See You Later

*Beep* *Beep* my alarm sounds waking me from my wonderful sleep. Ugh! I do not want to get up right now. I roll over in bed and fling my arm around trying to find the button to shut the alarm off. I finally find it and shut it off. Just as I am rolling back over to go back to sleep, my phone rings.

“I cannot have one moment's peace while trying to sleep!” I groan and grab my phone. “What?” I ask, not bothering to check the caller ID.

“Hey Asher! You wanna skip school with me?” Karter asks.

“Hey Karter.” I sigh. “Sure. School is boring anyway. Plus it’s Friday. Who all is skipping?”

“Um... Miles,” Silent groan, “Axton,” sigh of relief, “Honey,” audible groan, “ and anyone you want.” He finishes. Great people choices. Just who I wanted to spend my whole Friday with.

“Hmmm. I think… I’ll invite… Rosalina.” I say, smug and smiling. He hates her. The six of us have a very weird friendship. I hate Honey, and she hates me. Everyone but me hates Rosalina. I dislike Miles, well actually I kind of like him and I just act like I don’t, but he likes me, and he makes it known to the entire word every chance he gets. Axton, Karter and I are okay friends.

 

 

*Flashback*

 

“Hey Asher!” 3rd grade Miles calls to me at recess.

“What?” my 3rd grade self calls back.

“I LOOOOOOVE YOU!!! Will you be my girlfriend?”

“No. I don’t want a boyfriend. My momma says I’m too little. She says boys have cooties.”

 

That was the first time he proclaimed his love for me. There was also this one time in 8th grade. It was the first dance of the school year.

 

“Asher, will you dance with me?” Miles asked me.

“Sure.” I replied, not knowing what I was getting myself into.

He led me onto the dance floor and we danced for that song. When that song was over, I tried to leave, but he wouldn’t let me. Another song came on and he whispered something in my ear.

“I picked this song just for you.” He whispered. Louder he said, “I love you Asher. I always have, and I always will.” It was so embarrassing.

 

Then there was Homecoming our Freshman year of high school, which was last year.

 

He got to school early and decorated my locker. When I got to school, I opened my locker and a bunch of balloons came falling out at me. I screamed and fell. Everyone thought it was funny, but I was embarrassed. Then Miles came up to me at lunch with a box of chocolates in his hands.

“Asher, will you go to Homecoming with me?” He asked, handing me the box.

“Sure.” I said, because he went through all of the trouble of asking me, and I didn’t want to be mean. For the rest of the week, until the Homecoming dance, he followed me around like a little lost puppy. He kept saying that I was his girlfriend and that he loved me. I had to keep reminding him that we weren’t dating and that I was only going with him as a friend.

 

*End of flashback*

 

 

“Ugh! You know how much everyone doesn’t like her. She’s so whiny and she is always compl-” Karter starts.

“I know. You also know I don’t like Honey, but you get to bring her along. It’s only fair.” I cut him off.

“Ugh,” he sighs into the phone, “Whatever. Just meet us at the edge of town in our spot in 20.” He hangs up.

I climb out of bed and get dressed while calling Rosalina. We are ready and get to our spot right on time.

“Took you long enough! Come on. It’ll be dark by the time we find anything cool. Let’s get the adventure started!” Miles says, winking at me. I roll my eyes and start toward the forest. We all run around and mess with things just having fun until Honey trips over something.

“Hey guys! Come check this out.” she frantically waves us over. We run over to see what she found.

“It’s a clump of dirt.” Rosalina states, dumbly.

“Clean it off. It’s not just dirt.” Axton says, giving her a duh look. We clean it off and find a cart.

“Wow. A cart. Cool.” I say sarcastically.

“Look under it. I think it leads to somewhere scary. It looks like it hasn’t been used in forever.” Miles says, trying to get a rise out of one of us girls.

“Let’s take it and see where it leads.” Karter says, hopping in.

“Let’s not. What if one of us gets killed or taken? What even is it?” Rosalina asks.

“It’s an old abandoned mining track. Stop being such a baby and get in. If anyone is going to get taken it would be you.” Honey says, getting in the cart.

“What are we going to use to push it?” I ask, looking around.

“This. Duh.” Honey says holding up a paddle. I roll my eyes and hop in. Might as well because we are going with or without the whole group.

“Listen Rosalina. If you don’t want to go, then you can go back to school and be the boring person everyone thinks you are. OR you can come with us and have some fun. Maybe we will find a secret graveyard or something spooky.” Miles says, getting in. Axton gets in as well. We all stare expectantly at Rosalina. Sighing, she gets in and we take off.

“Woohoo!” We all shout, laughing and having fun. Even Rosalina seems to be enjoying herself.

“Hey! Stop a second. What is that?” Rosalina asks, pointing below us, through the trees. We stop and look. It’s a car graveyard!

“Let’s check it out!” Miles yells, trying to get out of the cart.

“NO! Someone could get killed down there. It’s too dangerous! Plus it’s getting darker. We should be heading back now.” I say, pulling him back into the cart.

“You’re starting to sound like Rosalina.” He whispers in my ear. I glare and push him away from me.

“Shut up. It’s going to be dark soon anyway.” I say, crossing my arms.

“Ooh. Is someone afraid of the dark?” He teases me.

“No. I just don’t want to be stuck in a cart in the middle of a forest with idiot boys at night. Sue me.” I say, sticking my tongue out like a child.

“Come on babe. I’ll protect you.” He waggles his eyebrows and winks at me. I roll my eyes and shake my head.

“I’ll pass. Let’s just go home.” I huff. We push off again and head home. By the time we get home it’s really late.

“Meet back here early tomorrow. We’ll check that place out. Tell your parents we’re going camping or something. That way we have the entire weekend to explore.” Axton says before we go our separate ways. We all nod and leave. Unfortunately I go the same way as Miles, so I have to deal with his torture longer.

“I’ll walk you home like a gentleman, so nobody can hurt you.” He says trying to link arms with me. I pull my arm away and walk faster. “Come on. Why are you so grumpy? I’m just trying to be nice.” He huffs, running to catch up with me.

“I don’t like you. Leave me alone.” I cross my arms. “Please.” I add when I see the hurt look on his face.

“Fine.” He says, going left to his house. “See you tomorrow.”
“Unfortunately.” I mutter walking up my front steps.

As soon as I got home my mom started yelling at me.

“Where have you been young lady? It’s past your curfew.”

“Relax. I was out with some friends. No big deal. Oh hey. I’m going camping with them tomorrow. I won’t be back until Monday.” I shrug and walk upstairs.

“Okay. Just be safe and stay out of the woods. Remember a couple years ago some kids went into the woods, and one of them died.” Mom hollers at me. Right.. because one of us is totally going to die.

The next day I pack my stuff and meet my friends at our spot on the edge of town.

“Ready to go?” I ask. They nod and we head back into the woods with the sun rising behind us. We all pile into the cart and away we go.

“I hope we find death and destruction.” Miles says, smiling evilly.

“I hope we find unicorns and rainbows.” I say sarcastically, giving him an Are you dumb? look.

“Way to be a party pooper Asher. Hope you fall and break something.” He says playfully. I stick my tongue out and glare at him. Yes, I am mature. I know. “ Remember. No backing out now. We stay until Monday. If you have a problem with that, then go home now.” He says giving me a pointed look. I roll my eyes. Whatever.

“Let’s go.” I say, ignoring his look. We get to the car graveyard just as the sun is reaching the treetops. Everybody piles out of the cart and we start exploring.

“Single file so nobody is shoving anybody off cars.. Cough Cough… Miles.” I say glancing at him. He pretends to look hurt, clutching at his heart.

“Ouch baby. That hurts. I would never push you off a car.” He winks and we line up in single file. Karter braves the front, with Honey behind him. I stand behind Honey, with Miles behind me and Axton behind him. Rosalina takes up the rear. We are just walking along when I hear Axton calling out to me.

“Asher! Watch your step.” he hollers, just as I step off the edge of the car. Miles catches me before I fall.

“Thanks guys.” I say, smiling at Miles.

“No problem.” He says, putting me down. I watch my steps with more care as we continue walking. Out of nowhere we hear a scream come from behind us. We all whip around, well 5 of us anyway. Rosalina is gone. We all look around, but we don’t find her. I see movement in the bushes a little way down from the cars we are on. I point and we take off, not watching where we step, or where we’re going. We lose the movement for a little bit, but we eventually find it again. We chase after it until we lose it completely.

After looking around for a little while longer, we see an opening in the dense brush. We run toward it, but stop when we almost fall off the cliffside. We turn back around, to go home, but we have no idea where we are.

“Anyone remember which direction we came from? I think we got lost.” Axton says, pointing out the obvious.

“No.” we all say at the same time. It takes us all night, and we have to pull out our flashlights, but we finally find our way back to the starting point. We didn’t end up finding Rosalina.

“Hey! What’s that?” I ask, pointing to a light ahead of us. We look at each other and shrug. We head toward it. The light is wrapped into a piece of wire sticking out of the car. The car has some writing on it as well. It reads: I’m back. Did you miss me?

I take a step back, appalled.

“Asher careful!” Karter yells, just as I fall off the car. Nobody catches me this time. I land on something with a crunch. I look down and scream. I’m standing on Rosalina.

“Get me up! Get me up!” I sob. Hands reach down and pull me up. I’m shaking and sobbing.

“Come here.” Miles says, pulling me into his chest. I sob into his shoulder, soaking his shirt, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

“What was that?” Honey asks.

“Rosalina.” I let out in a shaky breath. Karter and Axton hop down and lift Rosalina’s body onto the car. Honey gasps and I start crying again.

“Let’s get them home.” Karter says, gesturing toward me and Rosalina’s body. Karter picks up Rosalina, and Miles picks me up. I tuck myself into him as we walk. We walk back to where we left the cart, but the cart is gone.

“Great! No cart, a dead body, and it’s freezing! What are we going to do now?” Honey complains.

“Shut up! Be nice. She was my friend.” I yell, untucking myself from Miles, ready to hit her. He pulls me back to him and glares at Honey.

“Calm down, both of you. Honey, that was mean. Apologize. Now.” He says sternly.

“Fine,” she huffs, “I’m sorry for being mean. Happy now?” I glare at her.

“Thank you. Now, let’s be reasonable. We can just walk home. It shouldn’t be too far.” Miles says, setting me down and wrapping an arm around my shoulders. He holds up a hand to silence any protests.”It’s that or stay and take our chances with whatever killed Rosalina. I don’t know about you, but I want to live.”

There’s a moment of silence, when time seems to stop. We all look at Rosalina, and start walking in the direction of home.

We walk along the track for days on end, stopping only to go to the bathroom and eat. We run out of food and we have no more water. It’s been days.

We finally make it back to town, about a week later. What we see when we get there, though, surprises us. The town is a complete mess. Everything is burning or ruined.

“What happened?” I ask, staring at the ruined town in wonder.

“Obviously something, otherwise the town wouldn’t look like this.” Honey says, getting smart. I roll my eyes and turn away, too tired to fight with her right now.

“Let’s just bury Rosalina and get some sleep. We can figure this out later.” Axton says, starting toward the cemetery. We dig Rosalina a grave, and that takes most of the night and into the next day. We say nice things about her short life, and bury her. By then a whole day has passed. We find a decent place to stay in for the night.

“We’ll get supplies tomorrow and see if we can find someone to tell us what’s going on.” Karter says, trying to sleep. We all nod and try to sleep as well.

“Miles?” I whisper after everyone else is asleep.

“Yeah?” He whispers back.

“What do you think happened?” I ask.

“With Rosalina or the town?” he asks back.

“Both.” It’s quiet for a while and I think he’s sleeping. Just as I’m about to fall asleep he replies.

“I don’t know. Now come here. I’m cold and you need to sleep.” I snuggle closer to him and fall asleep to the steady beating of his heart.

The next day we are all up early, looking for supplies and survivors. We find the supplies, but no people. We move on to the next town to see if there are any people there. The next town looks the same way as our town. We gather a little more supplies and head back to our town. We say goodbye to Rosalina one last time and head into the forest.

We wander for a while, until we come across our cart on the old abandoned mining track. We find the cart with a note stuck to it. The note reads:

You’ll find more of these clues throughout the forest.

Follow the track and it will lead you to the next clue.

Be aware. There are clues that will throw you off track.

Good luck and have fun!

“Great! So I guess we have an adventure. Let’s go.” Karter say, getting in the cart. We pile in after him and head in the direction of the car graveyard.

“Look for clues. Hopefully it will be easy to spot.” Honey says as we take off. We ride for a while, not finding any sort of clue. Just as we are giving up, I see something sparkling in a bush.

“Hey. I found it.” I say hopping out of the cart and running to get the clue. I walk back to the cart and read the clue. This clue says:

Congratulations Asher! I knew you would be the one to spot this clue.

You’re more observant than the others. :)

Anyway, the next clue is off track, so you will have to walk.

Go North until you see the church. The next clue is around there. Good luck!

“Come on. We have to walk North until we see a church.” I say, motioning north. We climb out of the cart and head off in the direction of the next clue. We walk until it’s almost dark. We finally find the church and push open the doors. We walk to the front and see the next clue sitting on the podium. We open it and it reads:

Oops! Wrong way. You found an off track clue. Ha Ha.

Well at least you have a place to stay tonight.

I promise this clue is not misleading.

You will have to go back South to find the next clue.

It will be hanging in a tree. Good luck!

“Great! We went the wrong way.” Honey says, glaring at me.
“Hey! Don’t blame me. I was just following the clues.” I say, glaring at her.

“Stop! Fighting is not going to solve anything. We will just stay here tonight and head back tomorrow.” Axton says, pushing us to opposite ends of the church.

“Fine.” We huff, crossing our arms. We all find somewhere to sleep for the night and settle in.

The next morning we head out in the direction that we came from the night before. It takes us until around noon to get back to the track.

“Where do we go from here?” Axton asks.

“The clue said go South, so let's go south.” I shrug and walk South. It takes us almost until dark to find the clue hanging in the tree. This clue reads:

Great job! You are almost done. Just one more clue to go.

Go West and you will find the next clue in an abandoned building.

Watch out for traps. Good luck!

“Great. Let’s go West. At least we’re almost done.” I sigh and we head West. I just want to get to the abandoned building and be done with all of this mystery clue stuff.

We get to the old abandoned building and find the clue taped to the door. Everybody looks to me to read the clue. I hold my hands up in surrender.

“I’m done. The last time I read a clue that was in a building, I got yelled at because we went the wrong way. One of you can read it.” I take a step back and gesture to anyone to get it. Nobody steps up. Sighing, I grab the note and read it out loud. I read:

Gotcha again. Ha. You went the wrong way.

At least I was nice enough to give you another place to stay.

Don’t worry. You don’t have to backtrack as far this time.

You just have to go South until you see the totem poll.

Then go East until you get to the pond.

This will be where the last clue is waiting for you.

Good luck!

“Great! Another off track clue. I hate this. Why can’t it just be over? Where are we going anyway? What’s so special about the ‘pond’ that we are going to?” Honey complains.

“We don’t know. Just be happy that they gave us a place to stay tonight. I think it’s going to storm later.” Miles says before I can snap at her.

“Yeah. I am not staying in that creepy building.” Honey says, starting to walk away.

“It’s this or wander around with no place to go in the middle of a storm. Plus you would be the only one going. The rest of us are staying here for tonight. Have fun in the storm.” I wave and open the old dusty doors. They are stuck shut so it takes a little pushing to get them open, but eventually I get it.

“Great. Let’s find something that isn’t moldy to sleep on.” I say when we are all in the building. Honey is still standing outside when I go to shut the door.

“Wait! I don’t want to be alone. Let me in.” she says. I open the door and let her in because I’m a nice person, and I don’t want to have to deal with her tomorrow if I had left her outside. We all find somewhere that isn’t moldy to go to sleep. I’m sleeping on Miles because the floor is too hard, or that’s just what I’m telling myself. It’s only for a night.

The next morning I wake up with Miles’s arms around my waist and my face right next his. I look up to find him staring at me. That’s not creepy at all, I think to myself.

“Morning Sunshine.” He says, grinning at me.

“Morning.” I say through a yawn, getting up to stretch. I look around to find that everyone is still sleeping.

“You are so cute when you sleep. You look so peaceful.” Miles says, staring at me.

“Umm. Thanks? That’s a little creepy.” I say, with an awkward laugh. He just shrugs, like, eh whatever.

“We should probably wake everyone else up and get going. It’s almost noon. The sun is pretty high in the sky.” he says, pointing through one of the holes in the roof. Sure enough, the sun is almost in the middle of the sky.

We wake everybody else up, so we can get ready to go. We have to wait for Axton and Karter to change clothes. They slept in spots where the roof leaked during the storm so they were soaked.

“Ok. Is everybody ready to go now?” I ask after they finished changing.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” We reread the clue one more time, just to make sure that we knew where we were going, and where the clue would be at. We head South looking for the totem poll.

After hours of walking South, we finally see the totem poll. Nobody knows how far we’ve walked. When we get to the totem poll, we go East, looking for the pond now. We are all wondering the same thing: What’s so special about the pond? Nobody is talking. In fact, the only sound is the sound of twigs snapping below our feet as we walk. There is a slight wind, but not enough to make the tree branches sway. We’re walking in two lines. Karter is in the front, by himself. Honey and Axton are behind him, and Miles and I take up the rear.

We walk for about 10 minutes, when suddenly Miles grabs my hand. I give him a questioning look.

“The last time a girl was in the back, she was taken and killed. I just want to make sure that you won’t get taken.” He says, turning away slightly. Is that a blush covering his cheeks. AWWW. That’s so sweet, I think. He’s blushing, and just because he’s holding my hand. He’s so cute.

“Sure. We all know you just want to hold my hand to be near me.” I tease him. He blushes more and I squeeze his hand. I lean on his shoulder and he let’s go of my hand to wrap his arm around me. He grabs my other hand, with his arm still over my shoulder. We walk like that for another good hour or two, until we finally see the pond.

“Hey,” Axton calls back to us, “I see the pond. Look for the clue.”

“Did the clue we found at the old abandoned building say where this clue would be at?” Miles asks me, letting go of my hand.

“I don’t think so.” I say, fishing the clue out of my pocket and looking at it. “Nope. It just said that it would be waiting at the pond.” I show everybody the clue before putting it back in my pocket. We start looking for the clue in the trees, on the ground, in the bushes, everywhere. Axton was walking by the edge of the pond when he bent over and picked something up.

“Hey guys. I think I found it.” We all walk over and he hands me the clue. I read it out loud. It says:

Congratulations! You have found the last clue.

Now just step left and you will see a red button on the ground.

Press that button and you will have made it to where you are supposed to be.

Great job!

We step left, but don’t see the button on the ground.

“Uh guys,” Miles says. We all look at him with questioning looks. “I think they meant your other left. You all stepped to the right.” We all step to our other left and find the button. We press it and the ground starts to shake.

“What is that?”

“It’s an earthquake.”
“It’s not an earthquake. It’s the pond. Look.” We all look at the pond. It’s starting to split open. All of the water is running down into the crack. The pond is fully split down the middle. There is a staircase leading down. We start to descend the stairs.

“Watch your step. These stairs are slick.” Karter calls from a few steps below. We finally make it to the bottom. At the bottom there is a beautiful waterfall running into a crystal clear lake.

“Wow. This is so pretty.” Honey says, looking around in awe.

“Hey guys. Over here.” We hear someone call to us. We all look, and standing there, waving frantically at us, is Rosalina. She is standing by some guy that looks oddly familiar.

“Rosalina?” I call. She nods and we all run over to her.

“Who is this?” we ask, pointing to the man.

“This is my friend. His name is Jonathan. He was the one who died in the forest a couple of years ago.” She says, looking up at Jonathan with lovey dovey eyes. Yeah, JUST a friend, I think.

“Wait. How are you still alive?” Karter asks.

“I’m not.” Rosalina replies.

“Then how can we see you and talk to you?” Honey asks, confused.

The thing she said next changed our whole lives. She said:

“You’re dead too.”

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 14.11.2015

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