"Well, Renee, hasn't this been just as amazing as we promised?" Millie spoke as the trio took a seat on the cliff's edge.
Renee laughed softly, and a beaming smile stretched across her face. "I never doubted you guys for a second! But, I have to say," she paused and looked out over the land below them, the setting sun painting the landscape in all shades, "this has been even better than I could have hoped."
"It's not every day the freshie in our group graduates," Eliza elbowed Renee playfully, "We had to celebrate to the fullest, darling."
"I'm not a freshman anymore!" the now high-school graduate scowled, continuing the game, "I haven't been for three years. And you're still calling me…"
Millie was silent while Eliza laughed at the sputtering smol child (Who, ironically, was the tallest out of all of them). "You know, technically speaking, you are a freshman," she finally said, "A freshman in college."
Sighing, Renee conceded. "Okay. You have me there."
Her eyes suddenly lit up again. "Wait, that means that this year is just like the year we met! You guys sophomores, I'm a freshman. Four years. It feels so long ago."
"My friend group grew with two great new people," Millie's legs swung as they dangled over the edge.
"And I needed to meet you guys. As a new kid, I was hopeless with social interaction," Eliza reached out and took each of their hands, "I'm so glad that you became my friends."
They sat like that awhile, a row on the ledge, as the sun began to finally duck fully behind the earth and grey twilight was all that remained.
"Something is going to be different this year, though. Now we're all going in separate directions. All different colleges. With Renee graduating it's like it's official. We really won't see each other," Eliza's voice was a whisper, and she held tighter to their hands.
Millie didn't give it a millisecond to sink in, "Well that's why we went on this camping trip! And we'll find the time during breaks, there's no need to worry." She stood up off the ledge, and since the group's hands were still linked, the other two popped up as well.
"And we still have the rest of tonight before we all have to head to the airport for the start of the fall session. Once we get back to camp we'll stay up all night," Renee piped in.
"Yes! We'll tell stories of this supposedly haunted mountain. Oooo-ooo," Millie mocked the unimaginative local legend of people disappearing with a spooktacular ghost impression.
Eliza nodded wholeheartedly, "You're both right, of course. We should use this time to the fullest, which means that we should probably start heading back to camp before it gets any darker. We wouldn't want to get lost and waste any trying to find our way."
"Yeah, let's get moving." Millie began the march, and Renee followed, but they were both immediately halted by the stationary Eliza, with whom they were still holding hands.
"Uh, guys," Eliza glanced at their hands, "We should probably grab our junk."
Sounds of agreement filled the air as they finally released each other and walked back a bit to pick up their stuff.
As they moved further down the mountain the night truly set in. Darkness crept in around the three, with only a little light from the stars due to a new moon. Somewhere along the way they had grabbed hold of each other, clinging to bags to not get separated, with Eliza in front. The small cha-cha line worked its way through the woods.
"We should have brought a flashlight," Renee spoke up from the back.
Millie shrugged, "We remembered the food and stuff, and game junk, but didn't bring light. Figures."
Eliza ground to a halt, Millie softly colliding into her back, causing Renee to run into Millie.
"What?" Millie pushed gently at the stilled leader.
"Uh," Eliza was looking slowly left and right, "Uh." She continued this for a bit, and then sighed, finally speaking. You could hear strained mirth in her voice, "One of you mimic Aragorn. Be like 'Eliza! What do your nocturnal eyes see?'"
The other two glanced at each other in confusion, and then Renee proceeded as asked. "Eliza! What do your nocturnal eyes see?"
"Well, what they don't see," Eliza gave a few broken chuckles, "is the path."
"What?!" "No!" "We lost the path?" "Eliza, really?" "And a joke?" "When we're lost?" "This isn't exactly the time." "We're actually off the path?"
The wave of worry exploded from Millie and Renee, and Eliza didn't even bother to keep straight who was saying what. She waited until they both quieted, and then laughed again, stress taking form as twisted humor. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to make light of the situation. Hehe, light. Anyhow, I don't know when it happened, but the cleared path we've been following has come to a stop. That means that it isn't the right path, we made a wrong turn somewhere."
"It's okay. It's easy to get lost when it's this dark," Renee spoke gently, "Even for people that naturally stay up all night. It's not your fault." She looked comfortingly in the direction of her friend, but she wasn't sure if she saw her in the black.
Millie huffed. She was irritated, but she knew that missing the path was an honest mistake. Pulling on Renee's sleeve, she turned around and started following the path back. "Come on guys, we'll just head back until we find where we made the wrong turn." She took the lead this time; occasionally glancing back to make sure that everyone was still holding onto each other.
They came to a fork in the path rather quickly, one way leading up, the other down. After a brief discussion, they agreed that it would make sense to head down and followed that path. They walked for what was beginning to seem like forever, monotony settling in as they trudged along. Trees and dark. Trees and dark. Trees and dark. This only punctuated by occasional encouraging comments whispered by one of the three.
When they fell it was a shock. How had they missed the hole? Was it covered by leaves? Was it that Millie had been too focused on whether the path continued as far as the eye could see? In the end it didn't matter why. They still fell.
And when they fell, they fell together.