“Y-yes, Dom did tell me about the forest,” Allen remembered everything Dom said about the forest. The story and even the song. But he never took them seriously. “He told me that...”
“Shhhhh!” Kris covered Allen’s mouth and stopped him from saying anything further. “We don’t talk about it here. Not when we’re deep in the forest.”
Allen nodded quickly and Kris slowly lowered his hand. “Let’s not talk about it. Let’s keep going.”
Allen pouted and slowly walked beside Kris. What was wrong with these people? Dom and Kris were so weird. They were too superstitious, Allen thought.
“Dom said you’re looking for a new type of mushroom,” Kris mentioned. “What kind of mushroom? Do you know what it looks like?”
“Oh yes! Yes!” Allen was excited. Finally something to talk about. The air was so tense and silent, he thought he was going to die if he did not talk soon. He stopped on his track and dug through his pants to look for his phone. He unlocked his phone and browsed through his saved pictures of the mushroom. Kris took a peek at the phone and was taken back by what he saw.
“Is that...blood?” Kris was stunned and unsure if he actually wanted to hear the answer to his question or not.
“Yes. I mean no!” Allen responded. “They’re just red pigments that ooze on top of the mushroom.”
“Like blood?” Kris turned pale. A cold chill washed over him. He looked like he was going to vomit and faint. He swallowed his saliva thinking his vomit would come out any moment. He tried to talk normally, “I-I’ve never seen that mushroom before. Are you sure you can find that here?”
“Yes,” said Allen. He was so confident and seemed to always know what he wanted. “The article on the internet said it can be found here.”
“Did it say where or which part of the forest?” Kris asked, his face masked in worry.
“Ummm...No. Sorry.” Allen hung her head, not sure what he should say.
“Did you ask the author? Or anyone who wrote the article or took the pic? Do you even know who wrote it or took the pic?” question Kris.
Allen shook his head slowly. He just realized that the article actually did not mention the name of the author. It did not say who found it or the pic was taken by whom. Nothing at all except where to find it.
Kris sighed, aware he would never know the answer to his questions. “Let’s continue walking and look around for it. Maybe today will be your lucky day.”
Both men continued to walk on the path, carefully looking for the mushroom. Maybe Lady of Luck would be on Allen’s side today.
“Hey Kris,” Allen called. “Why did you become a volunteer here? You don’t look like you’re from here.”
“Is it that obvious?” Kris chuckled softly and glanced back at Allen, who was trailing behind. He gestured to Allen to walk next to him. “I’m not from here. I’m just a transfer student here.”
“That’s nice!” exclaimed Allen. He studied Kris’s face with amused eyes. “Is volunteering part of your university activities?”
“Ah, no...” replied Kris. He was hesitating whether should talk about himself since it was not something he actually liked to share with anyone, especially someone he just met for the first time. This time though it was a bit different. “I became a volunteer because...I wanted to be close to my brother.”
“Oh, he’s a volunteer here too?” asked Allen, interested now that Kris was finally talking about personal things.
“No, he’s not,” Kris hesitated. He was silent for a moment then softly, “H-he’s... gone,” he said.

“What?!”
“I-I don’t know. O-One day he was just...gone,” Kris stuttered. “Mom died shortly after that. Dad was depressed and he hates me. I think he blames me.”
“Blames you for what?” questioned Allen. Kris did not answer or show any sign to give an answer. Allen tried to comfort him, “No matter what happened, no dad would hate their own son for such a thing. No one blames you for what happened. It wasn’t your fault.”
“He didn’t hate his son. He hated me,” muttered Kris. “I’m adopted. I know he hates me because he sent me back to my country of origin.”
“To your family?”
“To an orphan house. He must have really hated me to the point that he didn't want me in the same country as him at all.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Don’t overthink it,” comforted Allen. He could not help but be curious about Kris’ brother. “Did you come back to look for your brother?”
“I did but it’s been a long time now. So I don’t have a clue anymore, the police already closed the case,” explained Kris. His serious expression had turned sad and soft. “And this forest. I feel like I’m close to him when I’m here. I feel like he is here. That makes me happy and before I realize it, I keep coming back here.”
“Did your brother come here?” asked Allen. “Before he was gone. Did he come here?”
“I used to think that but, no way. He was like nine or eight years old at that time and our house was far from here. He had no reason to go here. But you know about the forest. I wonder if spirit comes here,” said Kris, thinking about his brother and the forest. “I’m sorry. I’m not supposed to talk about something like this here.”
“Oh, don’t worry. It’s fine with me.”
“Nahhh, I think I won’t see you again after this.”
“What?! What do you mean?”
“I’m joking,” Kris laughed and Allen pouted. He stopped on his track and said, “Ah! We’ve reached the end but...still no sign of your mushroom. Could it be that the info was wrong?”
“Wait! What? What do you mean we’ve reached the end? We can still go further, right? ” Allen looked around. What does he mean? They were still in the forest and everything looked the same from the beginning up until now.
“No Allen. This is where the trail ends. Look.” Kris pointed at the ground, showing Allen the path. The rock path stopped there, there was none beyond that point. “When you reach this point, you have to turn back or...”
“Or what?” asked Allen.
“Or you won’t be able to get out before nightfall. You don’t want to spend your night here, Allen.”
“Well, I won’t. But how do you know this is the end? It looks like there’s still a long way to go,” Allen pointed up ahead. He did not know how big this forest was but he knew there must still be a long way to go. “But I need to find the mushroom. It says it grows at the roots of the trees. Maybe it’s hidden behind those trees. Maybe...”
“Allen! You are not going deeper into the forest. You are not going in there.” Kris argued. “It’s already 2 in the afternoon. We took 4 hours to get here and we might need another 4 hours to go back. If we start walking back now, we can still make it back before sunset.”
“I know! I know! But Kris, I have too,” Allen protested. “This is important!”
“What’s more important than your life?”