A gray, lifeless hand, skin peeling and cracked, emerged out of the water. “Take my hand, boy.” The voice was as hideous as the bones exposed in its palm. “Your pain, I understand. Come with me to a place where you will belong.”

Rafa leaped over a large fallen log blocking the hiking path, his pants scraping the bark as he slid down. His feet broke twigs and leaves that were scattered around the forest floor. He took a deep, pleasurable breath inward, appreciating the pine’s aroma, the smell of the towering trees all around him. He swayed with the soft brush of a breeze against his face and his dark brown hair.

“Eh, a little help?”

Rafa turned.

With Niklas’s limbs flared out over the top of the log, he held tight as to not fall backward. A clear discomfort materialized on his face. He struggled to keep his grip on a large knot in the log as both legs tried and failed to push him upward—grating both feet against the wood.

With a smile, Rafa stepped toward the log, reaching up and pulling himself onto his friend’s insurmountable obstacle. He reached out his hand. “Nothing wrong with a little help.”

Niklas took hold and scrambled to his feet. “Says the one doing the helping.” He looked down, wiping off the bark stuck to his shirt and pants. Cracking a gentle smile, “thank you,” he said.

“A-absolutely.” Rafa cleared his throat, matching the same smile on his friend’s face. “But… what do you mean by that, exactly?”

Niklas, lost in thought, pulling chips of wood from his clothes, took a moment to answer. He sat down and slid forward. The sound of snapping pine needles reverberated high into the canopy. “Well, you ever really needed help before? Really. And not just some log situation with your non-athletic friend.”

Rafa laughed. He jumped down, straightened his shirt, and gestured to Niklas to follow him. “Of course.” The two trod forward, following the wide dirt path that meandered through the trees and bushes. Rafa pondered, feeling resistance to giving out a real, trusting answer. “I’m sure in everyone’s life, they’ve needed help at some point.”

Niklas nodded. “Exactly. You don’t understand.”

Rafa knew he could explain further to convince Niklas, but something stopped him. Even here, in the middle of a vast forest, on a serene hike with his best friend, he couldn’t open up. “But I want to understand.”

“Try having your parents abandon you,” Niklas said, “then I’m sure you will.”

Rafa nodded, eyes down. “You know I got your back, though, right?”

“I do, yea, always.” Niklas put a hand on Rafa’s shoulder, patting.

The two hiked up hills, down steep ravines, wherever the path took them. Passing shoddy, wooden signs that read ‘to campsites,’ and ‘to waterfall,’ they stayed on the large, wide main pathway through the trees.

“Isn’t there a small lake coming up?” Niklas said.

A bird zipped over their heads, singing, on its way back to its nest, or to find food. The path ahead sloped upward, blocking any view of what was beyond.

“I’d only been here once before. So, honestly,” Rafa said with a straight face, “I’m not sure where we are at all.”

Niklas shook his head, matching Rafa’s tone. “We’re going to die out here.” He put a hand up above his eyes, blocking the sun that shone through a break in the tree leaves overhead. “The map at the start of the hike showed a lake somewhere, if we follow the main path.”

“Then a lake there shall be. Sounds nice,” Rafa said.

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“We jumpin’ in?”

“Do you even have to ask?”

As they reached the top of a small hill, a large lake presented itself with still waters, unbothered just for these two hikers that ventured deep enough toward the forest’s center.

“Not a person in sight. It’s all ours.” Rafa said.

“I’ll take that any day of the week, thank you very much,” Niklas said, marching down the descending path toward the bank.

Swimming, maybe getting a fire going in the dirt by the water, it was going to be a great day. Rafa took off toward Niklas, who was already at a jog.

Now near the water’s edge, the soaked vegetation floating along the top of the lake filled Rafa’s senses. He admired the vast, deep blue of both the sky and their own private pool. Ripples danced on the water with gentle momentum toward a river that let out across the way.

“You know I didn’t mean my problems matter more than yours, right?” Niklas said, taking off dirt filled shoes.

Rafa looked over. “Yea, I get it. But what you’re going through must be devastating. Did they really just up and leave?” He sat down to untie his hiking shoes as well.

“Me being here from overseas—it’s a lot for my parents to handle, I guess. I wanted so badly to go to this school here in the states. But, if I’d known this would’ve happened, I wouldn’t have even thought of it.”

“I’m sorry,” Rafa said, turning toward his friend.

“They chose money over me, Rafa.” Niklas took a deep breath. “I can’t get back home anytime soon, and the tuition is too great to continue.”

“I know they’re trying to figure things out. As we speak, I bet.”

Niklas closed his eyes, dropping his head. “I’ve called them probably fifty times, each. They left me here.”

“Niklas they—”

“Stop. You don’t know. I don’t know, and it’s been over a month. Either they’re both dead—”

“Unlikely.”

“Exactly. Or they’ve left me here, to die, whatever it is. They only wanted me out of the house.”

Rafa sighed. They both sat with no exchange for a few moments. More birds came flying by, skyward. “You can stay at my place as long as you need to.”

Niklas pulled off his shoes, then shirt. “Yea, thanks. It just sucks to feel I don’t have a place I belong, ya’ know?” He meandered forward, feet dipping into the lake as he progressed. The water rose further to his ankles, then shins.

Rafa let his focus fall. He wasn’t doing enough for his friend—at least it felt that way. Was he not opening up enough, too guarded, maybe? He wanted to tell Niklas it was going to be okay, that he’d always have his back, for the hundredth time—would it be enough? Rafa rested his eyes, now closed.

…

“That’s exactly how I feel,” Niklas said.

Rafa shot to his feet. An overwhelming feeling of danger washed over his heart, his limbs. Niklas stood knee deep in the water, a dozen steps from where Rafa now stood on dry land.

A head with bright white hair was protruding out of the water in front of Niklas, only the eyes above water level, as if the woman didn’t need to breathe. She fixed her gaze on Niklas, saying nothing, with her mouth underwater.

“What you’re saying sounds incredible. I just don’t know if I should,” Niklas said.

Rafa’s mouth hung open, eyes wide. He took a step back, then checked both pockets for his phone, a knife, anything. “Niklas!”

No answer.

Rafa turned, looking up the road for anyone that might be along the path they were just on. Of course, nobody. Why is Niklas not afraid? Does he not feel that—aura—coming from her? His breathing picked up pace.

A hellish hand rose out of the water toward Niklas.

Rafa sprinted out into the water, got to Niklas, and placed a hand on his shoulder, splashing as he stopped. “Niklas, what are you doing?” He applied light pressure to his friend’s shoulder, urging him to follow.

The boney hand remained extended, offering its grasp. The decrepit woman’s eyes, both red, danced between Rafa and Niklas, as if they were analyzing the situation with complete confidence.

“I think I should. It just feels right,” Niklas said.

A chill went down the back of Rafa’s neck. The thought of Niklas having some kind of telepathic conversation with this thing was bloodcurdling. His pulse raced, voice trembling. “We need to get back to the car now, okay?” He looked back at the path that led into the forest, returning to where the two had come. Should he run? Leave Niklas? No.

Niklas took a deep breath in. “I’m going to. I give my—”

Rafa grabbed hold of his entranced friend, pulling him backwards. With great strength and speed, Niklas broke free from the hold, pushing Rafa off of himself.

Rafa plunged into the water. All senses disappeared for a moment before returning to the surface, water emptying from his ears. He popped back up to his feet as Niklas reached out to take hold of the woman’s hand.

The head of white hair rose upward, exposing a rotting nose. Upper lip, then jagged, broken teeth.

Rafa lept forward as the notion of Niklas being dragged underwater passed through his mind. His own safety was the furthest thing from a thought. Save him.

A crooked, vile smile broke out on the woman’s face.

Niklas, eyes wide, took hold of the decaying, outstretched hand as Rafa crashed into him.

Rafa grabbed hold of his friend and dug his feet into the dirt, ready to pull Niklas backward—as it all went dark. His senses were now absent. He wasn’t under the water. But somehow, it was only utter darkness. A feeling arose inside, as if he could feel a presence or two. Niklas, it was definitely Niklas. And the other, that thing.

Then they were gone.