I stared at the blank journal in front of me. What great adventure had I missed this time? I shut my eyes and groaned. There was nothing to remember!
I flipped forward a page and read what I wrote down the day before.
dana - d. daniel - danny.
kill alex.
Sure, it didn't really make sense to me till Alex explained to me but today? Nothing.
Ugh! This was super frustrating. I patted my bed till I found my phone and dialed Alex's number. It took 3 rings.
"Okay, what did I miss?" I demanded.
"What do you mean?" Alex asked groggily.
"What did we do last night? I can't remember a single thing."
"You don't remember anything?"
"No, Alex! I can't. Now will you please tell me?"
"Nothing happen-"
"Spare me, please. Just tell me!"
"No, seriously, Hady. You weren't with us..."
"Oh..." There was a dreadful feeling creeping up my chest. Neither of them thought to find me? Alex must have understood my silence because her next words were comforting and yet I didn't feel comforted at all.
"I went to the spot where I usually got you and you weren't there. I waited, but-"
"It's fine, Alex." I said, feeling slightly betrayed. She was the one who was reluctant to let Daniel in, and now they were hanging out together without me? I could hear her talking in the background but I wasn't listening anymore.
"I'll see you in class, I gotta get ready now."
"Hady!" I hung up. I didn't want to hear explanations now. I needed to calm down. I was overreacting, I know. How fast did things change? Just last week, I was fearing for the worst and now I was angry at being left out? It brought a little smile to my lips. Shame, contrite. I sighed. Time to make things right.
I saw her at our spot, looking tiny in a huge black coat and especially so now that she's hunched over her phone.
"Sorry about this morning. I gotta admit I was a little jealous that the two of you didn't include me, you know?"
"Jealous?" There was mocking in her voice before she turned serious. She filled me in about what happened the night before, sounding a lot more subdued than usual and boy did I feel like crap.
"Do you think it'd really work? Bringing your bed in with you?" I asked sheepishly.
"We'll never know if we never try." Alex answered. "So you slept well last night?"
"Better than in ages." I said.
"Tell me what you're thinking." I urged.
"I don't know. There's just so many questions... It's cramping my style!" She added as sort of an afterthought. I waited for her to continue, she didn't.
I didn't want to push it, not after the way I acted that morning. "Do you think we're still going to die?" I prompted.
"I guess we'll find out."
It was night, and I was ready. I was going to go to bed with my arms wide open, welcoming death. Still, it wasn't easy. I descended into a pit of despair, finally emerging into a dreamlike landscape. Blurry edges and softness all over.
"Hady, come on. Hurry up!" A tugging on my sleeve. I turned to see a figure in a white by my side.
"Alex!" I gasped, snapping into awareness. It takes a while, but the memories come in slow bursts, filling up the gaps and holes. I let her lead me into deeper into the woods, trusting her to know where we were going.
"Hey girls!" Daniel's voice greeted us once we exploded into the clearing. I stood there for a moment, looking around and trying to burn every detail into my head but Alex was insistent on moving to a certain spot.
"Look! That's the question mark I told you about."
I squatted down awkwardly to look at the inscription. "So we're going to leave a note for whoever drew that?"
"Apparently so." Daniel answered. "And I have brought our materials." He glanced up at Alex, "Where are our linens?"
"Didn't work." Alex shrugged. "I guess there must be some kind of limit to what we can take? Put that down. Ask the dude."
"I thought we should start with introductions." Daniel said.
"What?!" Alex demanded. "Hello good sir, we're wondering if we could exchange pleasantries and names? No, I think we should just get straight to it."
The both turned to look at me.
"Um. I think we should start with: who are you?"
We wrote it down and debated over whether we should give whoever it is our names as a show of good faith. At last, we decided the question was enough and we'll take it a step at a time. Right now though, it was time for us to explore the place.
Daniel cast one last look at the note which was in the general direction Dana usually appears and shook his head. I looked away. There are some sorrows you do not want to share, and I could see how the loss of his twin is a pain he protects.
"Don't you wanna leave something for Dana?" Alex asked with an air of carelessness. I know that trick. She uses it to throw you off from feeling awkward or obvious. Her reasoning being people are creatures of example. If you show people you know what they are thinking and don't care for it, they become less self-conscious of it and relaxes.
"No, we've made it plenty clear that we will no longer wait for her." He said. "And now that Hadilynn is here, we should be off."
We trooped off, Alex chatting excitedly about the beautiful scenery she chanced upon the other day and trying to find the exact window.
"There it is," She pointed and the three of us took turns to stand and stare in awe.
"It's breathtaking." Daniel breathed.
"Damn straight." Alex replied softly.
"Ok, time to move out, guys." I reminded gently.
We pretty much did what we did the first time Alex and I wandered around. Making our way through the woods. It's a lot denser towards the lake but the further we got, the sparser it was. Then the border of mists.
"Do you think we should try to make our way across?" Daniel asked.
"Don't bother," I replied, "I've done it and it goes nowhere. The haze will always stay a step ahead."
"It's kinda like an entrance, right? I always come through it to get here." Alex said.
"I always find myself at the inlet." Doubt seemed to colour Daniel's sentence.
"If you want to try, by all means. Not like we have much to do anyway."
"Yeah, come on." I urged. But just as expected, the mist kept shying away from us.
"So you always pop up by the lake, I have to fight my way in from the mist. And Hady kinda just wanders around the forest." Alex said, trying to work out the logic. "That doesn't make any sense. If it's so random, why haven't we met anyone and why-" She broke off and continued in her softest voice, "Why do we always find each other. Look." Her last word barely a whisper.
The three of us stopped in our tracks and I watched the familiar face wandering past us.
"Cam?" I asked wonderingly.
"Cameron." Alex said with more force.
He turned his piercing blue gaze towards us. "Hey guys, how's it going?"
"I didn't know you had the dreams too!" For some reason, he was the last person I would expect to see here. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Trippy place, huh?" He continued, "Trippy dream."
"This isn't a dream, Cam. It's real." Alex said.
"It's not a dream?"
"No."
"Where are we?" He asked.
"We don't know."
There was a moment's pause before he seemed to notice the third party in our small crowd.
"Hey, I'm Cameron Stephens." He said to Daniel who replied in kind.
"So... What's going on?" We led him back to the clearing, explaining on the way. He seemed to zone out at times, but he seemed to accept everything without disbelief and few questions. Dana flickered into view sometime later and he gawked at her till Alex hissed at him for being rude.
Sadness seemed to accentuate her beauty as she gazed at her twin. It gave her an ethereal air of bittersweet perfection.
I was close enough to her and Daniel that I could catch a few snippets of what he was saying to her, even though she said nothing back. I didn't want to intrude but having my brother here with me has strengthened my resolve to make sense of what's going on. Before he appeared, it had begun to feel like an adventure. Interesting and exciting. Now, my adventure has turned blindingly real.
"Sorry for interrupting, Dan." I started, shortening his name without meaning to. "But, you heard Dana calling out for you?"
"Yes, but I can't be sure whether I heard it in my sleep or if she actually said it. Her room's connected to mine, you see. And ever since the eversleep, I've left the connecting door open."
Dana turned her eyes to me. It almost stopped my heart to have her look at me so imploringly, as though pleading for something. I held my breath until the expression on her face softened and she turned back to Daniel. I had this inexplicable feeling that she was trying to tell me something.
"I think she needs help." Daniel said while Dana nodded, "But I don't know how to help her."
"Didn't she ask you to join her?" Dana nodded more vigorously at that. It was creepy because she was kinda translucent, and when the light hits her at a certain angle, that part of her vanishes.
The light. Morning was nearing and soon we'd all be back in our beds.
"So maybe you need to help her by joining her?" I guessed and looked at Dana who started to shake her head.
"What can we do to help?" I asked her, but all she did was stare at me blearily.
"How can I join you, D?" Daniel asked, stepping closer to her. Still, she remained mute. "I don't know how." His head bowed in dejection and I had to avert my eyes.
When I opened them again, the morning sun was shining on my face. I sat up straight and opened my journal.
cameron
I looked at the single world mutely before jumping out of my bed and hammering on his door.
"Why didn't you tell me!" I demanded when he opened it.
"Tell you what?" He tried to rub the sleep from his eyes, "Man... Is this revenge for the other day?"
"No, the dreams, Cam. Have you been having weird dreams?"
"No, Hady. We're not all cuckoo like you." He laughed dryly. "Although, I think..."
I held my breath.
"Yeah, your friend Alex..." He said mostly to himself before slamming the door in my face.