The phone screen said it was ten to four.

Pandora blew a quiet raspberry. Slid her stupid brick of an electronic device back into her stupid pocket. A OnePlus she’d bought last year off Ebay, already five years old then. It had been pretty good in 2015, walls of text had informed her. For the price at least. Four years was about ten centuries in electronics, though and now it was just slow enough to annoy her when it needed to load more than a single page of text.

Atwood wasn’t a big city and it didn’t bustle like Toronto did in the evenings. Her mom had taken her and Nate there a couple years before she’d died, and it had just been- a lot. A lot of people. A lot of lights. A lot of sounds. Nate had been big-eyed and their mom had been worried he was gonna wander off. Pandora had been attached to her like a snail to its shell. The sounds and the crowds had been too much combined. And that had been back then.

She hated even being in class now. Twenty students gathered together in a rural Ontario classroom and she couldn’t even handle that. Part of it was the people (and part of it wasn’t, to be fair). A lot of them always talked and talked about things she didn’t get. The relationships she’d stopped caring about and the homework she never did and what someone was, in fact, wearing that day. She remembered when she used to like dressing herself, at least. Long time ago, it felt like.

She liked this, though. Atwood may not have been a constant press of bodies on Friday nights, but the small downtown it had was active. A nice bar and a bar no one every really talked about, restaurants of varying quality, a theater that showed the two most uninteresting but popular movies it could find. Still too much for her. This field by the little convenience store wasn’t too much. A couple families would see her and wave, too busy with shopping to interact. Other than that, she was alone. She liked that.

She didn’t like how long it took Shannon to respond to her. Five un-pocketings of her phone. She squeezed her hand into her pocket for the sixth time, which was like trying to fit a Labrador head into a Chihuahua collar. Women’s pockets. She was surprised when there was a brightly lit notification, plainly there. Shannon blank-last-name, message hidden. She didn’t like people prying, even if it was only the first few words.

I told you quarter after four

A pause. Shannon was typing something else.

Lucky you, I am a genius. I’m heading out now, be there in ten. Or so

Pandora blew another raspberry. Four o’clock for Shannon. Five after four for Ellie. Both had spent the past hour getting home and doing homework. Hers had been acting as the stuffing in her backpack-turned-pillow.

Her stomach growled. She hugged it with both arms, a slightly hunched and slightly hungry goblin. She added to the look by puffing out her cheeks. Hungry for once and all she had on hand was a field of grass and whatever was in her bag. The previously mentioned stuffing, ingredients theoretically listed as paper and cardboard and ink. Nothing edible.

An unnecessarily thorough and definitely hopeless search of her front pockets came up short. No change. Certainly no bills. Same for the small pockets of the backpack. Not even any stray coins underneath the papers and books from when she’d thrown the tiny wallet in there in a hurry. Probably during a slushie-induced fugue state. Fuck. Fuckity fuck.

She could have gone into the convenience store and promised to pay the cashier back for one of the pre-made sandwiches. He’d known her since she was a kid. But that was embarrassing. And she wasn’t good at that. She was awkward enough to receive many sharp remarks and a handful of frowns but not much pity in these moments. And that sort of thing would get back to her dad eventually. Not worth it.

She slid down until her head was resting on the bag and the rest of her body was splayed over the grass like a sweaty puddle. If she went home there would be something in the fridge or the cupboards. A gourmet combo of crackers and cheese. But it was almost four. Her dad would be home, on the couch, in full view of the door. No getting passed that. And she didn’t want to answer about homework to be done or why she was hungry when her assumed hearty and healthy lunch had been four hours ago (it had been non-existent was the answer). Should have went directly home after school. She could have eaten her meal of champions in peace and left. Stupid.

“Everyone at school talks about all the grass stains on your ass. This is why.” A voice said. Pandora raised her head a bit, chin clunking chest. Shannon, in a white sleeveless dress, purse slung around her chest like a bowstring. Probably for the best. The black jeans weren’t a good choice. Pandora had been sitting in a light sweat all day.

Pandora made a little noise of recognition as she watched Shannon walk over. Looked down. Grass stains on her pants. Fuck. She’d never really noticed that. Her stomach made a quick frown and a drop like she’d missed a stair in response. Of course everyone else noticed but her.

“Any response from Ellie?” Shannon asked, looming brightly above. Not sitting. Fresh grass on a white dress and all.

“Five minutes.” Pandora responded.

“Of course. What a slowpoke.” her friend said jokingly. Pandora caught a downward stare leveled in her direction before turning to look at approaching traffic. A blue car of some kind. Not new. It blew some wind and dust at the two. They both squinted in response.

“That was a joke, I hope you know. No one’s talked to me about you, and I haven’t heard anything about your grass stains around school.” The downward-casted stare was slightly different now.

Pandora looked up at her.

“I know.” She said with a neutral face. She hadn’t. But she was glad it had been said. Shannon smiled crookedly. Then held out a hand.

“Please come with me and help me pick out a snack. I’m hungry but don’t want to ruin my daily calorie limit, so you’re either going to be a good friend and stop me from buying a whole bag of Doritos or you’re going to at least help me eat them.”

The hand was taken and Pandora was half-helped up and then had to pull her entire weight up with one arm after a certain point. Very purposeful on Shannon’s part, she felt. Once both girls were on their feet, they walked arm-in-arm into the store. Shannon’s choice. She was almost dragging Pandora by the crook of her elbow. It wasn’t great. Probably wouldn’t be replicated anytime soon.

They had what they wanted in thirty seconds. The next couple minutes were spent wandering the aisles, procrastinating going outside into the heat. They passed the candy and the bread and soups and toiletries. It was a big space, for the lowly label of convenience store. The coolers hummed, threatening the promise of sugar. Pandora wanted to call them on that promise, but then she was back around to thinking about how fiscally empty every pocket she owned was. She had a debit card, but she wasn’t confident she could tell someone the exact amount in her account if a life depended on it.

Shannon pulled the bag open before they were out the door. She waved behind them to the guy behind the counter. Not who Pandora remembered from previous visits. It may have been his son. Todd? He’d gone to their school, been a year ahead of them. Probably.

Shannon took a chip and then inclined the bag towards Pandora. Who then took as much as she could fit in a kinda-large-for-a-teenage-girl hand with a neutral look on her face. Shannon managed to look unimpressed with a mouthful of crunch.

Ellie was already waiting a couple feet from where they’d had been sitting. The indent from Pandora’s bag was sitting, waiting for it’s bag-slash-partner a foot from her friend’s shoes. She scrunched her eyebrows together and frowned as the two approached. It at first seemed like frustration at chips shared between two out of three friends without input from the third. Then she said:

“Aren’t you hot?” And she meant it. It wasn’t a jab like Shannon would give me. Which would be good-natured, but still a jab. Genuinely concerned, as Ellie was inclined to be.

“Yep. I’m full of regrets.” Pandora responded. Also genuine. It was hot. Ellie frowned a bit deeper.

“It’d only take us a couple minutes to walk to my place. My shorts would fit you.”

That was waved off with a chip-free hand and some vague noise amounting to, “No thanks, It’s fine.” Ellie nodded a bit and then reached out a hand towards the chip-possessing pair. Palm open, ready to receive a snack.

“It’s nacho.” Shannon said right before she crunched another chip between her teeth. Ellie pursed her lips.

“Yes, I can see the bag.”

“I was under the impression you didn’t like nacho.” Shannon said all-knowingly.

“Yes, but I didn’t get to eat anything after my run because both of you have no patience.”

Shannon surrendered the bag to her, holding it by the bottom and tilting it towards Ellie. She did the same as Pandora, grabbing as much as her hand could fit. She won in that regard. Hers were bigger. Definitely-large-for-a-teenage-girl hands. More food to horde for her.

That spot was occupied for a couple minutes by a silently-snacking trio. Pandora didn’t really want to sit again if no one else would and Shannon had her dress and Ellie a pair of fashionable but athletic red track shorts and a sky blue t-shirt. Neither of those were very grass-friendly.

“Anyone have a hair tie?” Pandora asked after swallowing a mouthful of cheese dust and chip. Ellie had her blonde hair in a small braid and Shannon had pulled hers back into a loose auburn tail. Seeing that really cemented how hot a mane of very thick and very black hair was on a neck.

Ellie wordlessly removed one from her wrist and handed it over. Shannon held the bag of chips and once again looked unimpressed.

“You have absolutely zero hair ties on you?” When Pandora nodded distractedly, band between cheese-powdered lips, trying to focus on getting everything into a bun without missing any strands, Shannon continued:

“You’re an actual sociopath. Ellie has had her hair this long for a year and she has enough on her wrist to share with both of us.” Ellie raised her eyebrows high and looked up and away in response, as if to say I’m not involved in this.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Pandora frowned around the obstacle keeping her quips in her mouth and ran fingers through catches and knots. Shannon apparently felt like having the last word was for cowards and went for the last-er word, asking, “So, what are we doing tonight?”

“We could see a movie.” Ellie responded. A deeper frown from Pandora and a shake of the head. Silence as hair was smoothly pulled back. One hand then grabbed the circumference of the tail and the other the hair tie, freeing words from mouth.

“Don’t have any money.” Pandora said. Ellie pursed her lips a bit. Scrunched her eyebrows together once again.

“One of us could buy your ticket. It’s fine.” She interrupted an open Pandora-n mouth unintentionally with, “My mom also said she hasn’t seen either of you in ages, I think she’d give up the living room for a movie night.”

Ellie’s mom was right. Pandora did miss going over there. It had been what, a few months? Almost a year. Shannon had started getting busy with her therapy and trying to keep her grades level and Ellie had been getting hormones sorted and trying to figure out a new style and Pandora had just been getting used to staying in her room. They’d seen each other at school and talked easily but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept over at one of her best friend’s places.

But she also didn’t want to sit in that moment. Her brick/phone had been turned from vibrate to silent around three thirty and she really couldn’t handle trying to actively ignore it while on a couch, trying to pay attention to a movie.

“I haven’t seen my second mom in a while, and you have air conditioning, so that sounds fine with me.” Shannon said

“I don’t wanna be inside right now.” Pandora stated. Interrupting that summer-in-Ontario fantasy of a temperate movie-watching experience. Shannon looked at her once, the natural instinct when someone spoke. She then gave a more considered look. Her expression shifted into something softer.

“Okay,” she nodded while she spoke,” any suggestions?”

Pandora was silent while she thought. She came out here a lot. The fringe part of town. It felt populated enough she wasn’t worried about getting hurt or getting attacked. But there was also a calm to it that the areas around her house didn’t have. She could put some music in one ear and walk and sit and not think and not feel pressured to look days and weeks ahead and focus on how it was going to be the exact same as the hours she’d just lived.

Shannon and Ellie were talking while she was staring off into space. Shannon was talking at Ellie, actually. Ellie liked to listen. She wasn’t offended by it.

Pandora’s eyes settled on a point past them. Where grass behind the convenience store became a bit more wild, met the edge of the forest. Something turned in her stomach a bit. Another missed-stair feeling of a different tone. It wasn’t necessarily bad. A bit sad, but she didn’t hate it.

“Remember that little clearing we used to play in?” She said. Shannon stopped talking and looked over with her silence asking for a repeat of the question. Pandora acquiesced and pointed to the woods for clarification. Shannon blinked a couple times, taking in the information. Ellie turned her head and furrowed her brow and stared.

“Yeah.” Shannon trailed the word off. Ellie turned back to us.

“Let’s go there.” Pandora said.

“You wanna take a hike on Friday night?” Shannon asked. She seemed to remember the chip bag in her hand at this moment. She began to roll it up.

“Yeah,” came the response. Lamely. Couldn’t put the ideas into words properly. The sensation of running and climbing and whatever like when they were kids had flashed before her. Just for a moment, like a camera’s impermanent light. But it was very rapidly fading away and just leaving her with squiggles and spots in her minds eye she was having trouble explaining with human language.

“We’ll be under the leaves, there’ll be shade. I kind of like the idea.” Ellie said, shrugging. Shannon stared at both of us for a couple seconds. Then nodded and spread her hands.

“Okay, but you and me aren’t wearing pants,” she pointed at Ellie and herself,” so we’re going to be very careful. And if we see any poison ivy or whatever, we’re heading back. Okay?”

Two firm nods. Shannon gave a tilt of the head and a look very much like her mom when she seemed satisfied with an outcome. Then she held up the now-sealed bag of chips.

“I am also definitely not carrying this, so if you want anymore you can take this. Otherwise, say goodbye to the Doritos.”

Ellie and Pandora said nothing. The urge for nacho cheese had been filled. It had never really existed, in one of their psyches at least. Ellie shook her head and waved her hand a bit. Shannon nodded, the satisfied look crossing her face again for a second. She threw the bag into the dumpster behind the store as they began to walk.  

Pandora slipped her other arm through the dangling strap of her bag once the shade of the forest hit her toes. Tightened both the straps so it sat higher on her back. Then she felt the bag catch on something and turned her head to look. Shannon had a finger looped through the mesh bottle holder.

“Putting my purse in your bag?” She phrased it like a question. A nod. Ellie held up her wallet as well. Another nod. After they zipped Pandora back up, they continued .

Ellie had been right. The shade helped. It was cool and even a bit wet under the ceiling of leaves. Pandora led them through, eyes out for three-pronged fauna. All of them were armed with that usual dose of sudden onset forest-paranoia. It was slow going. Shannon and Ellie were taking careful steps and although Ellie and Pandora wore shoes, Shannon’s poor-in-hindsight decision of cute sandals was impeding forward progress. She was trying not to drive a stick or a rock in between her toes or under her feet.

Pandora had been alone for an hour before Ellie and Shannon had shown up. Hadn’t talked to anyone. Now she had people with her and it was still just silence. Little crunches and cracks of twigs and leaves interrupted that every so often.

It was comfortable, though. Ellie was probably fine. There were times when Shannon wasn’t around and the two lapsed into warm silence. Pandora along the floor or squeezed into the leather armchair Ellie’s mom hadn’t wanted in the living room anymore. Ellie righteously claiming her bed as her own via a starfish-like position (but she was willing to share). The two would scroll and read on their phones. Sometimes they’d pass them to each other and show funny posts and laugh but that was it.

Sometimes Pandora would sit and draw. Ellie as the occasional living subject. There was half a Dollar Store sketchbook filled with doodles of her spectacled face. Sometimes she’d play the guitar Ellie had that she never touched. Neither of those things had been a regular occurrence for what felt like genuine years. Literal years, as some would say, and in this instance those some would be wrong.

But it had been a long fucking time.

Shannon was probably itching to say something, though. Not that Pandora minded usually. She wasn’t stupid and she rarely ever spoke without meaning. She just liked to talk. When she got the two going it was good. Theories about a show or talk about how a movie was good or bad or aggressive gossip about school. She actively posed for the amateur life drawings of her friend. There was a large portion of a very special and very dead tree that held dozens of drawings of this specific girl on it’s processed insides.

“What are we going to do when we get there?” Shannon asked. They were fairly deep in the forest now. Her voice sounded odd here. Like it wanted to echo and bounce but something was stopping it just short of where it should actually end. There was an edge to her tone. The sharpness of realizing you were farther from home than intended.

“Climb a tree.” Like they used to. They’d never told their parents about this spot, really. Pandora’s mom would have never let her come back. Shannon’s parents would have just had a worried fit. Ellie’s mom would have been mellower. Calm and mad and disappointed. An equation which subtracted the childhood fear of an angry parent to enhance the crippling shame of it all.

“Oh, yeah, wow, that’s a fantastic idea.” Shannon paired this with a single gesture to show off sandaled feet that somehow came off as really condescending, for an action bereft of a vocal component.

“You didn’t come prepared. Boy Scout’s motto.” Pandora said. Her voice carried that same strange texture. Muffled. Words spoken in a room draped with blankets. The unfortunate point in that comparison was that the forest around them had nothing of the sort.

“Fuck off.” Shannon meant that as a joke, probably, but it held a quality like an accidentally broken tooth. Unintentionally sharp. Pandora turned slightly and saw her slowly moving her eyes back and forth with every step. Like she was crossing the longest street ever.

“Guys.” Ellie said. She’d stopped without much fanfare and without the notice of her friends. And was a few feet behind because of it. Shannon did the same upon the realization of the sudden distance. Pandora took a few slow steps to lose the momentum she had built up. They both stared.

“Have either of you not noticed the lighting?” Ellie asked quietly.

Pandora spun a full circle. Everything was a bit blue. Like someone had slipped a bit of coloured plastic wrap over the sun. The bushes and the bark and the dirt underneath still had their original tones, but filtered through a pale arctic. The world had turned off its blue light filter, it seemed.

“Okay.” Shannon said strangely. She had her head on swivel like she was planning on crossing a street.

The temperature hadn’t changed. It was still a bit cool like a forest would theoretically be. Room temperature, or so. The cold lighting was mismatched with the bit of heat leaking through the leaves.

“The sound is weird too.” Pandora. Her voice was crisp, like speaking in a library full of books or a studio full of acoustic foam. Or a department store you felt the need to whisper in. Shannon looked at her for a moment. Ellie bit her lip and pushed her eyebrows together. Shannon clapped, and the sound didn’t seem to carry nearly as far as it should.

“We’re going back.” Shannon stated. Her voice was solid and stern. Like she was talking to an argumentative toddler and expecting the absolute worst. Pandora took a bit of silent offense when her friend’s eyes fell on her.

She said nothing for a moment. The sensible and immediate reaction was to agree.

But some part of her brain thought woah, cool.

“Okay.” She said, after a suspect pause. Ellie was already turning to walk. Shannon followed her and Pandora followed Shannon.

The sounds of wood and dirt underfoot was strange now. A bit unnerving. Too loud in the quiet, too amplified and enunciated. After a minute or two, there was some expectation for the blue light to fade away. It didn’t, of course. They continued for another few minutes regardless. Ellie was the one to stop them once again. She turned and sighed. Said nothing. Managed an aura of aggravation regardless.

“We cannot just go forward. I don’t want to be that person.” Shannon said. She was tapping her feet and crossing her arms.

“Me or Ellie will tell everyone that if we make it out. That you weren’t another horror movie character.” Pandora said, looking around slowly, not focusing on the words or the movement. The sunlight coming down through gaps in the leaves was a strange mix of yellow light overlapped with blue. It didn’t mix or weave together. It just sat, one on top of the other.

Shannon didn’t laugh or respond. Neither did Ellie. They both looked nervous and uncomfortable in their own way. Pandora felt like a bit of an asshole for that comment. Best to move on from that.

“We would have been able to at least see the end of the forest by now. We either see what’s waiting for us or spend the rest of our lives walking,” she said. They were silent for a few moments. Then:

“God fucking damn it I hate this,” Shannon said. She was holding her hands tightly under her armpits like she was cold. Ellie was standing very still behind her, hands clenched in distracted fists, looking thoughtful and distressed. Pandora stared at them for a moment, then stretched out her arm and offered a hand to Shannon. She took it. She mirrored Pandora’s action with her other hand, and Ellie took hers.

It was only three or four minutes to the clearing. Which didn’t make sense, but they actively didn’t think about it. That was a topic for mulling over in a dark room under the covers, when sleep would not come.

Shannon had Pandora’s hand in something resembling the crushing grip of an angry anime mecha. She duly wondered how her friend had scored that low on the grip test. She wanted to look back and see if Ellie’s face was in fact appropriately contorted in correlation with the crushing of her metacarpals, but felt like it was an inappropriate time.

The clearing was a perfect circle. A fact that was obvious in hindsight, but not picked up by silly child brain that didn’t particularly care about those kind of observations. The main attraction was a deliciously gnarled but grievously old tree. The knots were like thick and hardened growths bubbling over the bark, perfect for climbing. The large limbs gave a sturdy place to relax, although that may have changed in the seven years that had passed. Time comes for us all.

The air was completely still here. The individual blades of grass didn’t shift an inch in any direction. The only movement was three girls, shifting dirt and leaves as they stepped over foliage and set foot in the meadow, and the small creature sitting at the base of the tree.

It was snow-hued, given a tint like a blueberry slushie with most of the flavour sucked out. Credit given to the odd and otherworldy light beaming down from an unknown source. It looked a bit like an arctic fox, same general face shape, same posture and complexion. But it was longer and sleeker and had less of the puffiness of fur that they did. It’s eyes matched that ethereal robin’s-egg that was cast over everything. It had a bit of plume scarfed around it’s neck that broke the solid white with a splash of cool ash.

“Hello.” It spoke. It’s voice was female. Deep and soothing and like the voice you’d immediately think of when someone said the word mother, and coming from somewhere other than it’s mouth. It hadn’t moved anything but it’s tail with that single word.