The air was cool; sunlight came down the tall trees sprawling on the mountain which had no name. It was a day like any other. I was hiking around the vicinity when I stumbled across a notebook. The notebook was left in between two little stones at a random location on the mountain. If you were to ask me to go back to where I found it, I would not be able to tell you. It was common to find little objects scattered around a hiking spot so I never took notice as to where I found this one in particular. I continued on with my hike.
It was fairly dark when I reached the peak. I could hear the birds hooting in the far distance. I had done overnight hikes in the past and was accustomed to the nudging feeling of being uncomfortable. Of feeling anxious that darkness was looming and there was nothing I could do to change the circumstance. I decided to camp on a flat surface near the peak. I set up my tent and went in, turned on a light bulb, and decided to end the day with a little bit of reading. At least that was my intention. I opened the notebook that I found earlier and began reading…
***
I am a thirteen-year-old boy with a quest in my mind. The quest is to fall in love and live happily ever after. Are you mocking me that I read too many childish fairy tales? Am I too old for this? Well yes, I’ve read quite a bit of fairy tales, but that was when I was a little boy. I’ve thought about my life for a while and realized that everything has a purpose. As “The Alchemist” would imply (I felt proud of reading that book) I have all the power in the world to accomplish my dream and nothing will get in my way. I want to believe in this and know this to be true.
So why do I want to specifically fall in love and live happily ever after? Is that even a question? Isn’t the fundamental purpose behind human beings to love and be loved? I’ve seen my parents struggling with their love life and felt that all the source of their problems came in because they do not love each other enough. Maybe I had matured a little too fast and saw the reality of my family, but it was inevitable. And so, I have to make a change and the change has to happen now.
I read online that there is a certain ritual you can partake in to find the love of your life. I am usually not a person to think of such a cheat-sounding way to find love, but sometimes I have to do what it takes to accomplish this. Well, this also logically made sense to me. The ritual was about finding peace of mind and love comes in when you can truly love yourself first (am I not right?).
The ritual was to hike up to a nearby mountain, sit down on the grass patch, and count to a hundred with eyes closed. This was supposed to deepen my relationship with myself and hopefully bring about how I want to truly love another person in my life. When my parents were away on a vacation, I decided to embark on this journey. I googled the nearest mountain and brought some snacks, water, and a notebook, fully ready for an adventure.
The bus ride and the initial hike took around two hours. Once I found myself deep in the mountain, I felt like an adult, fully independent of my own thinking and actions. Even without the counting, I felt freer than before, feeling that I could accomplish anything. My heart beat in harmony and it was such a grand feeling.
“This is how it’s going to be,” I told myself. “This is the feeling that I want to capture for myself.”
My plan was to get back to the ground level by 5 PM. It was around 3 PM when I felt like I was at a good place to start the counting. I was surrounded by nature and there were no hikers around me for distraction. Truthfully speaking, I deviated away from the main hiking route for this specific reason. I wanted to be alone and be one with my mind while accomplishing the task I was meant to do at this location.
I sat down and began counting. One, two, three. My body relaxed and boredom ceased to exist. This is the way. Fifty, fifty-one, … I felt immersed with myself when suddenly…
Tap, tap.
I opened my eyes and found myself staring at a girl. She was around my age. Her blonde hair shone against the sunlight. Her deep blue eyes stared at me curiously and seemed to ask a question as to who I am.
“Hello?”
“Hello?”
“Who are you?”
“I am Nobody.”
“Nobody?”
“Nobody that really needs further explanation. You can call me Nobody. I came here merely on a quest.”
“Quest? I came here on a quest too.”
“To do what?”
In unison, we spoke, “To find love!” And we clapped our hands together. It sounded so simple and abrupt. But it all made so much sense at the same time.
“Did you hear about the ritual?” she asked.
“Yes, I heard about the ritual.”
“It brings people with similar intentions back together.”
“That makes sense! We were both at a period in our life when we wanted to find love and so here we are!”
I held her hand and smiled.
“Let’s go down. Down to the base of the mountain. I have a lot to talk to you about.”
Her grin widened and I didn’t know if she was going to say yes or not.
“Nobody?”
“Actually, I have a tent around here if you want to come! We can spend some time talking! It will be fabulous!”
“I will have to go down by five, but sure that sounds great! I want to get to know you better.”
I followed her to the tent, which was even farther away from the main hiking passageway. It was rather small. Enough for two people to be comfortable but not enough to hold four people. Four people. Where were her parents? I suppose she was doing the ritual the way I was doing so it makes sense for her to be alone.
An hour of conversation turned into two. Then, three. We talked about everything. What our classes were like, who were our best friends, what dreams we had, and on and on. One thing she didn’t mention was her family.
“Where is your family?”
Nobody stopped laughing and looked at me. A second passed. I thought she was going to start crying but instead, she grinned.
“Somewhere nice. We don’t need to talk about that.” She grinned. I felt like a butterfly was fluttering in my heart. This was what I was looking for. I imagined us adding each other on Snapchat, texting all night over the next few days, and finally finding the courage to ask her on a proper date. I smiled back. I could picture myself holding her hand, walking down a beach. She with that cute, wide grin. It was going to be perfect.
It was dark when I looked out of the camp. Under the starry sky and little chirps of grasshoppers, I felt sleep enveloping me. Next thing I knew, my eyes were closing and I felt my knees getting weak. A moment later, I fell into a deep slumber.
I woke up.
I was not in a tent.
There was no tent in sight.
I panicked. I was lying down on a bed of grass. Where did the girl go? What happened? I stood up and started walking around. “Hello, is there anyone?”
Hours passed by, and I was thirsty and hungry. Most of all, I missed my family. I lost track of where I had been and I felt like I was walking in a circle of trees and rocks. Suddenly, I heard the voice.
“Hey!”
It was the girl’s voice. My heart trembled in joy and ran to where the voice was echoing from. I saw the figure and was about to give her a hug when she turned around. I stopped.
Her mouth. She was grinning. But her grin seemed a little off. A little uncanny. It was stretched a little too far in an unnatural way. I took a step back and looked away.
“What’s wrong? Why are you turning away?”
“No, it’s just we have to get home now. I don’t know where you have been but it’s been too long. I was supposed to leave last evening. Let’s go down the mountain, okay?”
“We were having so much fun though!”
“It’s time to go.”
“Fine, if that’s what you want.”
I began to follow her. Looking at her from the back, she seemed perfectly normal. Just a little girl who was full of spirit. But every time she turned back, I could see her grin. That wide grin. There was nothing wrong with a person who smiled but something just felt not right. What am I thinking? This is the girl you fell in love with just a night ago. What are you doubting for exactly?
“Are we there yet?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if she was going to answer. She was awfully quiet the past hour. But she did. She simply answered with a “no.”
Night fell and she set up a tent again. I found myself alone with her in the tent again. Yesterday, it brought so much love but at the turn of an event, I was feeling dread.
“What’s wrong? We will find a way out for sure.” She was grinning. For a second, I thought she was smiling normally which brought peace to my mind. But then, I blinked and saw the uncanniness again. I was about to hyperventilate.
“I need to… I need to go take a leak.”
Once I was out of the tent, I began to run. It did not make sense at all to leave the only person who could bring me back home, but instinct told me to run away. As I was sprinting, I heard a voice in the back whispering, “where do you think you are going?”
I took a left path, then a right, then down the hill. But I could hear her all the time. Her whispers. Her smile.
I stopped. I began to weep.
“Just let me go, please. I just want to go home.” A hand touched my back. Goosebumps rolled down my body.
“It’s okay, you will go home soon.”
I looked back. There she was. The darkness was hiding her smile, but I knew she was smiling. I just knew. I uttered a voiceless scream.
Once we were back in the camp, drowsiness enveloped me once again. Before I could react, I fell into another great slumber. I gave in to my tiredness, no matter how alarming the situation was.
The next morning, I woke up with no tent again. Tears rolled down my face as I tried to make a sense of what was happening. Nothing was making sense. Nothing.
I began to walk down the mountain once again. I just had to keep walking down. That’s all I had to do. But no matter how much I walked or ran or fell, I seemed to make no progress at all. And night fell again. And the whispers.
“Where were you? I was looking for you everywhere.”
She appeared in front of me. Her grin. It’s so hard to even write this down. It was even wider than before. And her eyes. They were so intense. It was as if the eyes and the mouth did not match up at all. This time, I screamed and merely ran. And ran. And ran.
It’s been at least an hour. It’s dark and I’m writing all this down in the hope that if you find this, you can help me. In some way or another. BECAUSE YOU SEE
I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. I DONT KNOW I DONT KNOW I DONT KNOW I DONT KNOW
***
The moment I finished the notebook, I had to grasp my arms to avoid trembling. It wasn’t just my arms. My entire body seemed to be quivering uncontrollably. A shiver ran down my spine as dread eased into my conscience. I just had to sleep through the night. And in the morning, I will be okay. I will leave this damned mountain and be away from it all.
Or maybe it was all just a prank. Someone left a messed up notebook just to fool us all. That thought made me smile a little. Just a little. But I felt a bit better. Nonetheless, I dared not open the tent that night. Schrödinger’s cat. I just had to not open it and I will be okay.
That night, I opened my eyes and heard a shuffle outside.
“Who’s there?” I cried out. It was most likely a wild animal of some sort, which was dangerous in its own right but I was thinking about something else. Something more sinister.
I checked the time. 3:45 AM. A moment later, the shuffle continued. And laughter.
Laughter.
I swear I heard a child or children laughing in the far distance. It continued on for a minute or two. Then, it stopped. Then I heard a scream that sounded like…
GET ME OUT. GET ME OUT.
The rest of the night was a blur. I did not sleep one bit after that. I did not want to be in a vulnerable state and most importantly, did not want to wake up to something. And I did not want to dare think about what something can be. In the morning. I left the tent the way it was. I did not pack or clean anything up. All I cared about was I had to get out of this place. No matter how ridiculous my situation might sound to others, I was genuinely feeling tormented by it all. I had to leave. Immediately.
It was rather uneventful on the way down but my mind was racing. Every step felt like I was running away from something or someone. It’s so hard to explain but the closest I can compare it to is the feeling you get as a child when you are running up the stairs up the dark basement and feeling like something was lurking, ready to pounce at your if you are not fast enough.
When I was on the bus back home, feeling relieved that I was in the safety of civilization, I decided to search for the ritual that the boy in the notebook found. After some digging, I finally found it. It listed out the steps that the boy had mentioned. Nothing was unexpected except the last sentence.
It was just an emoji.
A smiley emoji. A grin.
:)