‘At least that was a friday… now I have some time to process whatever that was that happened at lunch yesterday.’ I thought to myself as I walked out to the woods. Normally I'm inside during the winter as much as possible, but I needed to clear my head. The fresh air would also do me some good. In preparation to stay out longer than intended, I brought a couple blankets; some thicker than others; but they would get the job done.

I vaguely remember having seen him around the school, but given that he's in a different class than me, I paid him no mind whatsoever.

I sat down on a large rock judging that I was far enough out that I wouldn't be found. I began talking to myself and any animals that approached me. I've always been some sort of animal whisperer, they listen to me better than humans will, and they won't spill my secrets to anyone.

I was holding and talking to a rabbit that had come up to me maybe five minutes before when I heard something. It wasn't an animal you'd expect to find around here, too big and clumsy sounding. I stood up, rabbit still in my arms, and turned towards the sound.

There was nothing.

I walked over to the area to look, and all I found was disturbed leaves and a broken branch. The branch was about eye level. That could only mean one thing: I wasn't alone in that clearing.

My mind started spinning at light speeds. ‘How could anyone have found me here? I walked at least half an hour to get here. I must be crazy, there's absolutely no way.’ I nearly fell over when I went to sit back down so I could catch my breath. I'm pretty sure I dropped the rabbit by accident as well. But seeing as it was gone, I assume it was unharmed. I was breathing pretty heavily after my bold assumption that I was followed into the woods, but what else could have done that? There aren't any animals out here that could have broken that branch.

I started to calm myself down a little. “I must be going crazy. There's not anyone out here.” I reassured myself out loud.

Right after I finished calming my nerves, as if to spite me, some gross guy comes out from the tree line and just stares at me. Like I'm sorry, but that's a no from me.

“Are you-” he started

“Taken? No. Interested? Most definitely not.” I interrupted, knowing what he was going to ask. There was a long pause of stunned silence before I just got up saying, “alright that's enough social interaction for me, I'm leaving, bye.” Then I just walked off in the same direction I'd come from.

‘Was that creep watching me the whole time?’ I shivered at the thought. He literally looked like he had rolled around in a mud puddle and had never bathed in his life. That and this guy was at least forty years old. I'm not going to go out with some sick forty-year-old pervert to save my life.

That's when someone grabbed me from behind and I felt something sharp against my neck. Probably a knife of some kind. I didn't know and I certainly wasn't about to stick around to find out. By the sound of the breathing I could tell it was a guy, so I did what I think anyone else would have done in this situation: kick his crotch with enough force to knock a small tree down. He loosened his grip once the pain set in then I whirled around, socked his face, and ran.

I hit him in the nose. I know that much. I probably broke it looking back. But he would have done much worse to me. So it's more the lesser of two evils, and it was self defense.

Once I got out of the woods I just kept running. I didn't know where I was going, I just went.

I stopped to catch my breath and I found myself in a scrap yard. Where all the recently outlawed gasoline cars and crashed vehicles alike were sent to just rot away. I wandered around for a little while. There was something about these abandoned vehicles that peaked my interest.

One particularly destroyed one caught my eye because the window was down. I looked in and it looked inviting enough, save for all the debris inside from whatever accident it was involved in and the decay that followed suit.

I sat in the passenger side seat. And I was just marveling at the practically vintage cloth interior that was in nothing but ruin now. Eventually curiosity got the best of me, and I began snooping around inside to see if anything was left behind by the owners. After finding nothing I opened the glove box thinking that out of all the places this should be the one to check. I didn’t know how right I was. There was a leather purse. It looked pretty cheap, and most everything inside it was destroyed by what appeared to be water damage. But the one thing I did find in good condition was a drivers license in a wallet that had most definitely seen better days.

The name read: Scout Gertrude Finnick. Maiden name: Yerva.

To say I was in absolute shock would be a drastic understatement. This woman, not only looked like me, but shared my last name, and my middle name was her maiden name? The odds of that being a coincidence are just way too high. I pocketed the license to examine it more later. Maybe I'd be able to find more on her later. But for now, I needed to get back to the orphanage.