Lippy didn't like to listen to others.
She was bold. She was boyish. And boy, was she stupid.
She was also missing for 3 days.
Meryl walked along the path that they took for hours and hours, trying to find the hardheaded mayor's daughter, but she was nowhere to be found.
Not in the trees, hanging upside down. Not in the bog, swimming near the fishes. Not even in the rooftops of every single house that she doesn't own.
No one really liked the girl anyway. She was too loud, too stubborn, sometimes even crass and prickly, so much so that it probably would've been better to gag her so that she wouldn't open her ugly mouth again.
But she was the landowner's daughter, and God forbid that he would actually get out of his house to look for the girl.
They've turned to us, children who were forced to play with her. Not even the adults wanted to look for her, feigning work and sickness.
They were the ungrateful ones.
Kota folded his arms behind his head, kicking a rock towards a bush. "Should we just bail?"
Meryl snorted but didn't say a word. Her sister, Mina, kept on dragging that annoying stick from wherever we came from, making this scratching sound that's been going on for an hour already.
"Can't. These adults will beat us if we don't find that girl." Meryl rolled her eyes and said snarkily. " You know how much the mayor wants to find her."
"They'll just beat her anyway" Kota said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Can't we just leave her to be missing forever?"
The quiet Mina nodded wordlessly, while the two of them continued to find ways to get out of finding the troublesome mayor's daughter.
She looked up as the birds flew by. The sky was already an orange-y tint when they left, but now it was turning blue already. Were they here for that long already?
Mina walked up to her sister and pulled at her skirt. "Can we go back now?" She said quietly. For some reason, the air was just too cold, so cold that shivers kept crawling up her spine. Her neck prickled and she turned her head; nothing but the darkness was there.
It got dark way too fast.
"Meryl, Kota" Mina urged them, pulling on both of them. The adults told them something about the forest. Mina couldn't remember.
"Fine, fine." Kota agreed halfheartedly, waving his hand at Mina, who continued to urge them to go back. "Our sister is already a scaredy cat, being scared of the dark, but I'm tired anyway."
"Guess Lippy will remain missing forever, yeah?" Meryl giggled, announcing quite loudly.
The forest turned silent, the critters seemed dead, and even the wind seemed to not move an inch.
The three children felt it then, the skin prickling like someone was watching them from afar, while a chills ran up their spine. Somehow, their palms started to sweat.
"The adults were just joking, r-right?" Kota stuttered, rubbing his nape like he couldn't shake off the feeling.
Meryl looked behind them many times but found nothing. They all agreed to walk faster out of the forest that somehow became so dark.
They ran and ran, their breaths panting and forming clouds over their mouths. How did it turn so cold?
They couldn't shake the feeling that someone was getting closer, that something was getting closer. They just hoped it never reached them.
They ran and ran, faster and faster. Tears ran down their flushed cheeks and sobs came out of their throat.
The whispers of the wind kissed their ears, begging them to never leave the forest, to stay there with them.
"No, no!" Meryl screamed. "Stop it!"
"Meryl!" Kota rushed to his younger sister, who stopped running to cover her eyes and ears. Mina's tears ran down her face and dripped on the forest floor.
It was too dark now, could they find their way back?
"Stop being an idiot!" Kota pulled on Meryl, but she refused to budge. He pulled and pulled, until his grip slipped.
Down he went as he tumbled down a shallow ditch.
"Kota! Are you okay?" Mina shouted at her brother, who suddenly separated from them, but Kota was frozen.
Mina looked back at her sister who was shivering at the floor, then slid down the ditch as well.
"What's wrong, Kota?"
"..Do you remember what Lippy was wearing on her hand? The one that she was showing off to us. Something that her dad bought her or something?" Kota's voice was quiet, Meryl was sobbing in the back.
"I think it was a red bracelet with a gem."
"You mean that one?" Kota pointed at the ground. Mina slowly followed his pointed finger, something nagging at the back of her head, saying muddled words.
A small hand, the same size as Meryl's, was peeking out from the ground.
Just hands.
Small, fragile hands.
A child's hands.
With a red-jeweled bracelet on the left one.
Mina remembered what the adults used to say now. The ones that were muddled in the back of her mind.
"Never, ever, stay out in the forest. Never in the dark."
ns 15.158.61.5da2
