I keep crying as I sit on the ground. I'm back in the woods and Jack's looks at me wide eyed his hands are placed on my shoulders.

"Mel. What did just happen, you fell down and started to cry but I haven't seen you trip. Have you hurt yourself?" He asks me worried.

"No, but... I was... " I can't talk as my sobs make it difficult to breathe. I look up at him through tears when he is pushed aside and Alex appears and pulls me up from the floor.

"God, Mel! You scared me." He hugs me and presses my head to his chest. "Calm down, Baby. It's okay. We are here, nothing can get to you. We will look after you. I promise."

I just stay in his embrace and I already feel better. I glance sideways to see Jack and Alan stand beside us with scared expressions on their faces. They probably think I am mentally ill as well. Well maybe I am but I might never find out, now.

I release a breath that I was holding but it comes out as a deep sigh and I gently push myself away from Alex to look in his face.

"It's okay. Thank you Alex but I'm already better now. Let's move on." I pick up my bag that I apparently dropped when I fell.

Alan seems relieved and walks a few steps only to turn around and wave to us to follow him. "Come one guys, it isn't long, we are nearly there." He smiles happily.

Jack stays rooted at his place, his head hung low and looks to the ground awkwardly. He probably feels bad he couldn't calm me down.
When I walk past him I place my hand behind his neck and pull his face down to plant a kiss on his cheek. That makes him smile again and he follows us still with his head down but a grin spreading on his face.

I look sideways at Alex and he cocks his eyebrow at me but doesn't look mad, I think he understands why I did this and after a while he takes my hand in his again as we silently walk through the afternoon sunshine.

After maybe two hours Alan gets all jumpy and stops to point something out to us in the distance. "There, you see the clearing by the escarpment? That's it, we reached the king." He sounds proud of himself, I think because he found the place. Well I was under the impression he knew where we were going but apparently not so.

After a few minutes we reach the place he showed us and it is a big clearing in the wood with a rock wall as a backdrop. It just looks like a normal campsite. I don't know what I had expected but I only see a few makeshift beds made out of twigs and blankets around a big campfire. I am somewhat disappointed. Mhm.

As we approach I see a couple of boys sitting around the fire but Alan runs ahead and practically jumps a tall figure that is standing in the back. The person turns around and they hug long and passionate. As I come closer I recognise the man. It is the same person that came out of my house when i thought I got lost in New York.

Tall and lanky he stands in front of me now, he wears a cut off shirt and I was right, he is heavily tattooed. His dark hair is short and his brown eyes shine as he smiles down at me. He is considerably older than all of the boys I met yet.

Alan clings to him with a huge grin across his face. Boy, he seems glad to see him.

"Hi, Mel, I am Austin, Alan told me you would like to talk to me." He reaches out his hand and I try to shake it but as soon as I grip his hand he pulls me in a hug and I have to giggle but I hug back because I feel safe and warm in his embrace. Obviously we knew each other in the 'real' world but I have no recollection of that, I didn't even know his name before.

The boys that sat around the fire had got up and greeted Alex and Jack and now stand beside us looking at me curiously.
Austin releases me and turns us around to introduce us when I see some familiar faces. I decide to not tell them I know their names but just smile at them as Austin explains.

"Guys this is Mel. Mel, these are the boys, the short one with the long brown hair is Vic, the shy one with the spider bites is Tony and the chubby blonde with the glasses is Patrick and the black head is Pete."

I nodded at every mentioning of their names and waved and said hi then I turned to Austin and asked in a low voice. " uhm, could we maybe talk in private?" I didn't want to get my story out to the bunch of them although they had heard me and looked pretty disappointed.

They didn't make a move to leave us alone until Austin who had nodded to my request motioned for them to move back to the fire which they reluctantly did and took my arm to lead me towards the rock wall where there were a few flat stones to sit on.

Notes

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