The date

I knew I would be late, but I didn’t feel like rushing. I was taking a shortcut already.

The leaves crunched under my leather boots as I strolled through the forest fidgeting with my knife. I stopped as I noticed my usual target, the old wooden sign with arrows for directions. It had many holes in it, like huge woodworms had been chomping on it. I snorted. That makes me a woodworm I guess. I grabbed my knife by its blade, metal cold between my fingers and flicked my wrist. The knife found its target right in the hole of the “e” of “cemetery”. I smiled. “Still got it!” I said to myself as I pulled the knife out of the wood.

The air smelled like pine and rain. It had stopped raining a while ago and the evening sun shone through the colourful canopies. I inhaled deeply the crisp autumn air.

I’m glad I took this route. The forest helps me calm my nerves. I almost forgot how anxious I have been feeling all day.

The serene calmness got interrupted by a noise somewhere from above. What was it? The birds have stopped chirping, suddenly it was too quiet. I better get moving, I was already late.

Stepping out of the forest I felt the almost forgotten anxiety flood over me. “Just breathe” I reminded myself. I didn’t enjoy meeting new people. I didn’t enjoy dating. But I promised my friend I would meet her cousin. He had recently moved back in town and my friend thought we might hit it off.

“You’re late” glancing up from the menu it’s the first thing Sebastian told me. It smelled like grease and old beer in here, not my favorite place to be, but apparently it has a lot of history and he was curious about it. The old dusty paintings and the collection of skulls, found or hunted, not sure, but the walls were covered in animal parts.

“Nice to meet you too” I smiled sarcastically. He didn’t seem amused. I sighed, “I’m sorry, this is not like me, I’m not usually late”.

“Sure” he barely even looked at me. Well, this is going great. I pulled out my own chair and sat down at the table. I studied him while he was studying the menu. Okay, yes, he was handsome, and it looked like he knew it too well. The dark, thick hair was combed to the side in such a perfect angle that it looked like he had spent years perfecting it. He was wearing a tailored dark blue shirt with slightly rolled up sleeves. I noticed the classic watch on his wrist, I bet it was an expensive one, although he could have easily fooled me as I know nothing about watches.

Noticing my attention he looked up from the menu and I quickly averted my stare to look at my own menu. My heart was in my throat, from all the anxiety I forgot to actually choose anything. When I looked up again, a waiter was waiting for my order. I cleaned my sweaty palm on my pants before quickly switching pages of the menu. “Uhm.. I will.. You know, what do you recommend?” I asked the waiter. He told me they have the slow roasted boar in demand today. I ordered that and some wine.

Sebastian looked at me with judgement. Well at least it felt like it, I couldn’t bring my eyes up yet. I didn’t hear what he had ordered over the loud heartbeat and thoughts in my ears. Looking at him, probably salad and some water.

I brushed hair off my face and looked at him directly this time. Sebastian smirked, “It’s been a busy and stressful day for me, you have no idea how much I have to deal with. With the move, and the changes at my company”, He sighed, “I’m sorry, let’s have a nice dinner! I’m excited to learn more about you!” He smiled with lips pressed together tightly. It looked like a hostage situation, like he was forced to be here.

“I’m sorry it has been stressful for you”, I said, “I’m excited to learn more about you too.”

And so I did. We spent the whole dinner talking about his move, his job, his car, even his damn watch. I reminded myself to stay polite, people love talking about themselves. And, probably, it has been stressful for him, I have never made any major moves in my life. I have always lived in this town. Since I was a teenager I worked at my uncle’s butcher shop. Sebastian seems like such a city boy, I wonder if he has ever held any tools in his hands, they look so soft, almost manicured. Does he get a manicure?

My train of thoughts got interrupted as my attention snapped back to what he was telling me. “You know I grew up here before I moved to the city.”

I actually didn’t know that, maybe I misjudged him being a complete city boy.

Looking out of the window, he continued, “See that forest there? It has always been haunted.”

“Haunted?” To that I laughed.

“Don’t laugh, I’m serious. Not just the cemetery, but did you know a lot of children have walked in there and nobody has seen them ever again? Years ago, I mean, there were a lot of stories. Children disappearing. Some people have reported seeing ghosts.”

I stared at him with a blank face. “You can’t be serious.”

“After the day I had, I’m up for an adventure, if you are,” he told me, “let’s go for a little walk.”

I still stared at him, wanting to repeat myself. Is he serious? I looked out of the window, my reflection staring back at me. It was dark outside already. This seemed like a terrible idea. Will I end up in one of those documentaries where they start with “she lit up every room she walked in..”, god I hope not, they better not lie about me like that. Besides, I was getting carried away, he was not a complete stranger, he was a cousin of one of my closest friends. I slid my hand along the side of my leg feeling the hard hilt of my knife in my pocket. Never thought the day would come where I would thank my father for this gift. He taught me so much self defence, knife throwing, I just kept rolling my eyes at him all those years, but right now I felt thankful for his over-protectiveness of his little girl.

“Come on, don’t be scared! I will protect you!” he clearly had observed my uneasiness.

Protect me? It was him I was scared of, not the forest. That forest had been my sanctuary for so many years, it had been my home.

I looked up and down at him. If anything, I could probably handle him. This city boy knows nothing other than how to dress and talk pretty.

We walked towards the forest, the path I knew as well as my own two feet stomping on it, was illuminated by the full moon. Sebastian looked pale. I wonder if he was scared or the moonlight didn’t compliment his skin tone. He seemed nervous. Not sure what he was trying to prove by this.

“Do you feel it? It feels like it doesn’t want us here” He whispered once we stepped in the forest.

I rolled my eyes so hard glad he couldn’t see it in the dark. “No, it feels normal to me.”

“I guess I’m just more in tune with such things,” he said as he stepped over a fallen log not ever bothering to check if I wouldn’t trip. “It was said that you can still hear the spirits of the children whispering, sometimes screaming if you listen carefully”.

I will need to remind my friend not to ever set me up with anyone ever again. This guy was crazy.

We had almost reached my target sign post when a sudden noise came from above. I felt the breeze of Sebastian pivoting and running back from where we came from, tripping over the log but quickly recovering and disappearing. I huffed, “So much for protecting me”. I glanced up and noticed something moving in the tree. Something fluffy and white. Then a quiet, barely audible “meow” came from it. I smiled at the “monster” that scared the brave city boy. “Don’t worry cutie, I’m coming up”, I shouted as I observed the best way of climbing. The poor cat was stuck up there.