"тнere'ѕ ѕoмeтнιng aвoυт loѕιng ғrιendѕ, parтιcυlarly yoυng people, wнere ιт'ѕ noт ѕoмeтнιng тнaт yoυ geт over. ι don'т вelιeve тнere'ѕ a нealιng proceѕѕ," -Chris Cornell
•∞•
FOURTY MINUTES LATER.....
• R A I N B O W •
I hummed to myself as I walked around, scrambling past trees and skipping over the occasional rock that found itself wedges into the ground of the Earth.
I found that nature was quite marvelous, quite silly though. And while it had its beauties, it also had its flaws. One of those being the sticks that always seemed to appear soil-ey to trip someone over or leave a scratch as a trophy.
(Welcome our best friend, Pun Counter, with a counting of... 1)
I stumbled over the stick, falling right into the grimy soil. I groaned and sat up, knocking off the excess dirt from my arms and dress. I shook my head and combed my fingers through my hair, feeling as if the dirt had gotten into it too.
Dirt always seemed to find a way into the places you never wanted it to be, or where it was least expected sometimes. It would be found in the cupboards of my old house every now and then, and I assumed that there must've been a rat or mouse that dragged along the soil from its petite and small feet. Or occasionally I'd find it lying around on the floor near the door from the days where the rain came down like little droplets meant to just litter our faces with butterfly-like kisses and the mud would dry up after a few days, being dragged from the soles of our shoes and wiped onto the rug at the entrance.
I dusted off my cake hat —which I was glad had made its way back to me—and promptly adjusted it on my head to avoid it falling. It was fake frosting and a fake cake, obviously since, well, that would be quite silly if it were to be real. Imagine wearing a real cake on your head, as delightful as it might sound, what if it collapses? Or maybe just the fact that it's an actual food or desert?
My mind always did that every now and then, fill in the gaps of worry and silence with the most random of thoughts to keep myself distracted. If I stayed distracted, then it would keep me happy until we resolved the conflict. Much like how some people bit their nails or fiddled with their hair in times of nervousness or tugged on the body of their soft fabricated clothes. Or perhaps even the few who found themselves tying knots over and over again on a sturdy rope and the ones who wound their watches in grievance and worry.
I used to do that a lot more when I was little than now. When I was little, all I could think about was Mom. And back then, I was too small to understand that she wasn't coming back, that she couldn't come back. And Pop tried so hard to shelter me from it for as long as he could. But over time, people have to learn and understand.
Pop always said I would fidget with random things I could get my hands on. I would mesh the bits of clay I found into small cookies or glue together paper cones to create the perfect inedible desert. I was an active kid, hyper and almost manic but not entirely. And I was always thinking of Mom.
I guess before she passed away, I wasn't that observant. But when I started to realize that I didn't have much time left with her, I would just stare at her face and try to remember every little detail, even the ones hidden in obscurity.
I remembered her lively eyes, so brightly yellow like Gold and her mother's eyes. Pop used to tell me how her eyes would light up and bring joy to everyone. And she had dimples, that constantly indented in her cheeks due to her constantly grinning. Her nose was like a slope, no outward model or anything, just a slope down like a skiing route.
Her hair was short, barely reaching past her chin as her bright pink and curly hair bounced with every movement she made. Her hair always smelled like strawberries.
I noticed all the little things, despite what it may have seemed like. Little details made up a person, myriads of their designs like a perfectly programmed video game with each thing designed for a purpose and to give both its set of characters and storyline a life of its own. The personified embodiments of ourselves put into a virtual world destined for things far greater than what we could imagine, attaching ourselves and bonding with the alter reality on a level of relation defined by similar feelings or people in our real lives.
I had made it a priority to notice all the small habits and personalized selves that the others had. The defining characteristics that showed who they were, and their traits that gave them a sense of living, a sense of humane emotion.
I continued to stay sitting there, pondering with my lip stuck out as it pouted and never had I felt more like a sulking little kid. I fiddled with the bracelets wrapped around my wrists and sighed, thinking about where Lunar could've gone.
Where had she disappeared to? Were we just being mere silly gooses and wasting our time on a —dare I say— wild goose chase? Nonsense, then was not a time for a few puns. Excellent and hilarious puns, but highly inappropriate for the moment. What could I say? I couldn't help myself. They were quite punny.
(Comedians are boring compared to this comedy gold. Pun Counter: 2)
I giggled slightly at my own banter, finding the quips quite entertaining. After getting all the laughter out, I stood up and dusted off my dress once more. Dirt was not welcomed at that moment, though it normally never was.
I hopped over the stick at fault for my visit with the soil and quickly stuck my tongue out at it in retaliation. It didn't do anything. Maybe that was a tad bit rude. Whatever, not to be a stick in the mud.
Haha, I'm hilarious.
(Indeed you are. Pun counter: 3)
I skipped away and fumbled past a few more trees, with especially tough bark to serve as their natural armor. And their leaves provided their wonderfully green wigs to top off their always-in-fashion looks.
"Lunar? Lunar? Where are you?" I called out, cupping my mouth with my hands and wandering around more.
Nothing but the sweet sound of silence. How perfect would that be if that infamous song started playing at that exact moment? If only, then that statement would count as a marvelous pun.
"Lunar? Come on, don't worry! I won't torture you with endless puns this time!" I yelled out in hopes of luring her back, "okay, that was a straight-up lie. I'm totally gonna keep telling puns. But that's besides the point!"
Still nothing but the music provided by the birds living in the thickets and the others far off in the distance. I wondered if they had found anything helpful. I had just hoped nothing bad or sinister had happened to Lunar. That would be just tree-chery.
(is this when I make a smart comment? Pun counter: 4)
I sighed once again, much more dramatically as if Gold had rubbed off on me. Why couldn't life be as simple as baking a cake? That would be as delightful as a cheesecake. But I fear we, or maybe Lunar more so, might be in grate danger.
(let's admit we've all laughed at her puns in live-streams at one point and you can't say otherwise. Pun Counter: 5)
I could just hear all the others groaning at my puns. And the annoyance received from everyone just fueled my humor even more so. I giggled at the thought of their reactions.
I hurried over a thick bush, nearly falling right into it. And that would not have been a bushel of fun.
(i ran out of things to say. Pun Counter: 6)
I rushed past the shrubs and farther into the forest, peeking past every tree and pushing past the low-hanging branches. I kept searching for Lunar.
"Lunar? Lunar? Come on, this isn't funny!" I yelled out, spinning around on the heels of my feet to try and find her, "Lunar? Oh, witch way did she go?"
(A little excessive? Never. Pun Counter: 7)
I giggled and kept moving onward, searching and calling out for our friend. I found myself in a cleared area, a patch of overgrown grass and the leaves parting to allow the sunlight cast down against the ground in a warming tone.
It felt good to feel the sunlight beating down in streams onto my face. It was warm and bright, the opposite of what the past weeks had been. The fact that this forest was still standing amazed me. Everything else was flooded and broken, thrown and destroyed.
It had been raining so hard during that time that we couldn't even see five feet in front of us when we stepped outside. The windows knew only the abuse of the raindrops beating against their fragile glass skin and the ground only knew the thirst-quenching showers dropped down from the skies from which everything bathed in.
Sure, the skies were still a little cloudy every now and then and the temperatures were freezing at times, but it was calm. A safe haven in between the walls of the storm.
The sound of leaves rustling behind me caught my attention and I whizzed around on my heels. I glanced around warily and failed to see anything out of the ordinary. I assumed it was just a small animal that had run through the bush.
At least, until something thrashed into my back from behind, pushing me to the ground as the wind was knocked out of me. As I collided with the ground on my stomach, I screamed.
I crawled onto my back and held up my body using my forearms when I met the face of someone. A face so familiar yet never seen before. But it was a face unforgiving and apathetic. A face only described once to me by Funneh and Gold, in a situation that seemed innocent enough.
Oh, no.
With that, a bag was shoved over my head.
• F U N N E H •
"Rainbow! Rainbow? Where are you?" I called out, cupping my mouth with my gloved hands and hurrying through the forest, "Rainbow?"
"Oh, what could've happened to her? Why are people just disappearing?" Gold asked, pushing past a large bramble bush, "and why must everything in nature be so prickly?"
"Quick, Rainbow, blink once if you're in danger," Draco joked, trying to lighten the mood.
I muffled a laugh and smacked his arm, "Don't make me laugh at a time like this! This is serious!"
He screamed from my hit and hurried off, complaining, "That's abuse!"
"Your jokes are abuse!" I yelled back, laughing and trying to step over a log before absentmindedly tumbling over it.
"Karma!" I heard Draco yell in the distance accompanied with a laugh and I mocked his words under my breath, standing up.
I turned around and Aly was grinning, obviously trying to hold back a laugh as I held up my index finger and pointed at her, "You didn't see anything."
I marched away and hiked alongside Gold, who was running the fingers of her gauntlet along the bark of the trees surrounding us.
"Have you seen Rainbow?" I asked her, to which she frowned and shook her head disappointingly.
"No. Funneh, I'm scared. First it was Lunar and now Rainbow disappears. Who's next? You? Me? Draco? Aly, Alec, Kyran, or even Evan? What if it's a murderer like in the movies and they're picking us off one by one?" Gold worried.
"Relax, Gold. I'm sure everything is fine and you're just exaggerating. And really? A murderer?" I raised an eyebrow in skepticism.
"I'm not being dramatic! People have gotten murdered at Y.H.S and even here! Remember before the storm, with the mansion and the murders?" Gold defended.
"Don't remind me," I sighed, crossing my arms, "look, let's just find them. I'm sure this is all just some big misunderstanding and—"
"Guys," Evan said, directing our attention to him as he emerged from behind some bushes before Draco hurried right beside him, "we found something."
Gold and I exchanged nervous glances, before following them warily. It was probably nothing, right? It was just my doubts getting the better of me. Yeah, totally.
We hiked through the thickets to a clearing in the trees, where the grass was especially overgrown and tall and the leaves parted in an almost perfect circle to allow sunlight to beam down.
Alec was crouched down, inspecting something besides Aly and Kyran. Gold and I walked over to them, finally spotting and confirming our fears.
On the ground laid Rainbow's iconic cake hat and her golden arm bracelet. They remained there, settled onto the grass and the light shining off of the bracelet almost tauntingly.
"We're all gonna die!" Gold exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air, "they've gotten Lunar and Rainbow and now we're next!"
"No one is going to die—" Alec and I started to say in unison before Kyran agreed to the propaganda.
"We can't die! We're too young!" Kyran panicked, spinning his head around, "what if they're watching us right now?"
"No one is dying, jeez," I assured, placing my hands on my hips, "look, it can't be that bad. Maybe they're playing a prank. That's plausible, right?"
"But who would play this worrying of a prank?" Draco asked, pausing before realizing who he actually asked that and held up his index finger, "don't answer that."
"I dunno, man. Maybe they are tryna' pull a prank on us," Evan shrugged, "if they are, it worked."
"Well, it's not a very funny prank," Gold murmured, "just wait until they get back. They're gonna get an earful from me."
We laughed bitterly, hoping we were right. Maybe this was all just a prank. A really out-of-taste prank. Right? Yeah. That was all.
TWENTY MINUTES LATER.....
"Funneh, come here," Draco called me over, motioning for me to follow him inside the tent.
"What's up, bud?" I asked, putting down Lunar's journal before I could even open it and heading inside the tent.
Earlier we had added some poles we found from the debris to hold up the tent higher so that we could actually stand inside it.
"Okay, so the serving of tea is that I wanted to see how far apart Rainbow and Lunar supposedly disappear if this isn't just a prank. Because their last known locations according to their stuff were extremely far apart," Draco explained, revealing that the paper was actually a map.
"Well, we found Lunar's stuff around the northeast of the camp. And Rainbow's was around the southwest," I added.
"I know. I went back to both spots and figured out their totally approximate coordinates," he stated, marking two spots opposite of one another, making an invisible diagonal line.
"If someone really did take Rainbow and Lunar, they were really determined. That's almost what, five miles, right?" I pointed out, staring at the markings.
"It's probably just paranoia. Lunar got me watching too many conspiracy theories," he chuckled, "but for real. Rainbow must've wandered that far away searching and they followed her."
"Key word: if. I'm sure it's just a prank, right? Lunar would do that. Morbid humor is her specialty and Rainbow would totally be down to give us a scare," I reasoned, "yeah, I'm sure it's all fine."
"Cue the scream," Draco announced, sticking his index finger up instructionally as I formed a confused expression on my face.
Then, a scream filled the air.
"I CALLED IT!"
FIVE MINUTES LATER....
"You little jinx!" I exclaimed, punching Draco's shoulder and instigating a scream from him.
"DOES NO ONE SEE THIS ABUSE?" Draco screamed, moving away from me and dramatically rubbing his shoulder, "an apple bruises less than me!"
"How did you even know this was gonna happen?" Aly asked, obviously stifling a laugh as she tried to be serious.
"It's called the climax, my children. Everyone knows when it's coming. And our lives are worse than a book, so why not treat it like one?" Draco reasoned, before sighing and shaking his head, "I've been reading too much manga."
"Can your manga predict where the others are?" Evan chuckled, "that would be mad cool if it could."
"Sadly, my knowledge only goes so far. Lunar is basically omniscient, but refuses to tell us anything because of the fabric of time or whatever. But what happened here?" Draco pointed to Gold's necklace lying on the ground along with her golden arm bracelet as well.
"Same thing as last time," Alec explained, "I don't think they all just upped and left. You saw how worried Gold was. That was genuine."
"One-hundred percent Gold disapproved," Evan joked, "sorry, man. Just tryna' lighten the mood."
"This is insane. No one is picking us off one by one like some sort of... of.... slasher movie!" I denied, "we're just going crazy. Or maybe just blowing this out of proportion."
"I think this time it's real, Funneh," Aly whispered to me as Evan, Alec, and Draco all inspected the area, "maybe Draco is right."
"I thought today was already sad, what with Lunar, Rainbow, and now Gold disappearing. But it's a very sad day when Draco is right," I sighed, crossing my arms.
"I heard that!" Draco yelled out from the distance, to which I heard Alec and Evan slightly laugh.
Tension was awful. It was a sickening feeling that rocked me to my core every time. I couldn't take a time seriously. It was so intense, so surreal, so livid and worrying constantly. I hated tension. I hated the unsettling feeling and deliberate anxiety.
The small laughs we had in between the thick tension was reassuring. It was a joyous feeling, so craving and valuable to me because every second everything kept getting worse and worse. The laughter, the humor released us from the grasps temporarily. It was just enough for us to catch our breath every time, only to submerge beneath the surface of seriousness.
I sighed and wandered away, knowing it was mostly stupid considering the situation. But blame me, I was worried and absentminded at the time.
I sat down behind a bunch of bushes, hidden away and concealed. I crossed my legs and exhaled, resting my head in my hands. My hair fell over my shoulders and hid the peripheral sides of the world around me.
It was just a prank. A harmless, simplistic prank, I thought to myself. I kept repeating it over and over in my head, thinking that maybe if I said it enough times, it would become a reality. Over and over, like a game in my mind. Cycling like the pedals on a bike of a child learning to ride, realizing they could see the world more. But the fulfilling emotion that child would feel is the opposite of what I felt.
Where were they? This was more than just a prank, just a joke or gag. This was something serious, something tragic, something far worse than just an accident or quip. They wouldn't just vanish. That wasn't them. I knew them. I knew that I knew them. And I knew that they wouldn't just disappear.
The same stupid and frustrating questioned swirled in my mind, bumping into every corner and rattling my existence. I hated the unknown, as much as I also desired to venture into it. It was my worst fear. The fear of unknown. It drew back to everything.
You didn't know what other people would say, how they would react when you confessed or admitted something. You didn't know what would happen when you entered a new place or met a new person. You didn't know anything, it was all a mystery.
Being unknown, being in the unknown, worst fear.
The worst thing was to be in the dark.
I started to worry more, the same type of worry I hadn't truly felt in years. The anxiety-filled dread that welled up inside of me like a faucet with its knobs broken off and unable to stop overflowing.
This type of fear was old, familiar, but old. I wasn't acquainted to it anymore, just a faint memory. But when I did feel it, it was too close, too easy to recognize.
I always had someone as a lifesaver. I would be drowning and someone would come in and pull me to the surface, a lifeguard and support. It didn't matter who, I always had someone.
I was isolated at the moment. It was quiet, people were disappearing, and I was all alone with only myself and my thoughts.
The thought of something bad happening to everyone lingered in my head, haunting me and I couldn't stop it. It echoed and taunted, repeating over and over until it drowned out my doubts. It was terrifying.
The feeling of when the world around you starts spinning and your breaths shorten, your body shaking and your eyes burning is unforgettable. No matter how long it's been since you experienced it, it's impossible to forget.
I felt my eyes starting to burn, my nose hurting and my face flushing with not embarrassment, but the inability to stop. I shouldn't have been crying. Why was I crying? I felt fine a minute ago. It was okay just a second ago.
But was it really okay a second ago?
I bit my lip to try and stop before the tears could start. I kept my face resting in the palms of my hands. I was straining so hard to not give into the breakdown to the point where I felt that if I bit my lip any harder, I would taste blood.
And just when I felt the weakest, a hand rested on my shoulder. I gasped and looked up, rubbing my eyes instantly. I huffed in relief when I realized it was just Aly.
"Hey," she quietly said, sitting down beside me and resting a hand on my shoulder.
I chuckled bitterly, "hey, Aly. Don't worry about me. It's probably weird to see me here anyway."
She didn't say anything as I stared at the ground, only kept her eyes on my face. I sniffled and didn't say a thing, not really knowing what to actually say.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked softly, moving closer to comfort me, "it might not be as assuring coming from me. I know we're not close. But, I'm willing to listen if you need it."
I considered her offer before shakily sighing, "It's just that.... I'm scared. I don't know where my friends are, I don't know where my parents are, my home is destroyed, and everything just seems to pile up in a way that shouldn't bother me but it does. Why? Why am I so stressed out about this? Why am I in such denial? I keep thinking about what's happening to the others right now."
Aly didn't say anything, only listened with a concerned but invested expression. I continued to stare at the ground and fiddle with the necklace I wore as I felt her gaze on me, gesturing for me to continue.
"What if we become like those people in the news, or what if we end up like the others back at Y.H.S? Like Liv, Sam, or even Valerie? We're teenagers, having lived only a fraction of our lifespan and theirs were ended early. I can't imagine the last few seconds they were alive, the agony, pain, or fear they felt. And then I imagine that's happening to the others right now. That any of these seconds, they're writhing in pain or slowly dying. What if we don't find them in time? What if that's happening to my parents, or already happened?" I kept asking.
"Funneh, nothing bad is happening to them," Aly whispered, trying to assure me, "I know it's hard to imagine and hard to believe, but you just have to trust that they're okay. You have to hope that it's going to be fine."
"But it's all hope. Hope, hope, hope. It's no solid fact or written in stone. It's just faith in something uncertain. And I love to try to think on the good side, but sometimes it's easier said than done. And when this is over, what about our home? It's gone. People have been killed, others have lost everything, what's there to look forward to? What if I can't save them all in time? What if I'm just being dramatic? Maybe I'm sitting here, crying over nothing when others have actual reasons to be crying? What if all this stress is just me being selfish—" Aly interrupted me.
"Funneh, you're not selfish. And even if you've done a few selfish things before, so has everyone else. You're literally one of the nicest people I've met. And right now, you have every right to be worried. I know you and the Krew are close, they're basically your other halves. And when you're close to someone, the thought of losing them or something happening to them is unbearable. Look, there's a lot of things we all have to hide. And.... I'm sorry that I pressed so hard to figure out what you were hiding. I'm sorry that... that I refused to respect it. But knowing it all now, I can only try to understand. Maybe hope isn't a solid answer, a fact. But, it's something. It's a possibility in a million. There are infinite possibilities and yet only one happens every time. You just have to try. And if the Krew saw you upset right now, what would they say?" she asked.
"Lunar would say.... to suck it up and embrace it," I laughed bitterly, "Gold would tell me to.... 'woman up' and deal with it. Rainbow would... she would say it was gonna be okay, that they would be there for me. And Draco, he'd probably say the same thing as you are."
"You're going to find them. They are here. And as long as you can imagine them, see that they'll be okay in the future, it can happen. Just breathe," Aly whispered, "breathe, and imagine. It's not guaranteed, but not impossible. Think of it like a map. You don't know how you're supposed to get there, or what you're supposed to do, but you've got Point A and Point B."
Point A. Point B.
Then, it hit me.
"Wait, that's it," I gasped, looking up from my palms and standing up, "I know what to do!"
"Okay, I didn't mean to have a midlife crisis right now—" Aly sputtered out, standing up behind me.
"I know what to do! Quick, where's Draco?" I asked abruptly, ignoring the tears still streaming down my face and bouncing on my heels.
"Uh, I don't know. Ask the guys. He was with them last but why do you—" I cut her off with a thanks before sprinting away.
I pushed past bushes and branches, a few slapping me as I didn't care that I was still crying. The tears were meaningless by then, and I knew that the revelation I had was important. I needed to tell Draco.
I hopped over a bush and stumbled upon Evan, Alec, and Kyran, who were obviously surprised by my sudden appearance. At least, Kyran was. He screamed.
"Guys, where's Draco?" I asked rushingly, practically beaming with adrenaline for literally no urgent reason, "quick, this is important. I think I figured it out."
"He went that way. Why?" Evan inquired, turning around with a highly confused expression before both he and Alec noticed my own face.
"Uh, Funneh? Are you okay?" Kyran questioned, calming down from my abrupt entrance and noticing the fact that tears were still streaming down my face and that my eyes were red.
"I'M GREAT, THANKS!" I screamed, sprinting away towards the direction they told me as I heard them call my name.
I kept running until I almost slammed right into a tree, to which Draco screamed in surprise. Luckily, I stumbled forward and caught myself. I spun around and announced, "I KNOW WHAT WE NEED TO DO!"
"Okay, calm down. Dear God, you're insane," Draco commented as I ignored him, "what'd you find out?"
"I'll show you! Come on, we'll get the others," I hurried, grabbing his arm and dragging him behind me before I bursted into yet another run.
"Slow down! I'm not as young as I used to be!"
I didn't slow down.
FOUR MINUTES LATER.....
"What was... so... important that you... okay, give me.... one second. Jeez, woman, how... do you even run... for that long?" Draco wheezed out, coughing as we arrived at the tent.
"It's called adrenaline, buddy. We're well acquainted," I replied, grabbing the map out of the tent and holding it out for everyone to see.
"I envy.... everyone who didn't..... have to run with.... this.... freaking firecracker," Draco coughed.
"While Draco is having an asthma attack, what got you so worked up?" Aly asked, pointing to Draco.
"This is what I realized," I explained, grabbing a pen and quickly marking the spot where Gold disappeared and then where the teleportation pearl shattered.
"You realized a lot of stuff disappeared?" Kyran guessed, raising an eyebrow in skepticism.
"Nope. Look, maybe this'll help you catch my drift," I said, connecting all the markings in a specific shape.
All their mouths formed an 'O' as I held up the newly drawn on map. I nodded and their faces showed that they knew what I meant. I looked down at the map myself, at the marking I had written.
An arrow.
•∞•
‟an arrow мay ғly тнroυgн тнe aιr and leave no тrace; вυт an ιll тнoυgнт leaveѕ a тraιl lιĸe a ѕerpenт,"
-Charles Mackay
LUNA is typing.....