Suiren gripped her knees as she panted for air. She could feel palpitations at the back of her head, to which she pressed against to soothe herself. Behind came her friend who was just as exhausted as her, but she drew her journey short knowing full well she wouldn't be joining Suiren as she adventured through the forest.

“Well, I’ll be here waiting! Good luck!” Mel patted Suiren’s crouched back.

Suiren looked at her with irritant eyes but ultimately sighed, “Don’t assume your job ends here. Halley will call back to inform us of the boy’s whereabouts through one of his friends. If I can’t pick up your follow-up call, then you’ll have no choice but to step into the woods.”

Those instructions completely flew past her head and the only thing reassuring Suiren was a measly head shake.

“Uh-huh! Got it..!”

“Until then you can chill out here, I suppose! See you soon!” Suiren bolted off the exact same way Lucio had. Although his attempts were unsuccessful, Suiren knew to be careful with every step and had excellent spatial awareness and accuracy.

As she skid down the dangerously slimy slope of mud, she could see a smudged trail following her all the way. After she manoeuvred her way past the steep slope, she noticed flattened dry leaves on the ground shaped oddly like footprints. As she followed them it led her to a tree with a patch of the same mud on the way over.

“Hmm… he was here. Did he trip all the way till the tree or did he just try to clean himself? Nah..! No way a person could be that disoriented!” She thought to herself. Her deductions are usually accurate but Lucio seems to be debunking them pretty well.

The girl turned to her wrist watch, “It’s been about three hours since the race began, the estimated time was quite generous since most completed the track at around two hours. The boy had reached here around the one hour mark since he was lagging behind the rest, even though it took us only thirty minutes to get here. He’s been here for at least two hours then. How far could he have wandered..?”

She looked in both directions corresponding to the tree. As she glanced back and forth, she finally saw a faint trail leading deeper into the forest. “Don’t tell me…” She jumped closer to the ground to get a better view. “Oh my god… he did.”

She reluctantly followed the path but before she could forget she left a marker on the tree— it was the first pit stop badge with a bright blue laminate.

Every step she took, her feet felt heavier with each step or was it the foliage consuming her from beneath. As the trees amassed in number, the light was blocked away and the lurking darkness squirmed from below. A scary thought started feeding off her fear— a fear that was held deep within, a fear that reminded her how much she despised being alone.

The familiar yet haunting feeling of an entity gripping her shoulders took her way back to her childhood.

Mom! Dad! Where… WHERE ARE YOU?!

The child left all alone in a playground who found herself to have wandered too far on her own to unfamiliar territory with nobody recognisable to approach.

She began to weep. Tears trickled down her puckered face. But she was brave, brave enough to push away those tears to find a way home again, even though she knew the home she envisioned would never be the same as reality. Her parents, too busy to attend to their own child, never show up on the doorstep to take her to school, to bring her back or even make it back in time for dinner. She doesn’t even remember when they showed up for her birthday as well. But even then she hoped for her parents to be there.

When will you come back..?

Those moments never really ended and the fear the little girl felt in her eyes would still show from time to time even now.

A sudden thump was heard right beneath her feet pulling her out of the trance. She soon remembered why she was here in the first place.

The sounds continued and she quickly found where it originated from. A rusted metal plate was found embedded on the ground.

She glanced confused at it. “Huh..? A manhole..? Wait, is a manhole supposed to have an easily accessible handle?” She bent over closer and pulled it, only to have second thoughts considering the safety precautions with regards to touching rusted metal. “Welp! Never mi-”

As she tried to retract, the hatch burst open with a huge bang. The sound echoed through the trees and the birds set off from hiding immediately after.

The boy emerged, famished and exhausted, sweating bullets and held a nauseated look on his face. For a brief moment, the two made eye contact. The boy upon seeing the girl’s bewildered face with a hint of disgust, and the situation the boy was in quickly caused him to react swiftly towards onlookers— he screamed his lungs out.

It could have certainly gone worse, for even the onlooker reacted in the same manner.

“Wh..? What are you-” Before he could even finish his sentence, his arm that was holding up the hatch fell asleep sending him straight back into the pit.

“Oh my god?! Are you okay?” The girl immediately bent over and peeped down at the poor fellow. She couldn’t see anything that could have broken the fall because of the darkness all around. “Ah! Don’t tell me you’re dead?!”

“Ack- I am not dead! …yet!” He still had the head space for sarcasm. He got back up in an unsteady manner and tried once again to climb back up. This time he didn’t have to hold up the hatch since the girl willingly assisted him on that.

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As he crawled out, he brushed his clothes. “Thank you for your assistance!”

Before he could even look up, he was immediately pulled by the shoulders by the girl, who had finally realised who he really was. “You!” She said with a menacing aura, “You were here this entire time?! How did you get in? Did you fall in? Were you stuck in here this entire time?”

As he kept getting bombarded with questions, he felt the nausea coming back for round two. Without thinking he replies, “I wasn’t stuck! I’m more than capable of getting out by myself!”

“Huh?! Then did you loiter on purpose?”

“I… uh… had my reasons.”

“Wow! How reassuring? When you almost freaked out the entire school trying to look for a kid who managed to slip away from a race and lounge around in a hole on the ground!!” She was very much fuming.

“Uh… I’m… sorry?” He was very much confused but as she kept swaying him back and forth, he could feel his stomach acids coming up his throat. “Ah, man… Could you let me go, please..?”

She wasn’t listening to him anymore as she was completely absorbed by her own predicaments. “And why should I do that?!”

His mouth was salivating, he knew the eruption was imminent in just a matter of seconds. He quickly pushed away from her grip and ran backwards as he painted the bushes with his breakfast that morning—waffles, was it?

“Ugh- Much better.” He turned around to see her still on the floor from the push completely dumbfounded by what just unravelled in front of her eyes. “Now, where were we?” He carried on casually.

The girl was having an internal conflict within herself. “Shoot… why did I do that? He’s sick, for crying out loud! How could you do this to a sick person, Suiren!! What is wrong with you?!”

“Hello..? Anybody home?” Lucio bent over in front of her face as she stared into oblivion. “How about we go over there and talk..?” It might seems like his intentions are pure but really, he didn’t want anybody to discover what is hiding underneath that very ground.

“I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have done that!! Please, forgive me! I didn’t know..!” Her sudden outburst of sympathy was a surprise even to him.

“That’s quite alright! Now let’s go over there..!” He pointed to a distant tree.

“Do you mean it? Because if you’ve forgotten I’m the reason all this started, I forced you to sign up.” It seemed as though she had more to say and remained glued to the ground.

He realised that she won’t leave under such halfhearted circumstances, so he decided to do the next best option and carry on the conversation, diverting her attention from the hatch. He pressed the handle down using his leg only for it to make the loudest creak and an explosive bang as it closed shut. “Crap…!” He flinched.

“What is that anyway?” His mission succeeded in failing as usual.

“It’s… nothing!”

“Really? Then what were you doing in there?”

“Just… sight-seeing!”

“Do you realise how bizarre that sounded?” She crossed her arms. “Unless there really is something in there, why would you be hiding it so blatantly?”

He pressed his mouth shut with his fingers and looked away. “Quick, Lucio! Say something that’ll distract her from the Time Machine!” As he jumbled for ideas, he’d finally arrived at a plausible excuse and a truthful one at that. He proceeds whilst pulling a very confident expression on his face.

“This place right here is the centre of all those urban legends going around. This place contains…!” He slowed for the sake of suspense. He held his breath and finally uttered, “The infamous refrigerator!”

“Eh?” The girl flabbergasted by those words, stood glued to the ground with an extreme look of judgement and disgust. “Sigh… And what is that supposed to be..?”

“Oh my gosh! How do you not know of this, child?! It is the story of the serial disappearances of many young children, only to discover them stuffed into the refrigerator of the killer’s mansion.”

“Bullshit.”

“Tis not bullshit, innocent child.” He turned away a little grumpy. “Tis the truth!”

“And you expect me to believe that?” Suiren stepped forward closer towards him and stomped the ground hard. “WHERE’S THE PROOF?!”

“Imagination~!” He said excitedly accompanied by an inappropriate amount of jazz hands.

“Arghh! This kid..!” Her body was ready to strangle him but her mind was screaming no. She forcibly pulled her hands back to restrain herself.

As she composed herself, the deafening ringtone that she despised so much felt god-sent, saving her from her frustrations. She quickly turned to her right, fumbling with her track pocket. As she pulled out the phone, she realised it wasn’t her phone that was ringing, it was his.

“Hello?” He started casually.

“Lu-Lu..! Is that you?!”

“No, he’s dead. You’ve got to make an appointment to contact his soul now.”

“Wh…What..?”

“Kidding. It’s me!”

“Oh! Thank god..! You’re okay!!”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Dude, you literally jumped off the fence and most probably face planted on the ground! I had a whole panic attack from seeing that!”

“Jeez… you don’t have to be so dramatic about it.”

“I called you so many times as well. Why didn’t you answer?”

“You called me? Hmm, maybe there’s no service around here.”

“Is that so? Anyway I’m glad you’re okay! Now, get your butt back to school. And you better come up with a good excuse on the way back.”

“Aye!” He hangs up. And turns back to Suiren a little awkwardly.

“I’m sorry, what was your name again?” He asks with a little chuckle.

“It’s Suiren. Suiren Kanzaki.”

“Pleasure to meet you, I’m Lucio.”

“Sigh… I know…” She said with tired eyes and disgruntled expression.

“Wonderful! So, it seems I’m needed elsewhere. Shall we get going?”

“… Don’t think you’re excused from earlier. You are now on my hit list.”

“I didn’t hear an objection! Let’s go..!” He shoved her through the crunchy leaves towards a different direction.

“Wrong way.”

“Haha! I knew that.” He quickly shifts her to the opposite direction and continues on.