Rose couldn't believe it, she had thought her boss was bluffing when he said she was going camping, but as they drove away from the bustling city and onto a more narrow road where trees were starting to get bigger and bigger; she finally believed that truly, she wouldn't be going for a stupid research.
She smiled to herself and looked out the window, admiring the beautiful views, sipping her water from her water bottle.
She always carried her water anywhere she went to, she loved to keep hydrated, and that was one of her secrets to glowing skin.
"You look gorgeous, Rose," Elliot suddenly complimented her in the quiet car.
Rose's eyes widened as she stared out the window, tightening her hands around her water bottle. She arranged her features before looking back at him.
"Ahem, thank you, Sir. You're not bad yourself," Rose said shyly.
"You think I'm hot?" Elliot asked seriously.
"What? No! No, I mean, I don't mean it like you're not, you are, it's just-"
"So you think I'm hot?" He asked again, chuckling at the shy but cute expression on Rose's face.
"Well, yes," Rose replied defeatedly.
She couldn't deny it any longer, even if she got fired for this later, at least, she would be happy that she told him how she really felt about him.
"Good, we're even," Elliot said with a smile.
"We're even?" Rose asked, slowly turning to see his face.
Did he mean even like he thinks she is hot too?
"Yes. I like you too, Rose," He replied honestly.
Elliot removed one hand from the stirring and placed it on Rose's thigh. He wished she hadn't worn a tight jean today, one of those her short skirts would have favored him, but he was okay with it, as long as she would finally be his in the end.
Rose felt her cheeks heat up and her heart rate became faster, she couldn't believe her crush of two years on her boss had finally become her reality, he was really touching her!
Laura would be over the moon with this news.
"We've arrived," Elliot said as he slowly removed his hand from her thigh.
"Oh, I didn't notice," Rose exhaled slowly, begging her heart to calm down.
She was about to open the door when Elliot suddenly grabbed her arm and slowly turned her to him.
Rose was looking everywhere but at him, she felt so shy to look into his eyes at that moment, she couldn't believe she just confessed to her boss!
"Will you be my girlfriend?" Elliot asked in a very soft and gentle voice, looking right into her eyes.
"I, we- I'm..." Rose stammered.
She was short of words, to say the least. How could he be this forward without warning?
"Take your time, Rose. I'll be waiting for your answer by the end of the camp," He raised his hand and caressed her red cheeks.
"Okay," Rose replied.
Rose had been too busy blushing to notice that their car was parked by the side of a huge forest, as she looked back to where they came from, she realized that no other cars were passing that area.
She wondered why Elliot had to choose this kind of lonely place for them to camp. She didn't really care, she was a lover of adventure and she was looking forward to spending time with her best friend.
"Do you love this place?" Elliot finished getting their luggage from the car and came to stand beside her under a big tree.
"Yes, it's beautiful," Rose replied looking into the forest and wondering what they were going to encounter in there for the three days they'd be staying there.
She hoped nothing weird happened.
"Not as beautiful as you are," She heard Elliot whisper beside her.
"What?" She asked, blushing.
"They've arrived," Elliot changed the conversation by pointing at the arriving white Coaster bus.
"Oh," Rose tuned to the Coaster bus, eagerly waiting for it to stop so her friend would alight.
She was so ready to see the surprise and happiness in her friend's face when she saw she had arrived here even before her.
People soon started coming out from the bus, it was a long bus, so she didn't know which seat her friend got to sit on, but from her knowledge, she knew Laura would come out soon, she loved sitting in the front of seats while traveling.
"Oh, my Chickens! Rose! Ah!!!" Laura screamed as she saw Rose already standing in front of the forest and waiting for them.
Rose smiled, raising her hands to her ears to protect her drums from bursting from Laura's scream.
"Hey, calm down," Rose chuckled as her friend dived her in a tight bear hug.
"You traitor! Did you lie to me because you didn't want me to find you'll be riding alone with him?" Laura whispered, using her head to point at Elliot by the side.
"No, nothing like that, Laura," Rose shook her head.
"He suddenly told me that I'll be coming camping, I'm just as surprised as you are," Rose said in her defense.
"I'll take your luggage to our tent," Elliot came closer and whispered to Rose.
Rose could only nod, she was still trying to get used to this sweet side of her boss.
"Hey, there's something you're not telling me, look how blushed you look, speak right now, you bad girl," Laura pointed at Rose with narrowed eyes.
As they walked into the forest, Rose told her friend everything that happened with their boss on the way coming.
"Wow, so, why didn't you say yes?" Laura asked a bit too loudly.
"Shh, people might hear us," Rose looked around, seeing her colleagues already sending a weird look for being loud in the quiet forest.
"If it's not the two Psychos we have in our company, who else would be disturbing the ecological balance of this serene habitat?" Penelope asked haughtily as she walked towards the friends with a hateful look on her face.
"Let's go, Laura, ignore her," Rose held Laura's hand and dragged her away but Penelope caught her arm, and forcefully yanked her away from her friend.
"Running away from me, bitch?" Penelope whispered harshly.
"I suggest you let me go before I slap your last surgery off your stupid face," Rose said with a daring look.
"Oh, you..."
"Get your dumb hands off me," Rose said and shook Penelope off her.
"Everyone," Elliot bellowed, getting everyone's attention.
"From this point, we'll be dividing into two groups. The girls will go that way and the guys will go the other way," Elliot said, moving closer to where Rose was standing.
"At the end of this game, the group with the highest number of puzzle pieces will each get a gift from me," Elliot said to the crowd.
Everyone started forming pairs, chattering amongst themselves.
Laura subtly left Rose's side as she saw Elliot coming towards her.
"Hey, don't tell me you're joining another team," Rose said to Laura with a frown,
Laura pointed Rose to her back, and when she turned, she saw Elliot standing behind her with the warmest smile.
"Hey," Rose said, lowering her head in shyness.
"Hey, um," He raised his hand to her face and gently put a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Be careful out there, okay?" Elliot whispered.
Rose nodded, "You too, Elliot," Rose said, smiling.
Elliot lowered his head to her face and dropped a feathery kiss just beside her lips before walking away.
Rose stood frozen, too shy to move as she wondered how everyone would be looking at her at that moment.
Shit! She almost had her first kiss!
"Girl!!!" Laura quickly came to her side and dragged her along, following the group of girls behind.
"You bitch! How did you charm the boss into kissing you!" Laura jumped up and down in excitement.
"Shh, keep it down, Laura, I'll tell you everything after the search okay?" Rose persuaded.
"Fine," Laura reluctantly agreed.
They reached the thickest part of the forest where the trees were too thick to even let the sun pass through.
Everyone had to put on their phone torchlights to see.
"Whoa! Watch out, Amber, there's a cliff right there," Rose grabbed a colleague away from falling over a cliff.
"Thank you, Rose," Amber said breathlessly, already scared of what would have happened to her.
"What was he thinking sending us into the dangerous path?" Laura said with a frown, flashing her torch closely to the floor.
"Hey, Laura, I saw something over there, I'll be right back," Rose said and walked off towards the side of the cliff.
"Be careful," Laura said, still busy looking around the wet floor.
"You think you can take him away from me?" Rose suddenly heard Penelope's voice behind her.
"Go away, Penelope, everyone's busy, make yourself busy too," Rose said and continued searching, not glancing at Penelope.
"You, bitch, I'll never let you be with him!"
"Rose, watch out! Penelope don't!!!"
Rose heard Penelope's threat and Laura's scream and sharply turned to see what was happening.
But it was too late, Penelope was already too close to her and before she could act, Penelope pushed her hard towards the cliff, sending her falling freely down the deep dark cliff.
"No! Argh!" Rose screamed as she saw herself plunging right into death.
She could distantly hear Laura and other people calling her name and their numerous torchlights turning to just dots of lights as she looked up from her free fall.
She closed her eyes and surrendered to death, she played the last memory of her and Elliot in the car and in the forest and was happy she got the chance to confess to him before she died, now, she could happily die smiling.
Suddenly, Rose let out an awful scream as she felt invisible hands grab her sides, she felt like those hands were acting as a force of gravity because she felt herself propelling downward with an unimaginable speed.
"Argh!!! Ouch!" Rose screamed as she felt herself hit the floor, but she immediately noticed something strange.
But she quickly sat up and used her torchlight to examine herself, no wound, no scratch, how could that be? The fall wasn't as painful as she expected too, it rather felt like she had just stumbled upon a stone and fallen to the hard ground.
"I guess miracles do happen after all," Rose whispered and stood up.
She quickly tried sending a text to her friend to let her know she was okay but needed help down here, but, her phone was completely out of coverage.
"Shit," She muttered and held her small bag close to her, pushing her glasses back to her face.
She had to find her way out by herself.
Rose felt a chill run down her spine when she noticed the trees down there looking so dry, spooky and weirdly shaped.
She slowly walked away from her fall point, flashing her touch around to see if she could find a way out of this spooky place.
"Wait a second," She whispered to herself after walking around for some time and getting to nowhere.
She suddenly realized that she's been going round in circles. She sighed and looked up at the sky, and that's when she saw the red moon.
"No way," She whispered, scared this time.
She knew it wasn't even noon yet when she fell, how come there was now a moon in the sky? A red moon at that.
That's when her senses realized that she didn't even need her torch if everything was normal, the trees here were so dry and should have been able to let the sun through. But how come it's night already?
Rose listened for any movement and discovered that it was as quiet as a graveyard down there, she quickly picked up courage and started running as fast as she could, she had a very bad feeling about this place.
She suddenly saw a cave and decided to go in there and rest for a while, maybe she'll find a way out with a clearer head.
She slowly approached the cave, flashing her torch into the pitch darkness and using her hand to remove cobwebs out of the way.
The moment she entered the cave, a large stone slid down from above and blocked her way out.
"No!" Rose screamed, causing bats to glide out from their resting places.