"Damn you, Linus," Eli cursed when the right pants leg of her sleeper pyjamas caught on a pricker bush. Stopping to disentangle the garment, the prickers jabbing painfully into the tips of her fingers, she cursed again, "Dammit," and yanked the article of clothing of free.
Under normal circumstances, wandering about in a woods after someone would not be something Eli would do. But, Eli didn't live under normal circumstances, as she had a brother, Linus, who was nineteen and autistic. Because of that, she was often under more responsibility that most sixteen-year-olds, especially since she had helped watch over her brother since she had been about eight or so and their parents had started giving her tasks to help them.
If her life were anywhere approaching normal, Eli figured she wouldn't be out in the woods chasing after her brother, who'd done exactly the opposite of what they parents had said and had wandered away from the campsite. "Most likely looking for the bathroom," she groused to herself as she stopped and scanned the forest, wondering if maybe she was wasting her time.
A yawn escaped her, as she had been searching for Linus since well before sun-up, and thinking about what their parents would say, her thoughts turned dark. Starting to walk again, toying with the idea of calling out for her brother once again, she bitterly thought, "This is so typical of him," as she went over how he seemed so lost in his own head most of time, needing to be told to eat or get dressed or some other little thing, yet often doing stupid things.
"Like wandering away when he knows full well I, or our parents, need to be with him at all times," she mumbled, then stopped and wondered if maybe he didn't know.
Unable to fathom what went on in Linus' head, Eli huffed and continued on. After a moment, she did call out her brother's name. But, like the last time she'd done it, she didn't get any sort of answer, not even what she considered his usual weird replies. Glad that at least the forest wasn't too cool, she tried to focus on that positive bit and that she wouldn't have to go back to get dressed, though she did feel a bit self-conscious wandering about in nothing more than her pyjamas. Stopping once more to scan the forest, she tried to figure out where her brother could be. Turning to look in a new direction, she was almost bowled over by a wild looking man.
Alarmed, scared, believing he was going to attack her, she leapt back and prepared herself to run, but was caught off guard when the man stopped, bent over and wheezed out, "Who are you?"
Not having expected this, Eli gazed leerily at the man. There was something about him that she thought looked familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Then there was the oddity of the tail sticking out of the seat of his pants and the dog ears on top of his head, which she led her to wondering if he was some sort of cos-player or something. Taking a deep breath, ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble, she hesitantly told him, "I'm Elizabeth, but everyone calls me Eli," then added, "You haven't seen anyone else out here, have you?"
The man shaking his head, straightened up and took a couple deep breaths, but still didn't say anything beyond his original question. Eli, figuring he was still getting his wind back, continued to look at him. Thinking that maybe she should be on her way, and wondering if the man would allow her to slip away unmolested in anyway, she started to take a step back, then stopped when she suddenly got a good look at his face.
Something she'd seen on the internet a while back coming back to her and she abruptly blurted out, "You're Tobias Matchimanito, aren't you?" and before the man could respond she stated, "People have looking for you and your brother for about five months now, ever since you disappeared after going to some haunted, suicide forest in Japan or Okinawa or someplace over there."
Clearly startled by this, the man peered at her closely, as if searching for some hint of a joke or something. After a moment, he told her flatly, "Yeah. I'm Tobias Matchimanito. But I didn't get lost some five months ago. Me and my brother got lost about five days ago."
At a loss as to what to say to this, Eli gazed evenly at the man. Fishing for something to say, thinking she should instead continue her search for Linus, she instead said, "If I had my phone with my, I'm sure I could pull up the newspaper articles," then, shrugging, she asked, "So, have you and your brother been here all this time, running around the Kettle Moraine, cos-playing?"
Once again started by what she'd said, the man eyed her, as if still searching for the joke she was playing on him. After a moment, he answered, "I am not cos-playing. And this is not the Kettle Moraine, wherever that is. This is Aokigahara."
"Yeah, right," Eli retorted, defiantly, and crossing her arms, she demanded, "What's with the dog ears and tail?"
As if suddenly remembering them, she watched as he reached up and touched the ears, flinching as he did so. Slowly lowering his hand, the man quietly explained, "I don't know. I think I've been cursed, or something."
"Cursed," Eli laughed, to which the man snapped, "Shut up. It's true."
Eli, desperate to control her giggling as she realised the man, "Tobias," she reminded herself, actually believed what he was saying. Confused, as she was certain it was August 9th and that her mom and dad had taken her and her brother camping in the Kettle Moraine forest in southern Wisconsin, she tried to sort out why the man believed what he did. After a moment, she asked, "Can you tell me what happened? Why you think you've only been out here for five days, that your cursed and that your in, I am not sure how to pronounce that place you said?"
"Aokigahara," he said, still eyeing her as he lapsed into silence. Then, after nearly a full minute, in a quiet voice, he began explaining how, on spring break, he and his brother had travelled to Japan and had gotten lost in the Suicide Forest. At some points, he balked at telling her things, but then gave over and voiced his concerns that somehow sex and masturbation was turning him into a dog, even reaching a point where he explained, "I'm not fully sure, but I think it has to do with this damn cabin my brother and I stumbled on, as I got angry and called him a bitch before storming out," and finishing, he lapsed in silence, apparently waiting to see what Eli would say as he smelled and listened to something the sixteen-year-old girl could see.
Disturbed by what she was heard, unable to believe that a building could turn someone into a dog, let alone the idea that curses existed, she eventually said, "Do you think Linus ended up at this cabin?" to which the man shrugged and answered, "I don't know. I have seen anyone in the past five days."
Her thoughts leapt from one idea to the next as she tried to sort out all that she'd been told. Eyes straying to the crotch of the man's pants, she wondered if he actually had a penis sheath and canine penis like he claimed. Suddenly aware of where she was looking and what she was thinking, she exclaimed, "I think I should try looking for this cabin. In case my brother did end of there," in an effort to hide the embarrassment that had washed over her.
Aware that the man hadn't realised where she'd been looking, Eli listened as Tobias sighed and in a resigned tone replied, "Fine. Be cursed. I cannot stop you. Eventually, if you wander around long enough, you'll find your way to the cabin. Me, I'm going to continue looking for a damn way out of this damn forest," and turning, he started walking away.
Something in the way he said this startled and deeply upset Eli. Finding the barest possible hint of truth in what he was saying, she suddenly found that she wanted to avoid the cabin in any way possible. Calling out, "Wait," she watched him stop and look back at her.
Unsure what she should say, she fumbled for a moment before asking, "Can you help me find Linus, my brother. And, if we do find this cabin, could you go inside for me and look to see if he is there," and waiting on baited breath, she suddenly blurted out, "If I can, I'll help you. Not with your curse. I don't know anything about that. But I could try and help you find a way out of the forest," as she watched him mull over her what she'd said.