Before You Go | A Prequel

1.6 | The Park

"Hey El?"

"Yeah Gus?"

"Don't you think we're going too far?"

Twigs and leaves crunched under two pairs of tiny sneakers as the duo made their way deeper and deeper into the forest. Gus frowned as he stepped over a large root which protruded up from the ground, and he had to jog a little to catch up with his sister.

"Maybe we should go back?" He suggested. "I can't see the playground anymore."

Ellie stopped, and she glanced over her shoulder. Her feet raised to her tiptoes as she squinted into the woods behind them.

"Hm," she frowned. All of a sudden she turned and she darted over to a big moss covered rock which sat idly in a patch of sunlight which broke to the forest floor.

One foot skidded down the edge as she first tried and failed to climb upon the rock, and Gus flinched, "El, be careful!"

"I'm... fine!" She grunted as she attempted to maneuver onto the rock for a second time— she jumped for a boost, and crawled to the top carefully before scooching back on her bottom. She grinned proudly at Gus and sent him a thumbs up. "See! I got it!"

Gus watched as she stood, raising on her toes once more as she tried to peer into the forest. She shielded her eyes from the sun as she scanned the woods surrounding them.

"Can you see the—,"

"Yeah! There!" She pointed. "I can still see the jungle gym! The very tip-top of it!"

"Really?" Gus looked back and still saw nothing but the thicket of trees they'd just come from, but maybe he needed to be up where she was to get a better view.

"Uh huh!" Ellie sat and hopped down before he could join her on the rock. "Let's just keep going, come on!"

She paused to pick up a long stick, plucking the stray leaves from it before holding it up at Gus with a big grin. "This can be our guiding staff!" She beamed, "We can use it to clear the path— ooh! And we can use it to draw lines in the dirt, so that way we know the way we came!" She spun as she spoke, dragging the stick in a circle in the soil around her feet.

The idea of tracing the way back made Gus feel a little better. Plus, Ellie wasn't worried. And if she wasn't scared then what real reason was there for him to be scared? That was part of their thing— the Twin Thing.

He looked around his feet for a moment before running to grab a stick of his own, which he held up with pride. "Look, El! I got one too!"

She looked up from where she was drawing her dirt circle and was almost bouncing with excitement. "It's perfect! Come on! Let's keep going!"

She turned and ran, and with his staff in hand, he darted after her.

Bug bites nipped at Gus' legs. Every few paces he had to stop and swat at his ankles before running to catch up with Ellie. She didn't even seem to notice, or maybe she just wasn't getting bitten.

"Ellie! Wait up!" He called, hopping as he scratched at his leg before breaking into a jog after her. He couldn't help but notice the way her stick was barely leaving any kind of trails in the ground. And he'd been so busy trying to keep up with her and also fend off the mosquitoes, that he'd forgotten to bother leaving a trail of his own. He stopped suddenly, and he glanced around. The trees, the buses, the rocks. Everything all looked the same. How were they gonna find their way back if it all looked the same?