TODAY MARKED OUR THIRD DAY of being lost in the forest. Luckily, there was some sun out this morning compared to how overcast the last two days had been. I kept walking ahead, ignoring Kinn’s protests from behind me. I told you I’m not going to listen to you today! I wasn’t stupid enough to let him get us lost again. If I let him lead the way, we weren’t gonna make it out of here alive.
“I say we go left,” Kinn said, pointing. I nodded and immediately turned right. I’m telling you, I’m through with your bullshit guesses. I’m not going to follow you like a fool!
“Why don’t you believe me, huh?” he asked, sounding a bit annoyed. Despite his protests, he kept following me.
“The sun’s so fucking hot!” Kinn complained. Even though we were in a forest full of oxygen, walking all day made us work up quite a sweat.
“Can we rest for a bit?” Kinn asked. He slowed down and tugged at the hem of my shirt before collapsing on a log under a few large trees. I sighed, stopped walking, and stared at him in silence. I was tired, too, but if Kinn kept wimping out, we weren’t going to make it out of here before dark.
“Come sit,” Kinn patted at his thighs, inviting me to sit on his lap.
I quickly lifted up my foot. “Sit on this!” I shouted.
“Heh, it’s just sitting on my lap… That’s nothing compared to cuddling me all night,” he said with a smirk.
I gave him the middle finger. Motherfucker! If it weren’t for the cold and my fear of ghosts, I would never have done that!
“Come here!” Kinn insisted. He refused to give up, tugging at my wrist to force me into his lap. I fell back onto him and he wrapped his arms around my waist, nuzzling his face into my back. I tried to get up, but the more I struggled, the tighter he held me.
“Let me go!” I shouted.
“Sit still. Let me recharge,” Kinn said. What the fuck is he talking about?
“Let me go, you shithead!” I yelled.
“Ow!” Kinn cried. I must have struggled a bit too hard—we both went rolling backward off the log.
I landed on top of Kinn but hurriedly stood up. “What the hell are you playing at?!” I shouted at him.
Kinn lay on the ground, holding his arm and writhing around in pain. “My arm hurts!” he wailed.
I could only laugh. Serves him right. I stood there with my hands loosely on my hips, guffawing as he threw a pitiful tantrum.
“It hurts! My arm got scratched by the branches,” he said, making a face like he was mortally wounded. I sighed and bent down to take a look.
“Where?!” I snapped. I turned his arm over and found a long cut on his wrist slowly oozing blood.
“Serves you right, annoying me like that!” I scolded him with a spiteful little laugh, then used the hem of my shirt to carefully dab at his arm. He pushed himself up from the ground as I tended to his wound.
“Am I going to die?” he asked.
“You better die!” I snapped.
“Nooo, do I have to die in the forest?” he whined as he leaned onto my shoulder. He was exaggerating for sure; his pained expression looked fake as hell.
“You’ll die because I’ll beat you to death!” I replied darkly, glaring at his wound. He was totally overreacting—it was just a surface-level scratch. I shook his head off of my shoulder.
He sat up straight and looked at me. “Can you kiss it better?” he asked with a smile.
I stared at him, irritated, and his smile instantly disappeared. I knew you were fucking with me. I shoved his arm away and stood up.
“Cut the bullshit,” I demanded. “Let’s go.”
Kinn grimaced as if he was dying again. “My arm hurts. I can’t walk! Carry me,” he whined.
What is wrong with him today? He’s so fucking immature. The bastard deserves a swift kick in the ass.
“Why would I carry you? There’s nothing wrong with your legs,” I said.
“Yesterday I carried you,” Kinn said. I snorted. I got so annoyed when Kinn acted like this—it was like the more frustrated I was, the happier he became.
“Let me break your legs, then I’ll carry you,” I said, deadpan.
“Pull me up first,” he said, laughing and holding out his hand. I resigned myself to helping him up.
“You can let go now,” I told him, shaking off his hand.
“Let me hold onto you! My arms are weak,” Kinn said. He spoke in his normal voice, but his words just got brattier and brattier, the impudent little shit.
“Such a pain!” I sighed and carried on walking ahead, Kinn still holding my hand tightly.
“Admit it,” he whispered, so softly I could barely hear it, “you’re worried about me, too…” I did my best to ignore it—to pretend it was the birds or the wind. Kinn clearly just wanted to rile me up more.
“This way,” he said, quickening his pace to push past me.
“No! We’re going that way,” I said. I no longer trusted his sense of direction. I pushed past his shoulder to go the other way, his hand still in mine.
“No! I remember where we came from. It’s this way!” He sped up, trying to take the lead again.
“Ugh! Kinn, just stay still, you idiot!” I snapped.
He turned to shout at me. “I’m the leader; you have to listen to me!”
“Who made you the leader?!”
“My dad!” he proclaimed, smug. I was completely fed up with him. In the end, I managed to pull him by the hand in the direction I wanted. After a bit of huffing and puffing, he followed.
Maybe he was afraid I’d disappear and get lost or whatever, but he was still holding my hand like he had yesterday—the only difference being I was not reciprocating the gesture. We kept walking along the path, bickering and shouting. Honestly, all this walking wasn’t nearly as tiring as having to deal with a pain in the ass like Kinn. He just sucked all the energy right out of me!
“Well, you know what they say,” Kinn began out of nowhere.
I furrowed my brow but kept walking. “What?”
“That if you feel like you’re getting more lost the further you go, it’s because there’s something blocking your sight,” Kinn said. I flinched but tried not to think about it.
I stayed silent, but Kinn continued. “You know, forests like this are usually home to supernatural beings and wandering spirits,”5 he said, lowering his voice, and I reflexively squeezed his hand before turning around to scold him.
“Why the fuck would you say that?!” Who says shit like that alone in the woods?
“I’m serious! Have you never read up on this kind of stuff? On what happens when you wander around and circle back to where you started?” he said evenly, face deadly serious.
“Motherfucker! Why are you saying that shit out loud?!” I snarled back angrily. Of course I’ve heard about wandering spirits, but can you take a look at where we are? Is this really the time to talk about it?!
“Yesterday, we ended up back where we started… So, do you think…?” he trailed off with a wary expression. I was really starting to freak out. Chills crept down my spine and I shifted a little closer to Kinn, not letting go of his hand.
“Think what…?” I asked quietly.
“That we might have accidentally offended the guardians of the forest?”6
“Well, I didn’t offend any spirits,” I said, tense. “Did you? A guy like you, I bet even your thoughts are offensive.”
Kinn quickly shook his head. “No. I gave a wai this morning. Since you’ve been here, have you paid any respects?” he asked as he stared at me, like I was the one in the wrong. When Kinn put it that way… Other than giving a wai gesture to the tree before taking a piss, I hadn’t given it much thought.
“I also gave a wai,” I said, then whispered, “when I went to pee.”
“There it is, I knew it! That’s not enough… You have to take things seriously, otherwise we’re gonna be stuck here. We’ve been walking for so long, it feels like we’re never gonna get out of here—you feel it too, right?” Kinn asked soberly.
“So what should I do?” I asked. I was actually getting scared now. I did believe in the supernatural, even if I’d never experienced it firsthand. My mom had told me that I’d been afraid of ghosts since I was a little kid, but I had no idea what happened to make me so afraid of them.
“Come here! Face that way, and put your hands together.” Kinn ordered me into position.
“I have to do it now?” I asked him, confused.
“Yes! Quickly, so we can get the hell out of here,” he insisted.
“What about you?” I asked.