Chapter 4

"Where on Earth is Gideon? Did someone see him get off his tree cabin?"  said Freyja, holding back.  She was constantly stroking and tweaking her messy hair.

"And now him? Really, Frey? Who's next?"  the girl with a highlight sardonically mumbled, scowling at her.

She had been controlling herself before but I could feel her annoyance with the behavior of the woman with a rude attitude.

"And so?"  Freyja raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms and staring confidently at the one who just wanted to stop her. She turned her gaze back at me.  "I guess this girl doesn't know what planet she's existing so she came here. What a lame reasoning."  She smiled ironically.

But I ignored and never took what she said seriously.  Also, none of that is right. In fact, it turns out that there's something wrong with me.  If it wasn't for guilt, that might be the reason why her statements were correct.

"Titus already warned you! Just shut your witchy mouth up!"  the girl with a pair of green eyes intervened, gawking madly at Freyja.

Even though the night is deep, apart from the peek of some lights from the cabins as well as the remaining bonfire lighting the surrounding, while the moonlight is still bright for me to see the reddish cheeks of the woman Freyja who is forced to calm down.

"Oh, so Psyche saves the day! Great. Am I going to be impressed now?" She's still not stopping even tho she heard the resilient statement of her enemy with green eyes.

She glared as if it was still teasing.  I missed what should have happened.  She's innocent-looking.  It looks like she just blinked.

Or so I thought.

Psyche heaved a sigh and looked at the boys with eyebrows met.  Her expression is very serious.  "So you'll just watch us until we fight each other, seriously? Aren't you gonna stop us? Or, maybe, all of you are just cowards. Sincerely, I think y'all don't have . . . balls! Did it swivel from its place and had dashed away already since you all were kids? Titus was still good and scolded once, eh, what about the others?” he said to the two men who had been silent before, pointing her finger at them.

The man with a serious face raised his hands.  "Whoa, whoa, easy there. You've crossed the line, lady."  He shook his head.  "I don't think and we never did think you will be having war here. Gideon? He may ban you from here. Remember his rules? You're already breaking it by having this nonsense and impulsive commotion," he explained to three women. 

"Paris, you suck," Freyja said, grinning.  She obviously did not like what the man said.  She was stunned for a moment.  "But he's too kind. I think he won't do that."

"And you'll take advantage of him? Still not enough to feed our fears from what you're doing!"

"Oh, wow, Titus, thanks for the nonsense you said, huh?"

"Freya, you're starting again."

"Why am I always alone, Psyche?!"

"Because you are the one who initiated the declaration of war."

"Fridge, you all cursed ones! Is there someone I can associate with?"

When I finished staring at their quarrel and when they got back to the fact that someone is still here, watching what they were doing, they were stiffed and looked at each other.  It's good that they decided to keep quiet.  But in spite of everything, they seem to be used to being treated that way.

"Are you sure you won't sign up and be one of us?"  Psyche asked confidently to me.  Disappointment could be seen in her eyes.  She is the woman with highlighted blue on her black hair and she likewise has emerald eyes.

I nodded before heading out while clasping my hands.

"Can you show me the way out of here?"  I requested, choosing to face the ground instead of theirs.

I know it's a perfect place for a specific person like me.  For those who are wanting to escape reality.  To be somewhere where there isn't someone who will judge you except those that are repellers of actuality too.  But I had doubts— I still have it.

Looks like I'm not ready to associate myself with somebody I don't know.  Even though I think they are great persons.  They are able to freely show who they really are.  Even though they know that someone might judge and backstab them here in this place.

It's part of being debonair.  You would be you.  Because in the nick of strumming the strings of reality, you would be able to be mesmerized by who you are and who you once were.  In that case, nothing would tear you apart from loving yourself.

Aside from that, I am still mentally inquisitive about Gideon.  Is it possible that he's the one I've seen earlier?  Could there be a theory about him being my track to find this place?  Did he help me?  Or am I assuming things?  So what is his purpose?  Isn’t he the one I think I’ve seen before?

"Hey!"  the woman with the gentle face shouted at me.  She's the simple-looking gal.  Just now she spoke again.

I looked at her in amazement.  "Why?"  I asked, figuring out what she was calling me for.  Mayhap I am absentminded that I didn't hear what she said.

"Um, Riley and Psyche would lead you. . ." She didn't continue what he was going to say.

Just a moment later, she pursued to say what she wanted to say.

But it's not what I anticipate.

"Uh, where?" she just spoke as addition and reassurance.

I noticed how she focused her attention on me. She seems to be waiting to hear what I have to say.

"Out of here," I announced, floating from a thought behind her stares.  "Out of this forest," I added to her, my voice full as well.

"Are you sure it's just outside?"  astonished Riley spoke to me.  He’s the one who knitted his eyebrows and said what when I said I was missing.  Maybe he was surprised by what I said and he had nothing else to say but that word.

I just nodded at him.  After a while, they started to take me out of that forest.  I was glad that they know where they came from, especially everything inside the forest that can be explored.

We were able to get out nicely even when it was too dark.  Nor did he get lost even once.

When I finally got out, they still accompanied me until I came in front of my father's car.

I am about to enter the door when reality hits my head so hard that it wakes me up to the fact that my car has an emptied tank presently.

In silence, I cursed.

I inhaled the fresh air before closing my eyes.  How will I get out of here then?  Will I walk?

I hideously smiled with irony.

Like that is gonna happen.

Maybe before I got to where I came from, I will be lying on the side of the road, lifeless.  A cold breeze of emptiness embraced me as it flew through my hair.

And why would I come back to that house suddenly?  I don't have to be a puppet.  I don't want Dad to see me vulnerable or even to send me to States! I want to unwind and think about it for now!

"Should we leave now?"  hesitant, Psyche said.

In my peripheral vision, she looked around at me and back at her companions.  She didn't seem to know what to do.

I could not speak.  What will I gonna do?  Ask for a container of fuel from them?  I didn't even know them.

And where would I stay when I would be in my hometown?  Maybe I'll be sent to the states forever!

"I guess we should. Let's go, Riley."

I opened my eyes before they even take a single step.  "Wait."  I confronted them.

They looked at me in surprise.  The anticipation of their stance and posture will be evident in whatever I say.  The wrinkle on their forehead disappeared.

Should I say it?

"What?"  Psyche asked, seeming to be interested in what I had to say because of the speed with which she responded when I stopped them.  She came a little closer to me.  Her face brightened.

Perhaps I should.

It may have been a good choice.

"I'll sign up," I said without hesitation.

"You will what?"  said the silent man.  "Are you kidding us or is what you're saying true?" He certainly can't believe it yet.  He didn't seem to want a joke at this time.  That’s where he goes wrong.

"I'm not kidding around. I'll stay in that place," I assured them.  After all, I have no other choice.

Besides, I am astonished by the zone.  I am wiled by its tactic to let me stay.  And I am thrilled by its challenge.

Perhaps, it’s also one of the factors that I have no choice.

Psyche blinked many times as she muttered the words that punched me.  "But the rules, and the contract, and everything you should know, they aren't easy as you expect them to be."

My mouth fell open.

"Why?"  That was the first word that came out of my mouth.

"One of the rules and also according to the contract made by Gideon, the leader, and coheir of the Survival Zone, cannot leave without waking up."  Looking straight ahead, Riley even said to me: "Are you really sure?"

At first, I am silent.

I don’t know what to say or what they say will wake up.  Because in the first place we are awake.  So we’re here now and talking.

That's why we are being toyed by serendipity.

But with each passing second, an image pops up in my mind.  It whispers to me the mystery behind what they revealed.  It is to be awake in reality, to see how it really works, so am I really awake?

I seek them out.  "Once I said it, I will do it. No more stepping backward and putting off my feet out of the stage."

Not only must it be in word, but it must also be proved by action.  In that way, I can defend myself verbally because action was also taken to do what was said.

Psyche giggled.  "God, you're really like that girl," she aggrievedly whispered, but it was just right for me to hear.

I never asked who the woman was referring to.  I just went straight to the door in the passenger seat and opened it.  I was about to pick up my bag but Riley preceded me.

"Let me carry that for you," he said alluringly, still smiling skyward as he took out the luggage inside.

"T-Thank you," I said to the kindness and gentleness he was showing me.

He continued smiling genuinely.  "I'm glad to help you."

I smiled unexpectedly because he treated me with sincerity.  He is not a showman.  With his looks and movements, that thing can be immediately known about him.  He's really something.

"But we aren't done yet."

I looked at the woman Psyche when I heard the serious melody from her mouth.

"We must first convince the Leader to let you and allow you to stay in the zone, and also to prepare the contract until the welcoming ceremony is done so that you can be a survivor there."  She smiled at me.  "But in advance, again, welcome to Forest Survival, and I hope you will enjoy your stay here until you've been awakened where the escapes have also been attempting to breathe."

That's when I realized that my stay in this place was not really delayed.  This is where the new book that opens for the mixed darkness and shadow chapters of my story will finally begin.  This is the opening of the new light that can save me or can drown me in darkness.

I was Avery Maureen Del Hera.  I hope that it's I am.  I still hold on that I am and not that I was.

And if he will never make it until the great end, no one has ever known that this girl, she's not just from the Del Heras.  There's beyond being Avery Maureen.

Hereafter, I would be somebody but still me who has successfully see things positively, with the strangers I am with until I open my blind eyes, to the path only a few of my kind have ever reach.

I was the Del Heras heiress.  Now, I am the Avery Maureen of Forest Survival that will stop the havoc of every haywire heart and mess mind while altering the wrecked perspectives of each untwisted truth in between of lies.