A shadow creeps into Taka's room while he's sleeping and leaves a note in his nightstand without waking him. She leaves and hours later the sun comes up.
Takeshi: As the sun begins to come up it shines through his window straight into his eyes. Sleepily he blinks a few times before rolling over to look at Nessa only to see that she isn't there. This worries him. She had acted so oddly yesterday. Sitting up he notices a note and it reads,
"He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
He stares at the poem, slightly worried by it's implication. Quickly he gets up and puts on a pair of shoes ready to go looking for her.
Tessa: "Nessa?!? Are you here" She comes barging in and searching franticaly for the blonde, but not finding her. She notices Takeshi and blinks, keeping away her tears "Have you seen Nessa? She disappeared from her cabin! She left me this note last night but I don't know where she went off to!"
Takeshi: He jumps a little when the girl barges into his room. But quickly regains his composure. "I'm-I'm not sure she came over yesterday...she was...distraught...She must have left some time in the night because when I woke up she wasn't here." He's slightly more composed then Tessa but you can tell my the tone of his voice that he's worried for his friend. "All she left me was this." He holds out his portion of the note.
Tessa: She snatches the poem from his hand and reads it. "It sounds like mine." She puts the two poems together, frowning. "See here? They both talk about a wood." She gives the two notes to Takeshi. Hers says:
"Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year."
Taka: For a moment all he does is stare at the other half of the poem, a growing sense of unease forming in the pit of his stomach. "This...this can't be good. We have to find her." He puts both of the notes in his right front pocket and slips on his old beat up sneakers.
Tessa: "Do you have any idea where she might be?" She glances at him worriedly
Taka: "Well the poem mentions a forest...maybe we could start there?" It's clear he's uncertain and slightly nervous about making the wrong call in this situation.
Tessa: "Wait, I know how to find her!" She says in an epiphany and takes the hairpin holding her hair up in her hand. "This is a present of my mom's. It points to what you want the most, if we focus on wanting to find Nessy it'll point to her" She puts it flat on her palm and closes her eyes. The hair pin spins in her hand and it finally points east towards the forest. She opens her eyes and smiles weakly "You were right I think"
Taka: He looks a little relieved. "Nifty thing you have there. Remind me to get one of those." he says it in a joking way. Like it's a bad attempt to lighten the mood a little. "We better head off the sooner we find her the sooner we can bring her back safetly." He opens the door and walks towards the forest.
Tessa: She follows him quickly putting back her pin on her hair "Unless Ariadne decides to give you one of those, I'm not sure Bold how you can get it"
Taka: "Maybe I'll just steal yours." He says almost playfully. After that he is silent as they make there way through the forest.
Tessa: She chuckles lightly, but it's tense. As they get inside the forest she looks everywhere for a spark of blonde hair but sees nothing except trees. She's starting to get nervous as she sees a paper sticked to a tree, scribbles all over it "What's this? Is someone playing slenderman here?" She says, frowning and picks up the note
Taka: He looks at her quizically, "slenderman?" Taking the note he looks it over and flips to it's back when he sees that the back is blank he flips back to the front to reread it. His face slowly beginning to crease with worry.
Tessa: "It's a computer game, but nevermind." She took it back and read it. There was a small paragraph, scribbled in a hurry but it was Nessa's handwriting. It said: " I write you a letter that begins With I love you and ends with I love you and Somewhere in the middle is one goodbye for Every hurt" "What do you think this means?"
Taka: : He reads the letter then rereads it. To be honest he's not exactly sure what to make of it. "Maybe she's talking about her ex? When she came over she was pretty...distressed about seeing him with others girls. I could be totally off the mark though..."
Tessa: "It could be... She was really pissed when they broke up. She was even more pissed when he saw him with his new girlfriend. But maybe... What if she meant it for us?"
Taka: His forehead creases in worry. "Yea...I guess it could go either way. I wish she had given us a map or something though...You would think if she wanted to be found she'd have left a better guide." Sighing ever so slightly he carefully folds the poem and puts it into his pocket.
Tessa: "Should we keep looking for these notes? It looks like the only clues she's leaving" She asks and looks around her, searching for another piece of paper
Taka: He nods grimly. "Agreed. Which way does that nifty compass of yours think we should go next?"
Tessa: "Let me see" She takes off her pin from her hair and sets it on her hand again. It spins slightly to the right, pointing to a darker section of the woods
Taka: Without saying anything he nods and begins to walk into that part of the woods. Grateful for the fact that he can see better then most in the dark. As they, going deeper into the forest the trees become thicker and there's a dampish musky smell of decaying leaves.
Tessa: "See any sheets of paper? Anything?" She says and steps on one. "Oh, found it." She picks it up but it's muddy from the dirt in her shoes
Taka:He takes the sheet of paper out of her hand tries to wipe away some of the dirt but only succeeds in making it worse >.< "You wouldn't happen to be able to read this"
Tessa: She rolls her eyes "Oh yeah, I totally read dirt. I had some classes of it back when I lived under the ground"
Taka: "No need to be so snippy about it...one of us will have to figure it out though, is the next clue after all
Tessa: "Sorry, my nerves are getting the best of me." She sighes "But I really don't know what to do with this"
Taka: He sighs in frustration and squints at the message. "Maybe we should just continue on. I think that's the best bet we have to finding her. Not that we have much room for error...."
Tessa: "Yeah, we probably should" She takes her pin and gives it to him "Keep looking at it to see if we're in the right direction"
Taka: He takes the pin and it spins liks a compass before pointing towards northeast. Holding it on the palm of his hand he begins to walk in that direction and motions for her to follow, Nessa's poem clutched tightly in his other hand.
Tessa: After a while of walking she notices that it's getting slightly colder and sees a post-it stuck on a leaf. She snatches it and reads it out-loud "They say when you are missing someone that they are probably feeling the same, but I don't think it's possible for you to miss me as much as I'm missing you right now" She frowns "Geez, she really liked that kid"
Takeshi: He looks at the lines his eyes scanning the paper before looking away and sighing. "She loved him. I've never been one to believe in love but if this isn't love I don't know what is...granted I don't know much but still...If she hurts herself..." He trails, his fists crunched together, more determined then ever to find her and bring her back to camp safetly.
Tessa: "I think she would" She shivers and tries to cover her arms. "Am I the only one who thinks it got really cold here?"
Takeshi: "I don't doubt she would either." He shivers and wraps his arms around himself, "Yea...think she might be behind it? Just the other day she was complaining about how hot it was...Something is telling me that it's just going to get colder as we get closer to her."
Tessa: "She did always makes her room get cold even without AC. I guess her powers are getting stronger" She shivers and sees another note hanging on the roots of a nearby tree "There! Another one!"
Takeshi: A cold wind hits them and the note comes loose. Moving quickly Takeshi makes a run for it and manages to grab the note just as it's fluttering away. "Phew, almost lost it." He walks over to Tessa and shows her the note. "Would you like the honors?"
Tessa: She grabs it and sees it's a torn page from a book, with one paragraph highlighted, which she reads out-loud "There’s two sides to me, you see. There’s the sleepy old side you love; an’ there’s a sort of energy— the feelin’ that makes me do wild things. That’s the part of me that may be useful somewhere, that’ll last when I’m not beautiful any more." She stops and thinks "Oh I know this passing! It's from her favorite book, 'The Ice Palace' by Fitzgerald"
Takeshi: He gives her a blank look having obviously never heard of the guy before. "Never heard of him." He sighs in exasperation. "I wish we knew what all these meant. I mean is it possible for someone to love another person this much?"
Tessa: "I think this is her bread crumbles trail, but more personal. She's trying to tell us something but I think it may not necessarily be for us..." She looks down "I think she meant it for her ex. Maybe she wanted us to go get him, I don't know. I'm not sure what's coming at the end of this trail"
Takeshi: "I doubt it is anything good. I'd suggest we go find this ex of hers but something tells me time is not on our side today. Wanna use that niffty compass of yours so we can get back on track?"
Tessa: She seems nervous "Thing is... He left Camp this morning..."
Takeshi: "F*ck" he mutters under his breath, "not like we could have gone and gotten him this far in...but still. You think she knows?"
Tessa: She shakes his head "Probably not. I only saw his girlfriend crying on the Phobos' Cabin porch, when I talked to her she said he was just gone. Like poof"
Takeshi: He sighs. "Strange but it can't be helped. We have enough on our plate with one missing person. We'll just have to find her without him." He takes a step forward in the direction he thinks is north, where the cold is coming from, obviously wanting to get a move on.
Tessa: She starts following him but trips over something and falls over him. "Oh god I'm sorry! I can't see well around here, it's too dark!"
Takeshi: He sticks his hands out and manages to avoid a broken nose. As he tries to disentangle himself from Tessa he begins to laugh hysterically because honestly his nerves are completely shot. In between fits of laughter he asks, "are you okay?"
Tessa: She looks at him weirdly because of his laughing "Y-yeah." She gets off him after some time trying to disentangle from him. "We should keep going" She offers him a hand to get up
Takeshi: He calms down a little and takes her hand. "Uhhh...yea. Maybe you should lead this time."