Based on what I observed on Zaire, I wanted to believe his theory about the Arlo Forest, I went to the school library to find something useful of an information. Luckily, I found it easily thanks to the librarian who was an old woman that knows everything on the towns history, she kindly gave me a book all about the towns history especially the Arlo Forest. Sitting on the floor and failing miserably, I found nothing, the only information I got about the forest was its rich minerals and good habitat, their was no information saying its history or how its past situation before, there wasn't even an information as to why the forest was forbidden to enter. It was stupid, maybe I'm believing in something crazy, I sighed deeply in annoyance and threw the book on the floor, suspiciously, on the book I threw, a piece of paper was attached to it, hidden well between the two pages.
When I opened to see its contents, it was an old teared page of a newspaper covered with dust, it looked like someone purposely hid it, I wonder why?. On the contents of it, before I was even born yet, many students were already missing on that same forest, why wasn't it recorded on our history books, attached to the book page was another folded page of a newspaper, when I unfolded it, 25 missing pictures of teenagers boys and girls was revealed to me in just a one page of the newspaper, Effie wasn't the first victim. While I was yet shocked on what I read, Theon came out of nowhere and caught me by surprise.
"F*CK!!", I cursed.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!", I shouted but he only answered me with a laugh and he shamelessly sat beside me like we were close friends. Seeing my annoyed face, he stopped laughing, when he saw the missing pictures of the students, he said something that scared me more.
"Oh, you found it", he said as he smiled like the missing people were just a source of entertainment for him, it wasn't even a big shock to him, he was acting like it was just a normal thing. One by one, he then named all of the missing pictures, he was saying all sorts of personal information about them as if he knew them all, he described them one by one, telling me their favorite food, place and hobby, he was acting very creepy. Sitting beside him as he laugh at the victims made my skin crawl, the lights of the library was acting weird, on and off it goes, I sensed something was really awfully wrong about him, I immediately stand up from sitting and tried to run away from him but was stopped when he grabbed my leg, then pulled me back to him. Laying on the floor, with him on top of me, he said something even more heinous.
"Lets play a game, Nel", he said as I was only trying hard to get away from him.
"If you win, Arlo will let you go but if you lose, you will go with him", he spoke again but I was determined to not to listen to his words, praying deeply that it was all just another daydream. As I saw the book just beside me, I grabbed it and threw it directly to his head, hoping for him to be injured. Luckily, he was easy to harm, he let go of my wrist and I run quickly as possible, when I reached the outside of the library, I bumped into Zaire at the school corridor, due to the sudden fear I felt, I accidentally hugged him. At his back, I saw Theon coming out of the library, looking unharmed and kept on smiling and waving at me.
"A*sh*le!!!", I muttered as my eyes closed and fainted at the arms of Zaire, the person whom I'm annoyed to see.
A few weeks later, I confined myself in a hospital, refusing to talk nor eat while Zaire always visited me after his school dismissal, he was waiting for me to talk, I'm sure he also wants to hear some answers about what I found out on the forest, he was aware that I was in the library seeking for answers alone. All that's happening to me now is always involved with the abandoned forest, slowly, I'm losing my mind from all the unexplainable things that I have been experiencing lately.
Again, it was raining outside the hospital, while Zaire was busy reading a book silently as usual while I watch the rain on the window, I looked down the road only for me to see Theon waving and smiling at me outside the hospital, staring blatantly eye to eye with me, I remained calm and tried not to panic. Seeing him reminded me of what he said, who is Arlo?.
Zaire noticed me looking at someone by the window and not blinking once, he approached the window to see who it was and he saw Theon still creepily waving at me, he then closed the curtain.