The sunlight pierced through her eyelids.

She opened her eyes.

The forest floor.

The autumn leaves.

She heaved herself up.

She didn’t recognise the place she was in, but it somehow seemed natural to her to find herself there. It’s almost like deja vu.

Two figures argued over the falling sun.

Rubbing her swollen eyes, she got up and made herself walk to the two figures.

They turned around.

“Hey Lindsey.”

Eleanor bit her lip, as if expecting something to happen.

A head turn to the other silhouette.

Avan was smiling a bit too widely.

“How do you feel?”

“Alright?”

She wanted to churn from her mouth and answer, but it was a question instead:

“What’re you guys doing?”

“Fishing-”

Avan stopped, turning his head intentionally to Eleanor:

“Not that we found anything anyway.”

Avan lashed out at his classmate before she could even think of a comeback:

“The stream contains nothing but water!”

He forcefully sank his entire leg inside. The water rushed to his knee.

“Do you have any idea how shallow this is?”

A sudden rustle in the bushes.

The three heads changed directions.

“There’s even l-lesser for today than yesterd-”

Castasia stopped in his tracks.

“H-how are you?’

“Why do you guys keep on asking me that?”

LIndsey cocked her head to the left:

“Is something wrong?”

“N-no.

“A-anyway, here’s the f-food I found for today.”

In Castasia’s arms were far from what could satiate a normal human stomach- berries of all shapes and sizes were cradled in his shirt, stretched out in the form of a basket.

He released them and they all trickled onto the ground.

“That’s half of yesterday’s.”

Eleanor knocked Avan’s head as the words left his mouth.

He winced:

“But it’s true!”

“Well you don’t have to remind us that we’re starving by the second!”

Avan dropped his head down:

“If this continues, we’ll have to…”

Another knock on the head.

This time Avan didn’t put up resistance.

Castasia knelt down to pick up the berries:

“W-well, l-let’s just eat for n-now.”

There was no questions asked as they munched- no, nibbled, on what little the jungle had offered them today. The silence of the forest perpetuated the air as they ate in gloomy silence.

Then, as the sun drowns into the ground, the void called night took over.

.

There was no sunlight this time round.

But then again, she was awakened by voices, not the warm, evening sun- baked earth.

As she tried to open her eyelids, she heard the voices ring through her head:

Angst.

Desperation.

Hysteria.

She could make out this much from the voice.

Oh, and something else:

Avan’s missing?

Her eyelids snapped open.

Avan’s missing?

Pulling herself from the ground once again, she scanned her surroundings. Eleanor was beside her, shouting something in her ear:

“Get up! Avan’s missing!”

In a matter of seconds, she found her shoes caked with mud as she looked around for the missing person.

“D-do you think it is that?”

“The what?”

Eleanor snapped back at Castasia, but she already knew the answer.

“The lusus naturae.”

Lindsey whispered to herself, and rushed off in search of Avan.

“Avan!”

“Avan!’

Their cries rang through the forest, but no one responded, no ‘I’m here!’ came through to them.

Their footsteps got more and more rapid, till they were basically rushing through the forest.

“Avan!”

And then, she saw it.

“Oh.”

Was all that she gave out of her mouth.

“DId you find him yet?”

Eleanor rushed to where Lindsey was, and stopped in her tracks.

“Oh.”

There, on one of the big trees that predominantly made up the forest, was him, torn, shredded, and very much dead.

But that wasn’t the only thing there.

He- no, it can’t even be considered a he, was up in the trees, blood dripping from its mouth. On its body was at first unrecognisable- it had too much blood on it, but when she squinted, she could make out what it was- Alice’s clothing.

“Oh.”

Lindsey repeated again.

“Oh, it’s the lusus naturae.”

.

His vision was jagged.

His hands were cold with blood.

It felt so real.

A loud bang.

August jolted up.

The sudden movement caused a metallic clink between the handcuffs and the bed.

He glanced downwards and saw the dented handle of the hospital bed.

“You honestly should stop using force so much.

See? I already have two bruises on my face, and who knows what else I’ll have.”

He glanced around, as if the police officer was imaginary.

“I thought my interrogation was over?”

“It’s not.”

“Why not? I told you all I knew.”

“You were found locked up in the interrogation room with the girl you were supposed to interrogate dead in her bed, how in the world are we supposed to let you go?’

“But I didn’t kill her!”

“Then what else could’ve killed her?”

“Why would I even want to kill her?”

“How would I know?”

“I was unconscious when you found me!”

August stopped yelling and the veins in his neck popped back into place.

“I didn’t kill her.”

He said quietly.

The police officer lifted himself off the chair that was parked beside the bed.

“Lying wouldn’t get you anywhere.”

And he left the room.

“But I didn’t lie.”

He looked at the police officer’s receding figure:

“I DIDN’T LIE, YOU HEAR ME??!?”

“I don’t even remember who I am. Why would I lie?”