The race had begun, and I had barely gotten a grip on my oar when it had. All around us, down the same route came rushing at least a dozen more boats, and at the lead I could already see the back of Dean's striking blonde hair, in the boat with his three team members.

"We have to move fast!", said Kristina, "Or we'll lose the opening."

I'm pretty sure none of us understood what she meant by that, but not being in a position to argue, I followed Kristina's lead and put some real effort into what I was doing. I had to think of a way to tip the boat over, too, or else it would be too late.

Kristina shouted something at us over the sound of the race, but I paid no attention to it. Grabbing the oar firmly, I begun to row with all my might against the resistant water, focusing more on my arms than on the turn we took and the background voices disappearing as we swerved away from the main path and into a side one surrounded by trees, only moments after starting the race.

I got back into the rhythm of things right after, and that's where I noticed how desynchronized I was with them, along with the ominous silence.

I started looking around and saw that the large river we were racing along moments ago had been reduced to a measly three meters, making our route a bit too thin for a race.

"Uh... girls? Where are w-"

"It's a shortcut," said Kristina, briskly cutting me off. "I saw it on a map before the race started. There are no rules against shortcuts, so it should be smooth sailing from here to victory." A dangerous competitive glint shone in her eyes.

We kept rowing, much slower than before, as Claire looked around with a worried frown. "This route seems kinda dark, though, don't it? I mean, look at those creepy trees and the way the river plants kinda like... reach out to grab us... it's like something straight out of a horror movie."

I couldn't help but feel she's right. Not because of the ominous feeling, but there was something about this shortcut that felt off to me. If it was such a straight way to victory, why aren't more people exploiting it? Kristina couldn't have been the only person to see this, unless...

"Kristina, on what map did you see this shortcut on?" Antoinette asked with a cautious tone.

I saw Kristina hesitate out of the corner of my eye before answering "... Dean showed me the map just before the race started. He and I get along better than Anya and I, and he said he was getting tired of hearing Anya on such a high horse, so he gave me this help."

I don't think she saw the fault in her words, but I definitely did. "Don't you think it might've been a trap?" I asked at the same time I stop rowing to let the river current take us. It seemed to give as much speed as I had.

Kristina shook her head. "Not a chance. I've known Dean since I arrived here with Anya, I know he likes a fair competition," she said, nodding surely to herself. I wanted to object, clearly, but I didn't know him as much as they did. Then her rowing slowed down, and she looked back to us. "More importantly, we can stop rowing now, this current is fast enough."

Effectively, Antoinette and Claire had both stopped their rowing as well, and when I noticed, I decided to stop voicing my suspicion (for now).

I still felt wary, keeping an eye forward on the river ahead, but there didn't seem to be any immediate threat. With a frown, I decided to relax regardless. No good would come from worrying, and the best case scenario was that this threw the race for me, which was honestly ideal.

Thinking like that, I leaned on the back of the boat and tapped Antoinette's back as she focused on the water. "Antoinette, what are you looking at so intensely? Lie down, let my lap be your cushion, I'll- OW!"

Before I had finished, she reached back with the oar and smacked me in the face with it. I whimpered in pain, holding my nose.

"Hey, jeez! It was a joke, you didn't have to go so far- you're lucky that didn't break the oar." I tried to joke through the pain.

"You're lucky that didn't break your face," she replied, leaving the oar in her own lap.

As I rubbed my pained face, I could see Claire hugging Kristina from behind, and being leaned into in return. They were whispering to each other, things I couldn't hear, but at least it seemed like things were a lot more at ease now. Even if my nose was throbbing with pain.

Despite the creepy look this route had, the silence wasn't as threatening as before, and as we slowly advanced, I could feel my worries of throwing the race slowly drifting away as we were surrounded by nature.

Antoinette must have felt similarly, because five minutes later she really had leaned back to rest her head on my lap, an action she gave no explanation for and merely closed her eyes before I could ask.

Not a word was spoken as I idly ran my fingers through her hair, watching the river path ahead of us. I knew this race was meant to be long, but I wasn't sure exactly how much so. At some point, when I'd reached the conclusion that maybe this shortcut really was safe for us, I thought about dozing off, and closed my eyes as well.

The four of us were relaxing in a moment of peace.

Because of it, none of us noticed the roaring sound of a waterfall until it was too late.

"Kristina, I'm going to kill you!" shouted Antoinette once the four of us had realized what was going on. We moved frantically, but Kristina and Claire were the first to take action, taking their oars and getting back into position.

I felt my breath quicken as I fumbled to take my own, shoving it into the water and following their movements as best as I could, but it was hard when I had to focus on both this and their voices.

"Damn it, Kristina! This is what you get for trusting that bastard," shouted Antoinette as the four of us starting rowing with all our might against the stream.

"Don't blame me, blame him!" Kristina shouted back. Even if it wasn't for the deafening waterfall, I think they would still be shouting over this.

But I could worry about that later.

"Y-You guys, please- please argue later, this is m-m- this is a lot more important!" Claire said, trying her best to be in the front with the sudden reversal of our positions.

I kept rowing as much as my body allowed me and then some, hoping, waiting, wanting for our boat to get out of its current, but we were already too deep into it to be able to leave. Every second passed by like an eternity as we tried desperately to escape this artificial nature's grip, but the panic overrode my senses and I felt gravity start to pull us down over the edge.

...

There was that familiar feeling again...

I struggled to keep my eyes open, hardly able to make out only a few things.

A flash image of the night sky.

Antoinette and Claire flailing in the air as we fell.

And Kristina disappearing out  of thin air...

...The first thing I felt was the cold.

"Bassie!"

I heard a voice.

"Sebastian, please don't do this, I'm begging you."

Is he talking to me?

The rest of the world forms around me. The night sky, the cold breeze rendering my hospital gown useless, the wheelchair I'm sitting on... the rooftop I'm on.

Yet even if I say it's mine, it doesn't feel mine. Like that dream, it's as if I'm watching a movie through someone else's eyes.

"Come back, you don't need to jump," said the other. He sounded young, and frightened. Out of curiosity, I looked over the edge, wondering just how high we were.

Like a cold, gripping claw that latches on and won't let go, I saw beyond my bare feet towards the edge of the roof I'm on. I saw many cars zipping past with their bright lights, but I'm scared of them. Of it all.

However... no one seems to notice a fifteen year old boy sitting in a wheelchair on the edge of a roof at night.

"PLEASE!", he shouted. I wondered if anyone woke up to that. "Sebastian, get back here, I'll do anything!"

Anything? Why don't you come over here and stop me yourself?

The body I was in looked down as well, at the useless legs in the chair, and beyond the edge. He wasn't afraid like I was, he hadn't said a word this entire time.

His- or should I say my? -hands moved down to the wheels at my side, grabbing onto them firmly and turning the wheelchair around to face the boy calling to us. He looked similar to me...

The vice grip of fear had returned when I realized what was about to happen, but I couldn't have stopped it even if wasn't too late now.

With a single moment, the wheels were turned and the wheelchair fell off the roof.

I want to feel fear, but instead I felt... disconnected. Not from the body, but from myself: I had lost myself. As I fell, lights zipping past me painted the descent a golden colour; I briefly thought of how pretty they are... a strange thing to think about when plummeting to your doom.

People started to notice, but it's already too late. I heard a scream from somewhere, a pedestrian who had the back luck to be witnessing my fall.

The wind brushed past my face, painfully cold as the ground gets closer, and closer.

Right as I make the impact on the floor, there's something I notice.

The night sky... never seemed so bright before.

Then, everything went black.

It's strange, isn't it? I felt like this body belonged to...

...

"Sebastian..."

I heard another voice calling my name. There were soft rustles of leaves and quiet running water this time. A stream, perhaps?

"Sebastian..!"

It was like the sound of an angel, coming to find my lost soul.

"Sebastian!"
Was this the voice that would take me to heaven?

"Let go of me, you whore!"

I felt a dull pain in my head and opened my eyes to see Antoinette with her fist on my head. Before I could complain, I noticed I was latching onto her and pulled myself away before I could embarrass myself further.

"What happened? Where are we?" I asked, taking a look around. There was a gentle stream nearby, we were surrounded by trees, and I could hear the distant sound of a waterfall. By the stream I saw Claire, knees pulled up to her chest and silent. I also noticed she wasn't wearing any clothes, as they were drying by her side.

"Thanks to that stupid map Dean gave her, Kristina led us right into the wrong direction. And as we fell, you decided it would be a good idea to hold onto me like you were three again," said Antoinette, and when I looked back at her, I saw she was in a state similar to Claire's.

Trying to not think about that, I turned my head. "And Kristina?"

"...She's not here," said Claire. Antoinette and I looked at her in surprise, not expecting those to be her first words. "When I woke up by the side of the stream, she was... gone. You two were there, but she wasn't. It's so weird, she just..." She made a hugging motion, "... wasn't there."

I stood up, grimacing at my wet clothes, and looked downstream.

"She's actually gone?" I muttered, recalling what I saw before I passed out. I also figured this wasn't something I should mention.

Claire sunk into herself, and that's when Antoinette went over to pat her back.

"We should keep moving. The watch doesn't work here because of competition rules, so we have no idea where we are." Antoinette spoke firmly, surprisingly dominant.

I stood up and took a quick stretch before addressing the other two. "Alright, you two. I'll swim downriver to the end. If that was the race's route, then the river will lead me," I announce, walking over to the water's edge and taking off my shoes.

"Don't be an idiot, Sebastian," Antoinette tells me, grabbing me by the ankle and making me fall face first into the ground.

"You're crazy if you think I'm letting you wander on your own. Especially in a river, you don't know the currents."

I grumbled and look back at the water. "Yeah, but I really wanna swim now... it's been too long since I've last done it." I frowned, but didn't make any more moves towards the water.

Despite wanting to swim, I reluctantly ended up tagging along with Claire and Antoinette once they put their clothes back on.

Antoinette was walking in the front, which left me and a blue Claire in the back. This, for the record, was incredibly uncomfortable to me. I'd never seen Claire upset until today, and I wanted to not have to look at that anymore.

"C'mon, Claire, we'll find Kristina. She'll appear when we least expect it, that always happens," I said, not fully believing it.

She sighed and held her arms. "I dunno, man... It's not like her to leave all of a sudden. I'm worried about her, what if something bad happened?"

"Then we'll find her. This place can't be that big, can it? I'll go looking for her once we get out of this place."

I heard Antoinette snort. "You? Please, we don't need another lost roommate."

"Hey, I can totally orientate myself, alright? Watch, I'll take us right to the end." With my pride on the line, I rushed past Antoinette and started walking in the lead.

"Impressive, you can walk in a straight line," she said, earning a weak laugh from Claire. I was glad she wasn't that upset anymore, but did it have to be at my expense?

I turned, ready to argue, but that's when my foot caught in something and I fell to the ground with a thud.

Claire burst out laughing at that, which was the only thing I could really process as I'd started seeing stars after banging my head against the metal floor.

...Metal? That didn't seem right.

"Sebastian, are you okay?" Antoinette rushed to my side, helping me up as I held my head in agony.

I grumbled in response. "Why is it always me?" I mumbled as I picked myself up to look down at what caused me to trip.

It looked like grass, which was off putting, but when I brushed the grass out of the way, I saw a metal plate underneath with an inscription.

"Area Out Of Bounds. Do not enter."