Chapter 2: Dreaming

A year later after the incident, I still kept dreaming about that day, the day I ran for my life until my last breath arrives at the road to call for help, I forced myself to keep running, ignoring the scars that I got from the vines of the plant that was stopping me to run towards the road, the trees that kept on narrowing me. I manage to call for help but also lost my consciousness upon arriving and when I woke up in the hospital, my memories were already in a blur, I couldn't remember anything that happened that night but I can still remember our last conversation that day, I was so sure that something definitely happened that night because of fresh scars on my head upon waking up from my sleep that day at the tent, the only problem was, I couldn't remember what exactly happened.

In my dream every night, I could still remember my abnormal breathing from running out of the forest and for some reason, it felt like there was another person behind me who was also running and that strange person was calling out my name again and again to call my attention, I was still dreaming but my alarm clock woke me up from that dream.

It was time to wake early for the first day of school, my grandma prepared my breakfast and a lunch with a hug filled of affection and love from her and from my grandfather,even though I have really shitty parents at the very least, I had great and kind grandparents. My granddad personally drove me to school and I had to prepare myself for the worst, everyone blamed me for Aubri and Quin's sudden disappearance, looking at the streets of the town, I saw Aubri's drunk mother putting up missing posters of her daughter until now, my guilt always followed me everywhere everytime I see missing posters of Aubri and Quin glued everywhere the streets and walls of the town which always reminds me of why I wasn't I the one who just went missing instead of them. Half of the people in town accused me and labeled me as a murderer but the police disclosed it as just missing people, everyone was being unfair in their own way, I understand their advanced thinking of accusing me, after all who would believe a person who says she couldn't remember anything in just a night that incident happened.

"Remember, its not your fault", a sentence, I always hear from my grandpa whenever he drove me to school, followed by his protective hug.

At school, even after a year, everyone still remembers the incident, all their eyes were on me as I walk on the corridor of the school going for my next class, however, somebody suddenly pushed me towards the wall with missing posters on it, I knew what it meant when they pushed me on that wall, they want me to remember the victims, my victims.

Looking at the posters, beside Quin's missing poster, a girl who also went missing at the Arlo forest the same as the forest we went to, the difference was it was 2 years ago, she was the first person to be labeled missing on that same forest, some people say that there is some sort of curse on that forest. As I was observing the girls face that seems so familiar to me, Gemma Radleigh, my bestfriend who doesn't have ill intentions approached me from the back and noticed my curiosity on the missing girl.

"Effie Lewis, the genius, charming and admiring student of the school 2 years ago, she went missing after the school festival, some people say, they saw her running towards the forests", Gemma explained. I couldn't get my eyes of her missing poster, I was still full of questions.

"Hey, are you alright?", Gemma worriedly asked.

"Yeah, I'm all alright".

At math class, I couldn't focus on studying, as my mind was in deep focus on the missing girl, wondering how she got lost at the forest and as to why her face was so familiar to me, I lost focus on the missing girl when I noticed the droplets of rain slowly pouring on the window. As soon as I ignored it and looked front to the board of the room, everyone suddenly disappeared, the usual noise of school just went silent, the person sitting next to me and behind me was all gone except for one female student who was in front, a girl with short hair, couldn't see her face properly as she was facing the board but then, she slowly looked back at me and I saw her face clearly, pale white skin and brown eyes. She smiled genuinely that resembles Quin's smile, due to mixed feelings of shock and fear, I couldn't move my body.

"Effie?", I unconsciously said, I was slowly losing my breath like a sensation of drowning, I held onto my chest abnormally breathing, then I felt a tap of a hand on my shoulders that woke me up from the daydream, after realizing the situation, I stood up from my seat and walked out of the classroom nervously and unsteady. I went straight to the girls comfort room and started to feel a break down of my body, I sat on the toilet with my feet up and tears was coming out of my eyes, I couldn't stop crying, couldn't control my emotions, I bit my hand to silently cry and force myself to wake up