Disclaimer: I do not own the book Everlost in any way, shape, or form. I do not have any contract with author of the book, Neal Shusterman. I do, however, own the character Twilight Johnson.

On an ordinary day, anything can happen.

The Strange Boy

Twilight awoke in rather an uncomfortable state. She opened her eyes only to close them again. The sun's rays were too bright to be in her bedroom.

Twilight brought her hand to shield the sun away from her eyes so she could determine where she was exactly. She glanced around a few times. All around her were trees; beneath her was the forest floor.

She sat up a bit, and rubbed her forehead. I must be dreaming. She thought. She looked to her side and saw two kids sound asleep, curled up like babies. One was a girl with blond hair, who looked familiar to Twilight. The other was a boy who looked Chinese, except for his nose, and his reddish brown hair.

A memory came flying back to her. Going through a tunnel. They were there. They all bumped into each other.

"Hello!" came a voice from behind her, making her scream a bit. She turned her head and saw another boy, younger, sitting cross-legged on the ground. Behind him was a granite cliff that extended beyond Twilight's sight.

The boy's hair was unkempt, very messy, and his clothes were old, maybe from another time era. He had more freckles than she had ever seen in her lifetime. "It's about time you woke up." He simply stated. Twilight looked at him with confusion.

"Who… are you?" Twilight asked.

Instead of answering like he should have, he pointed to the other two kids, who was starting to awake from their sleep. "Your friends are waking up, too!"

The other two sat up, blinking a bit from the sunlight. The boy had brownish stuff on his face. Twilight smelled chocolate emit from him. Chocolate. Twilight thought.

"This is freaky." The Asian looking boy said. "Where am I?" The girl stood up, her knees shaking a bit. Then it came to Twilight. "Allie!" She yelled. The girl turned to her.

"Twilight? What's going on?" Twilight just slugged her shoulders, as she shook her head. "I've got no clue." Twilight stood up for the first time and took a good look at the surrounding area. It was a forest. She was sure of that at least.

"We were in the car, with our dad," Allie said aloud. That got Twilight thinking too. We were driving on a mountain road, above a forest… But that forest was full of dead tree trunks, with dry, rotting limbs, a dead forest. This forest was full of life. The trees were breathtaking, if Twilight hadn't been so worried about this whole situation, she would have loved to paint the area.

Twilight remembered the squealing of tires, and a crush, and then nothing. Absolutely nothing. Twilight began to feel a bit nervous.

"Okay, what's going on here," Allie demanded of the freckled boy, because she knew for a fact that neither the chocolate nor her sister were as clueless as she was.

"This is a great place!" Freckles said. "It's my place. Now, it's your place, too!"

"We've got a place," Allie said, obviously becoming irritated by him. "We don't need this one, thank you very much."

Then the Chocolate Boy pointed at her and her sister. "I know you two! You bumped into me!"

"No," Allie said, arguing back. "You bumped into us!" Freckles came between them. "C'mon, stop talking about that." He started bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet, while Twilight raised an eyebrow at the young boy. "We got stuff to do!"

Allie crossed her arms. "I'm not doing anything until I know what's going on-" Allie stopped mid way through her sentence. Suddenly, it came crashing back to Twilight as well.

"-A head-on collision!" Allie yelled.

"Yes!" Twilight and the Chocolate Boy said. "I thought I dreamed it!" he said.

"It must have knocked us out!" Allie started to examine her body. Twilight did the same. There were no broken bones, no bruises- not even a scratch on them. This really confused Twilight. How could that be? "We might have a concussion." Allie said, reading her thoughts.

"I don't feel concussed." Chocolate Boy said.

"Concussions are unpredictable, Chocolate Boy!" Allie yelled at him.

"My name's Nick." Chocolate Boy said, annoyed by the nickname.

"Fine. I'm Allie." Twilight smiled a bit. "I'm Twilight." Nick tried to wipe the chocolate from his face without success. They turned to Freckles. "Do you have a name?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah," he said, looking down. "But I don't have to tell you." Well that's helpful. Twilight thought, annoyed by him.

Allie simply ignored him, and turned to Nick and Twilight. "We must have been thrown clear of the accident, and over the cliff. The branches broke our fall. We have to get back up to the road!"

"What would you want to go there for?" Freckles asked.

"They'll be worried about us," Nick said. "My parents are probably searching for me right now." Twilight nodded in agreement. Their parents must be looking for them, unless…

"Maybe they won't," Allie whispered. "If the accident was bad enough…" Allie couldn't say it, so instead, Nick did.

"We could be the only survivors?"

Twilight saw Allie close her eyes, while she hugged herself, trying to think about the opposite. Their dad was alright, he just had to be! The cars today, were safer than ever.

Nick began to pace, making Twilight more and more nervous. "This is bad. This is really, really bad."

"I'm sure they're all okay," Allie said trying to make the two calm down. "I'm sure they are." She repeated it, mostly to herself.

And Freckles started laughing at them. "The only survivors!" he cried. "That's a good one!" This was no laughing matter. It made Nick, Allie, and Twilight furious.

"Who are you?" Allie demanded once again. "Why are you here?"

"Did you see the accident?" Nick added.

"No," he said, choosing to answer Nick's question only. "But I heard it. I went up to look."

"And what did you see?" Twilight asked.

The kid shrugged. "Lots of stuff."

"Were the other people in the cars all right?" Nick asked.

Freckles turned and kicked a stone, angrily. "Why does it matter? Either they got better, or they got where they were going, and anyway there's nothing you can do about it, so just forget about it, okay?"

Nick's temper got the better of him as he threw his hands up. "This is nuts! Why are even talking to this kid? We have to get up there and find out what happened!"

"Can you just calm down for a second?" Allie said, about to lose her temper because of the two boys.

"I am calm!" Nick screamed. "That's a funny way to show you're calm." Twilight teased, as Nick just glared at her.

Something was really… off… about the whole situation.

"Can you take us to your home? We can call the police from there." Allie asked.

The kid just shook his head. "I don't got a telly- phone."

"Oh, that's just great!" Nick said.

Allie turned to him, finally losing her temper. "Will you just shut up- you're not helping." Allie turned back to Freckles, taking a good long hard look at him. "Where do you live?" Allie asked him.

"Here," was his answer.

"How long have you been 'here'?" Twilight stepped in.

Freckles' ears went red. "I don't remember." By then, Nick had come over.

"And your name?" Allie said stepping back in.

He didn't look her in the eye. He looked down, shaking his head. "I haven't needed one for a long time. So I lost it." Twilight's eyes went wide.

"Whoa…" Nick said.

"Yeah," Allie agreed. "Major whoa."

"It's okay," the boy said. "I got used to it. You will too. You'll see. It's not so bad."

Twilight felt butterflies in her stomach. This day seemed to be getting weirder and weirder by the minute.

"Do you remember how old you were when you got here?" Twilight asked, fighting off her nervousness.

"Eleven," he told them.

"Hmm," Nick said. "You still look eleven to me." Twilight nodded. "Yeah."

"I am," the boy said.