I woke up on the forest floor, the sun just barely peaking over the horizon. I wasn't as dizzy or exhausted as the night before, but I still had a splitting headache. I looked around. The man was nowhere to be seen. Why was I still alive?
I got to my feet and dusted myself off. It would take a long time to get back to Leslie's house. Leslie. What happened to her? Was she dead? Was she alive yet lost like me? I didn't know. I was afraid to find out.
After a few hours of wandering around aimlessly, I finally managed to locate the house. I stumbled into the yard, seeking the comfort of a warm bed. What I saw on the porch mad me nearly faint all over again. Leslie was lying in a chair, asleep. She seemed perfectly fine, no harm done to her at all. I ran up to the porch and practically tackled her.
"Leslie, you're all right!" I shouted joyously.
She yelped in surprise and gave me a disgruntled glare.
"Of course I'm all right," she snipped. "Why shouldn't I be?"
I creased my brow.
"Don't you remember anything that happened last night? Don't you remember the pictures or the faceless man or your dad going missing or the wood - ?"
"What do you mean my dad going missing? He's fine just like me. I think you're the one with the problems, Megan."
"No! What I'm telling you happened!" Then I had an idea. "Come upstairs with me. I know how to make you remember."
Begrudgingly, she followed me upstairs to her bedroom. I went straight to my laptop. Thankfully, the memory card was still there, untouched. I knew if anything would make her remember, it would be the pictures.
"Why are your hands burnt?" she asked as I typed.
"It happened last night when your camera got destroyed."
"My camera got destroyed?! What do you mean?! It was brand new!"
I found the images and turned the laptop toward her. "Maybe these will freshen your memory," I said.
As she flipped through the pictures from the day before, I saw her face grow pale. She slumped down on the bed and put her face in her hands.
"Oh... My ... God. I remember now. I remember everything. But how? How did that happen? And why are we still alive? What's going on?! What's going to happen to us?!" she screamed, voice rising an octave with every word she spoke.
"I don't know," I whispered as calmly as I could, "but whatever we do, we need to figure it out and fast. If last night happened after one day, there's no telling what could happen over the next week."
"So how are we going to know what we're supposed to do? We don't even know what this thing is!"
"I'm not sure, but I'll go home and try to find as much information as I can. Threatening or not, I won't let this go without a fight. I'll tell you whatever I find, if I find anything. I certainly hope I can."
"I hope you do too," she whimpered.
We sat in silence until my parents called a few hours later, telling me to get home. I was going to start doing some research on our enemy, but I was too exhausted and decided to go to bed instead. My dreams were full of nightmares of faceless people and pages taped to random buildings. I may have slept, but it was not a peaceful sleep. I finally hauled myself out of bed around midnight. It was time to find some information.