Max POV
A knock hits the door as the sun already disappeared from the sky. I was getting ready for bed as I had class in the morning and couldn't afford to be late again for the fifth time this week.
"Max," I swing open the door and immediately get met with my name. Derek, my best friend since birth, was standing in front of me with a book bag strapped to his back and I already knew what he was here for. "You won't believe what I found," I folded my arms, leaning against the doorframe as I waited for the answer. Guessing was never my thing. "Come on Max! Guess," he begs, cuffing his hands together as his eyes meet mine, pleading for my response.
"You found somewhere you would like to explore but you don't want to go alone," I sigh, and his head uncontrollably nods up and down. "Where is it and how long will it take to get there and come back because I have things to do," I reply, and he smiles.
Ever since me and Derek were young, we always loved to explore. We would go to abandoned houses, woods, and maybe even break into a rich people's houses because we were curious about what the inside looked like. These acts did get us in trouble as our parents grounded us and took our favorite things away and even one time, we were banned from seeing each other but it didn't stop or curious minds. We always found a way to get out of punishment, so I guess we never actually learned our lesson.
"I'm glad you asked," Derek says, swinging his bag over his chest to pull out a long paper map. As the map hits the air and unravels, he points to a set of trees with no context to it. "I want us to explore these woods." It looked pretty normal to me. We had explored so many woods before that I had set in the back of my mind that it would only take a good couple of hours to find nothing and leave.
"Fine I'll go but only because I don't want you to get lost-"
"Me, get lost," he pauses to laugh, "You are the only one that ever gets lost. You remember-"
"Yeah, yeah! I got it!"
...
The forest was creepier in person. The wind sounded as if it was saying 'Stay away' but all it did was fuel my curiosity as a smile crept on my face.
"Okay, Max pass me a flashlight," Derek taps my shoulder as I pull my bag off my back. Unzipping the bag, I realized that I didn't have flashlights. Actually, I didn't have much of anything in my bag other than medical stuff and a bit of food. I awkwardly smile over at Derek and his face straightens out.
"Max!" I jump back as he yells, forcing birds out of the trees. "You can't be serious right now," he slaps his forehead before yanking my bag out of my hands. "If we weren't already here, I would have beat your ass and forced you back inside the house to get supplies," he glances inside my bag before throwing it back at me.
"What's in your bag?" I asked and his eyes glared at me as I sealed my mouth. It was always so nerve wracking when he got upset. He didn't say another word either as he pulled his phone out of his back pocket turning the flash on and I followed his lead as he walked inside. Our light barely did anything as it was like the darkness ate it. The more we walked inside the more the darkness seemed to become overbearing.
"Max, did you hear that," Derek pauses, and I hit his back with my face. I didn't hear anything, but he stood in front of me on high alert. "It sounded like shuffling in both directions getting closer, but my flashlight doesn't light far enough to check it out."
"I don't hear anything Derek," I say right as in the distance a bright light appears catching our attention. Almost luring us near it and it worked as he began to head back in that direction, and I followed. The closer we got the lighter the light became.
"This is so cool," Derek smiles, hitting my shoulder. We were officially in the center of the forest as we eyed a tree with a hole in the middle that emitted the light we saw. For a tree to glow on its own was out of our comprehension. Derek walked ahead of me, and I stayed back not wanting to get close to the tree. What kind of tree glows? I didn't want anything to do with it. Derek on the other hand was peering through the hole, circling around the tree to see how anyone got the tree to glow. He kept going on about how they had to have put some lights in the tree but how would they work in the middle of nowhere. I was ready to go.
I leaned against another tree, one that didn't glow supernaturally and watched Derek from a distance as my feet grew tired and began to hear cracking. Slowly I eye the ground and at this point I couldn't do anything but yell for my friend. All I could get out of my lips was a syllable before the ground caved in from under me. I saw Derek run over with speed I've never seen him use as he held onto my wrist. There was no way he would be able to pull me up and the ground was cracking all over including under him.
"Derek, you have to let me go," I sigh trying to make the words come out smoothly, but my voice gets choppy. I didn't know what was at the bottom and the thought of falling to my death was something that made my heart stop on its own.
"The fuck!! I'm not letting you go are you dumb," he yells as his voice struggles and body shakes as he tries to keep me from falling.
"If you don't let go, we will both fall and possibly die-"
"Then let me fall and die with you because there is no way I'm giving up like a coward," he says, and I hear the ground crack even more. He needed to let go, and I knew he wouldn't let go on his own. With my other hand I grab his hand and start to remove his fingers. All he could do was yell at me to stop but I had no intention of listening. If he could live, then that was enough for me to keep tearing his fingers off of me until there were none left.
"Max stop!" he yelled as one of his tears hit me in the face flowing down my cheek as if it was my own. "You know you're like my brother please don't do this," he cries, and I ignore his words ripping his last finger off of me and letting myself fall.
As soon as I felt gravity working and Derek got further and further from me, he didn't hesitate to jump in after me as I shut my eyes. Were we really going to die like this?
I splash in some water, and I was okay as I heard another splash and saw Derek safe and sound. I sigh in relief right before his hand comes slamming on the back of my head. "You could have died," he yells before pulling me in a hug.
"You could have to," I replied, laying my head on his shoulder for a bit.
"You know I can't live without my sidekick. I've known you since birth so if you die, I will die with you," he pushes me off of him and looks at the water we were in and starts laughing.
"What?" I say as he dies from laughter.
"The water around you is very colorful I wonder if-"
"Shut up if that's the case your water should be more colorful than mine," I yell back and begin laughing as well. I had rainbow colored water all around me as his water was just black. A single color and I didn't know what it meant. And right when I thought it was over the ground began to rumble and Derek grabbed my wrist immediately. The hole from above began to close and the whole room turned white breaking to bits as I looked around. Everything begins to get sucked up by the hole from above that has reformed. We were no longer in the water as our bodies became light and we got swept off our feet. Derek still held onto my wrist as I held him, but the force pulled him up first as he yelled my name when our hands slipped from each other's grip. Then everything went blank.