The railroad tracks whistled as if a train were blowing by, but there was nothing on the tracks except for two pairs of feet clanking on the reddish tracks. It formed a long line going farther than their eyes can see on both sides, two long red ribbons running adjacent to one another in a straight line. The moon was so big and so low on the horizon, so bright that it was clear as day. It shone ahead in their direction and illuminated the path.

Liam felt that it was astronomical encouragement, that he was actually doing something right for a change. They walked side by side, Liam balancing on one side of the tracks and Caleb walking normally. He had chosen a muted old hoodie and the same jeans he always wore. Liam looked up and down at the evidence of wear and how Caleb himself seemed a part of the faded backdrop that was their surroundings.

Liam, of course, was stuck with what he wore when he was last here, alive. His death began to sink further in every time they came back.

“So, we have checked these tracks already multiple times, and we haven’t come to any conclusion of how I died,” Liam said plainly. “Maybe we should check the surrounding area and see if there’s a missing shoe or a knife. Evidence of a struggle.”

Caleb corked a brow. “You’re really taking this seriously.”

Liam found it difficult to look at Caleb then, fair and glowing in the moonlight. His eyes shone as if they were illuminated from within. It’s something that Liam was first drawn to when he first saw his face that one night. It made Liam look steely by comparison. Looks were deceptive.

“Hey, what’s over there?” Liam pointed.

Caleb turned his head. Liam pulled Caleb’s hood over his head and in another flitting motion reached around and pulled his strings.

“Wh-” Caleb pulled at his face and opened his hood, pulling it back down over his head.

“I’m just trying to keep you warm, babe,” Liam teased. “Now, let’s seriously look for clues.”

The moon illuminated everything around and although the path ahead was clear, the surrounding area was unnaturally dark. Pitchblack, pointed shadows swayed on the ground.

“Remind me why we came here at night,” Caleb said.

“It was your idea, and there’s no time to lose.” Liam pushed a branch to the side when he noticed the beginning of a trail. “Caleb, have you seen this trail before?”

Caleb tilted his head. “I…no?”

“Well, let’s look!” Liam turned. “Uh, please tell me you brought the flashlight.”

Caleb shone it right at Liam’s chest with a smile. A nervous tremor went through Liam, but he offered up a small grin in return before he led Caleb on the path. As soon as he broke through the underbrush the spike of adrenaline did not stop until it coursed through him, making Liam want to run. He was walking a little too fast and jumped as Caleb took his shoulder, who looked at him with a bit of concern.

“Stay close, Liam.”

Liam nodded. “We need to be thorough, right?” He slowed and walked at Caleb’s side, every so often looking from the ground up to get a sense of direction. The trail took a wide arching right. In the distance, the river filled his ears with the rush of water.

“Are we finding anything here?” Caleb asked. Liam could hear the curiosity in his voice, see it in his face when he had turned him around. He had become more attuned to him after he spent less time around that book, and Liam knew that Caleb could tell he was onto something. Liam took another step forward when suddenly, the bright light from the flashlight in front of him was engulfed in rays of sunlight, the path clear to him and yet muddled at the same time.

“Ugh.” Liam shielded his face. Then panic set in. The sun wasn’t supposed to rise that fast! He turned around to Caleb to voice this thought, but he was no longer there. Liam was alone. “Caleb!” he shouted.

Liam didn’t recognize this part of the trail. He spun around as he looked for Caleb and found himself in an unknown yet oddly familiar place. His eyes darted so quickly around, Liam wasn’t sure how he could discern he had been here before, or really much of anything. Static filled the air, uncomfortably loud in his ears, then voices, too vague to understand what they were saying back and forth.

He wanted to turn around, to search for Caleb, but he had the feeling that if he moved something would be right there to get him. Liam stayed frozen in place like a rabbit, eyes ahead on an unfixed point as the river rushed through his head, it was so close. There was a loud screech that seemed to go on unending and unyielding, in his head and all around him, getting louder as it tunneled past and then raced away.

Liam gasped. Then all at once it was night again, and it was quiet. It was pitch black when Liam closed his eyes, intervaled with the dark forest when he unblinked them over and over again, trying to get back to where he was.

A dark figure appeared in front of him right when he opened his eyes. Liam jumped. Inches from him on the ground, the strap gleamed in the moonlight while the fabric was a matte black. “Caleb!” he yelled.

“Hey, I’m right here where did you…” Caleb skidded and stood an inch behind Liam. He stared widely at the same thing that Liam had found. “It’s…”

Stoic appearance broken, Caleb's face couldn’t pick an emotion; confusion, anger, grief, fear. It set on lips slashed downward, brows scrunched and meeting tightly. He looked almost worried. Caleb supported himself with a hand gripped around a branch, green in the faint light.

“It’s Paul’s backpack,” Liam said, oddly plain.

Caleb walked around it as if he were approaching a wild animal, slowly taking the strap in his hand. When he did this, they discovered that a phone was sitting just behind it, a shiny, black rectangle hiding right underneath.

“And his phone,” Caleb said. He picked it up and stuck it in his pocket.

“Wait, we might be tainting the evidence-”

“You’re damn right we are, Liam. You think the cops are going to do anything with it?” There was harshness in his voice, but Caleb appeared to be assessing it very seriously at the same time. ”When they were searching for weeks and they walked right over the evidence?” 

There was a yell and then rattling.

Liam froze, all of the air sucked out of his lungs.

Caleb turned his eyes toward him, completely frozen as well.

They spoke quietly.

“Liam.”

“Did you just?” Liam questioned.

“No.” Caleb lowered the backpack slightly in his hand, but otherwise remained just as frozen. “Did you just…”

There was a completely silent moment, the forest sealed in a vacuum outside themselves.

“No.”

Caleb blew out a shaky exhale, his voice ending in a high pitched gasp. “Get to the car and let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Liam nodded and they hiked, fast but careful as the trail was treacherous coming and going, until the brush cleared from his eyes and the tracks were there. They bolted back from there, the car flashing as Caleb unlocked the doors immediately when they came upon the graveled exit they had parked. It was further out near the tracks, the way that led to the car dealership concealed all around in trees.

The moon had gone over the hill and it was so dark they could hardly see in front of them. Liam threw the passenger door open and wondered how long they were out there as Caleb got inside and locked the doors, setting the bag between his legs as he nearly dropped the keys inserting them. The engine started to life immediately and they backed up, then took a sharp turn of their tires as they swiveled in the opposite way to get back up the downward slope from the old parking lot.

“How long were we out there?” Liam wondered aloud, after they had hit the road.

“I-I don’t know, Liam. None of this makes sense.” Caleb’s voice nearly rose to a scream, but it seemed all contained in his knuckles pressed white into the steering wheel as they raced past a green light. A yellow light flew by as well. Liam was concerned if Caleb should even be driving, but he held this thought. They didn’t speak at all until they were almost home.

Caleb’s shoulders rose and fell as he took heaving breaths, the car stopping suddenly outside of their apartment. “Is there anyone around?”

The question was so quiet it was almost inaudible. Liam looked in the rearview mirror and searched with his eyes carefully. “No.”

“Get in the house.”

They bolted from their car, pack swung around Caleb’s shoulder, then slammed the door.

“That wasn’t very smart.” Liam wasn’t sure to what he was even referring to as he said this; the slamming door drawing attention, taking the backpack, or going to the railroad tracks in the first place.

“Upstairs,” Caleb said.

Liam ran on noodle legs after Caleb to their apartment. As soon as the door closed Caleb approached the middle to their living room table and set the backpack on it. Liam watched as Caleb peeled back two blinds and was peering out onto the road. Liam would have thought this was paranoia, but he was just as afraid as Caleb at that moment. He needed to stay strong, however.

Liam took in a deep, shuddering breath, feeling that he needed reassurance that way.  “Is anyone out there?” he asked slowly.

“No,” Caleb said. He pulled away from the window, then spoke normally again. “Holy shit, Liam! We just found Paul’s stuff and someone yelled out in the middle of the forest. What the hell?” Caleb said, his voice rising tight in his throat.

“I don’t know, Caleb.” Liam shook his head. “This is too weird.”

“Weird?” Caleb paused.

Liam realized seconds later that Caleb had not read his mind, and Liam said that last part aloud. He caught up to his own words and actions, as if he were a fast-moving object, blurred while his mind raced behind himself. Liam acted automatically, like a robot, delayed in processing everything he said and did.

“Let’s look inside,” Liam said.

He watched as Caleb unzipped the pack, feeling oddly as if it were his own hands doing this. Paul’s red and magenta striped keychain that attached to the pull was unmistakable. Caleb turned it upside down and the contents fell out onto their table.

“Hey careful.”

Caleb pulled the phone from where he had stuffed it into his front pocket, forgetting the other items on the table. He turned the phone to show Liam. The screen’s brightness cut in half right then as the battery had gotten so low, but it was a still image of the forest where they had just been. A date appeared faintly on the top left hand corner.

“Oh my god, Caleb. It’s a video!”

Caleb double tapped the screen and the still image began to move. It was fourteen seconds long, the sound of crunching twigs and the camera moving as someone walked back and forth on the trail, then ending with a yell and clanging as the phone dropped to the ground.

“Hey, careful!” Liam repeated.

Caleb had dropped the phone. It hit the edge of the table with a crack and landed on the rug. Liam admittedly didn’t feel much concern; honestly after all of this, Paul’s property wasn’t of much concern. 

“It was…Paul.” Caleb’s voice shook.

Liam picked up the phone, though he set it where it had landed facedown on the table. Still, neither of them could unhear that. They both knew it was Paul’s voice. They could not unsee what they had just seen. The date on the screen. It was yesterday after he had left their bar. What was he doing out there?

“This wasn’t left by the police, Caleb. Paul was just out there. He filmed himself when he was out there. But why?”

“That’s what I have to find out,” Caleb said. His voice came out in a scary whisper.

Liam bit his lip, hardly keeping himself together. Caleb had turned a ghostly shade of white. Liam glanced at the other items laid out; a knife, the state map, a compass pointing north. “Okay, relax Caleb, let’s just try to calm down and think.”

Caleb heaved, then screamed. “What the fuck is happening, Liam!”