see someone from the group she thought she would fall to pieces any minute.

    Drake placed an arm around her shoulders, laughing full-heartedly. “Of course not.” He said, leading her back towards his house and to where the others were waiting. “You just took a little detour is all.”

    She smiled lightly at his comment. “You are such a jerk.”

 

    Rose felt that she would remember that day for the rest of her life. Drake and the others had always been good to her. And she would do anything to return the favor to them. Even if it meant to travel within the very woods she had first became lost in.

    “Please be safe, Drake.”

 

*      *      *

 

    Tygra slowly made her way through the western part of the woods. Her mind was completely set on Drake, wanting nothing more then to know that he was safe. Though, it seemed the longer she remained out within these woods, with no trace of him revealing itself to her, she couldn’t help but think of the worse.

    “Oh, Drake…” she sobbed quietly to herself.

    Her heart was heavy with fear, helplessness…and regret. Why couldn’t she have told him how she really felt when she had the chance? She wished she had. The very thought of not being able to tell him at all, well, it just shredded her heart to pieces.

    And she wondered if he felt the same for her as she did for him. If he longed for her the way she had longed for him. The way she still longs for him. She would do anything for his return. Anything in the world to have him back, safe and sound. If only she knew where he was at this very moment.

    Her eyes began to well up once again with tears and with no one around to witness, she allowed them to flow freely down her cheeks. She cried softly, placing her hand up to her quivering lips to stifle back an oncoming sob as she fell down to her knees. No matter what Jade had said before, Tygra knew Drake wouldn’t have just left the way he had. Especially without telling anyone. Especially without telling her…

    She placed her hand in her left pocket, pulling out the silver chain she had once given him for his birthday.

 

    “Happy Birthday, Drake!”

    Tygra shoved a small box into his hands as they stood outside of the high school. It had been Drake’s sixteenth birthday that day and she had wanted to give him something special.

    She watched as he removed the pre-wrapped lid to the box which contained his necklace. He stared down at it amazed before looking her in the eye. “How did you afford something like this?”

Her face fell slightly. “Why? Don’t you like it?”

    “Of course I do! It’s just...I don’t want you spending your money on me if you don’t have to, Tygra.”

    “But I wanted to, Drake. I love-” she stopped, turning away from him slightly. “I love making my friends happy.”

    Drake smiled as he hugged her. “Thanks Tygra. I really do like this.” She felt her face grow hot as he pulled away, already fastening the clasp behind his neck. He looked to her, another smile forming over his lips. “I’ll never take it off.”

 

    That was the closest she had ever been to telling Drake what she really felt for him. She raised her head, wiping the tears clear from her face with her one hand as she placed the necklace back into her pocket. “What am I doing? I can’t fall to pieces here! I have to find Drake…”

    Her voice trailed off as something caught her eye. “What is that?” She slowly stood to her feet as she studied the object a few paces before her. It was an old stone wall barely reaching passed her hips, with what looked to be mold growing up its sides. As she walked a little closer, she could see writing etched along its front. “What is this?” She questioned herself, kneeling before the stone.

    She ran her hand along the wall, following the ridged indentations of the etched writing. Out of all the times she and the others had journeyed through these woods, she hadn‘t once seen anything quite like this. The stone itself was odd enough, but the writing… Who would write with such unusual symbols?

    “Tygra?”

    She jumped at the sound of her name, quickly turning and standing in the direction of the voice. “Rose? What are doing all the way out here? I thought you went opposite of me?”

    Rose narrowed her eyes slightly, a baffled look falling over her features. “Me too, but,” she paused as she took a look around. “I guess I never did have a good direction sense.”

    “I guess not.” Tygra agreed before turning back to the stone. “Have you ever seen this before?”

Rose walked over towards the stone resting a hand on its flat surface. “No, I don’t remember ever seeing anything like this.”

    “Now how the hell did I get here?”

    The two girls turned back to see Asha coming towards them, and angry scowl across her face.  “Asha? What are you doing here?” Tygra questioned a little bewildered by her sudden appearance. Both Asha and Rose seemed to come out of no where leaving her to believe that their meeting was more then a little coincidental.

    “That’s my question!” She yelled her voice strained with frustration as she stopped before them. “I was following my direction south when I ended up at Drake’s. I turned back and ended up here!”  She looked down to her watch, tsking slightly to herself. “And this damn thing is still broken. Look.” She outstretched her arm for Rose and Tygra to see her watch. “It says only seven minutes passed and you know damn well that it takes nearly fifteen minutes to get from Drake’s house to the center of these woods.”

    “I don’t know what to tell you Asha…Maybe you need to spring for a new watch.” Rose commented.

    “And a compass.” Tygra said with a snicker. “The two of you need one to end up all the way out west like this.”

    “Out west?” A voice sounded behind them. They turned to see Jade leaning up against a tree, watching them with a slight grin upon her face. “Sorry to say but you’re all wrong.”

    “Oh really?” Asha questioned angrily. “And I’m sure you know exactly where we are!”

    Jade just shook her head, pushing herself off of the tree. “I don’t know where exactly we are, but I do know we are in the northern region of the forest.”

    Asha let out a huff as Rose took a step toward Jade. “How can you be so sure Jade? We each walked in our own directions and still ended up here. So how-?”

    Jade backed up slightly from the tree she was leaning against, pointing down towards the bottom of the tree. Moss could be seen growing on the bottom of the tree’s trunk. “Moss grows in the north direction and I’ve been following it since we first split up to look for Drake.”

    “Well, at least we know what direction we are in now…” Tygra said quietly as she looked around her surroundings, leaning back against the stone in a slight sitting position. “But, where exactly is here?”

    None of the girls answered as they studied their surroundings as well. Not one of them remembered seeing these parts of the woods before. They seemed to be in a completely different area now.

    “Tygra, what’s that?” Jade questioned, noticing the stone for the first time.

    “Huh?” She backed away from the stone, studying it closely. “I don’t really know actually. I don’t remember seeing anything like it.”

    Jade came closer to the stone, stopping at Tygra‘s right side. “Certainly is strange…”

    “What does it matter if there’s a stone or not here? I thought we were looking for Drake?” Asha questioned as she came closer to the stone. “It doesn’t look to be anything important anyway.”

    “But what weird writing it has on it.” Rose commented as she walked toward the etched letters. She stopped before Tygra and Jade, bending over slightly, trying to make sense of the strange symbols before her. “It’s like it’s from another world-”

    “Yeah, right, Rose.” Asha said rolling her eyes as she came closer. “I bet aliens came down from outer space and set this here to-” Her sentence was cut short as she felt the ground beneath her give way. She gasped.

    “Asha!” Jade called, reaching out for her in an attempt to stop her fall. She had just grasped her hand when she was about to be swallowed whole be the earth. “Argh, Hold on!”

Tygra quickly ran to Jade’s side, reaching out for Asha to take her hand as well. “Asha, grab on! I’ll help her pull you up!”

    Asha quickly grabbed for Tygra’s hand, grasping it tightly. The two girls struggled to pull their friend to safety, as Rose came up to Jade’s left, kneeling down next to the hole, pulling Asha up by her waist, until they had finally got her back up to ground level. Tygra placed a hand to her chest as Jade shook her head slightly to herself. “That was a close one, you know that?”

    Asha remained lying on the ground, breathless from her overwhelming fright from almost falling to who knows where. “Thank you!”

    Rose remained at her side, now sitting up on her legs. She patted Asha on the shoulder before her eyes grew wide. Beneath them the ground gave way once again, this time taking all four girls by surprise. It wasn’t long before the girls had completely vanished from the earth’s surface as they fell into a pit of darkness.