The forest was calm and quiet. The soft sound of wet, crinkling leaves could be faintly heard over the sound of Erin’s stentorian boots on the warm, damp dirt. The air smelled strongly of pine and earth—Erin’s favorite scent in the whole wide world. She stopped for a moment and stared up into the canopy of the trees.

The sun reflected off the glistening dew coated leaves and casted a wondrous ray of warm golden sun onto her arms and legs. She let out a well waited sigh of joy. She couldn’t wait to set up camp with her boyfriend and repair deeper into these woods. Suddenly, she felt two arms wrap themselves around her waist. She jumped and spun around. Her heart skipped a beat.
     

“Whoa, it’s just me.” Adrian laughed, moving back a pace. Erin gave him a relieved look and playfully punched him in the shoulder. He jumped back, laughing simultaneously. A lock of his caramel colored hair drifted ever close to his eyes. Erin reached up and brushed it away. Adrian blushed and pulled her into a tight embrace.
     

“You scared me.” Erin laughed. Adrian kissed her on the forehead and let go of her. She grinned stupidly and kissed him on the cheek.
     

“Hey, I’m sorry. But you don’t need to worry, there’s nobody out in these woods but us.” Adrian glanced back behind himself and gasped. Erin jumped behind him.

“What?!” She hissed. Adrian laughed.
     

“Just a squirrel.”
     

“Adrian, I swear to go-“
     

“Okay, okay fine. Stop hitting me—I won’t do it again!”
     

Erin pouted and dropped her arms back by her sides, releasing the fists she had made. Adrian laughed and heaved his heavy camouflage backpack off his shoulders. Erin quickly snatched the pack from his hands before he dropped it and set it down by her feet. She quickly unzipped it and pulled out the deconstructed tent parts and began building it. Adrian grabbed the tent anchors and nailed them into the soft dirt and hooked the tent’s bright red fabric on. Within minutes, the tent was all set up.
     

Erin glanced over at a very sweaty Adrian and beamed. He ran a hand through his hair and smiled back at her. His forehead was dotted with beads of sweat. Erin unzipped the opening to the tent and heaved his heavy backpack inside. After kicking off her shoes, she went ahead and began unrolling his and her own sleeping bag and pulled the mini cooler from the bottom of the his bag. She then unpacked her own teal and orange backpack. Exhausted, she kneeled over her sleeping bag and flopped down onto it. There was a rustle at the tent opening.
     

“Hey, pass me a water bottle, would you?” Adrian stepped into the tent, shoes in hand. Erin smiled and tossed a bottle up to him from the cooler. He caught it and took a long drink.
     

“Well, now that we’re here, what do you want to do?” Erin rolled over on her sleeping bag and looked up at Adrian. He put the cap back on his bottle and squatted so he was eye to eye with her. He shrugged.
     

“We can go for a walk?” Adrian suggested. Erin’s eyes lit up and she nodded. But then, it looked as though a cloud had passed in front of her eyes. She frowned, lost in thought.
     

“What if we get lost?” She whispered, clearly frightened at the thought of getting lost in such a vast forest. Adrian reached into his camo backpack next to Erin and produced a huge blue translucent freezer Ziploc bag of brightly painted colorful penny sized rocks. He shook the bag and looked at her. The bag was three fourths of the way full. He smiled.

“I’ve been leaving a trail of these colored rocks the whole way here, and we’ll leave a trail of them while we take our walk. Then, we won’t get lost and we can easily get back.”
Erin’s face relaxed and she grinned. “Good idea.”

      “Thanks.” Adrian beamed proudly. He pulled a neon green rock out from inside the bag and rubbed it in between his index finger and his thumb. A faint green smudge of paint slowly appeared on his thumb unknowingly. He grinned and slipped the rock back into the bag. Erin stood up and pulled Adrian into another hug and then laced up her hiking boots. She then exited the tent, with Adrian stumbling after her.
     

“So. Which direction?” Adrian asked, regaining his balance.
     

“Let’s go..,” She walked around in a circle. “That direction,” She pointed a large brown oak tree. Adrian reached for her hand and she let him hold it. Color flushed his cheeks and he smiled

“Okay,” He said, dropping a bright blue stone from the bag onto the wet leaves. And they headed off into the woods.

About three hours into their hike a slow, steady sheet of rain began falling from the sky onto their heads. Erin moaned in frustration and covered her head with her jacket she had been carrying. “The forecast said that it was supposed to be overcast with a 10% chance of rain.”
     

Adrian dropped another rock from his bag and stared up into the dark, stormy clouds. He shook his head gravely. “I guess the weather forecasters were wrong. Looks like rain to me.”
Erin shot a look of pure annoyance at Adrian. “No kidding, Captain Obvious.”
     

He shrugged.
     

“C’mon, let’s head back,” Erin reached for Adrian’s hand just as he pulled it out of the Ziploc bag. Adrian’s hand bolted out of the way of her hand. The green rock he had been holding fell, landing in a muddy puddle. Suddenly, the puddle turned a sickly green color.
     

Erin gave him a bewildered look and aggressively grabbed his hand. His hand was sticky and cold. Erin gasped in horror as she slowly let go. His hand was coated in a thick layer of colored paint. And so was hers. She yelped and let go of his hand immediately, and wiped the paint off her hand onto her blue jeans. She looked at him in utter confusion. And then she saw the green muddy puddle.
     

“Did you use washable paint for these?!” She shouted, pointing at the bag. Adrian stared down at his boots. His hair looked black from the rain and she could clearly see the confliction behind his eyes. The rain began pouring down harder on their heads. It wasn’t until after a few moments standing quietly in the rain that he decided to respond. He took a shaky breath.

“Yeah. I used washable paint,”

"The rocks…” She shook her head. “So we’re lost?”

“Uh…” He refused to look at Erin, but it was clear that he wanted to. Suddenly, a loud crack of thunder echoed through the woods. It was rapidly getting darker and colder by the second. Erin, shaking and shivering, took four sharp breaths; her exhales coming out in clouds. She dropped her head and began silently weeping.
     

“We-we’re lo-lost.” She trembled. Adrian said nothing and continued to stare at his water logged boots. Erin pulled her phone out from her pocket and dialed every number in her contacts, ending with several attempts to dial nine-one-one, even though she knew quite well that there was no cell service that high in the mountains. Her body quaked as she fell to her knees and stared up into the dark clouds. The rain slowly washed away the tears on her face. Adrian began to walk swiftly in the opposite direction that they had come. Refusing to follow, Erin watched as he walked behind a tree and vanished from sight.
     

“ADRIAN? Please come back! DON’T LEAVE ME HERE!” She screamed. Adrian’s body came back into view from behind the tree and he leaned on it, staring back at her. Erin stood up from the ground and ran up to him, slowly realizing that something was terribly, terribly wrong. As she got closer, something sliver and glistening slid out from his sleeve.
     

“Ad-,” Her voice abruptly died out, like it had been taken away. The knife was so quick and painless that if hadn’t cut into her lung, she wouldn’t have felt it at all. Adrian slowly pulled the knife from her lung and proceeded to stab her right in the heart. She sunk to the ground, clutching the spot the knife had entered her chest, and screamed. Blood poured down her chest like a waterfall.

Her tears flowed down her cheeks like lava. She slumped over by Adrian’s boots and cried. Her voice was weak and shallow, “W-Why? Why did you do this to me?”
     

He looked down on her, his eyes cold and empty. “Because I never liked you.” And he vanished into thin air just as Erin took her final breath.