After leaving Emilie and Wilfred’s Nicholai headed to the gate. As he was walking towards it Albert saw him. “Hi Nicholai, I saw your friends leaving yesterday. They asked me to tell you they are going to the next town.” Then he walked off. Nicholai continued to the gates. He was wondering which town they meant by the next one, was it Marokale, Old Lucia or the one he had not been to yet. He could not remember what the sign he passed had said. It had the name of the last town on.

After stepping out of the gates he turned right, walking down a winding road. There was a fence on either side running along it, separating it from the trees spread out like a forest. He saw something through the corner of his eye. He closed his eyes hoping it was not that shadow again. He was getting annoyed with it just appearing now, he just wanted to get there without anything going wrong.

Nicholai got about half an hour away from Anytkla when there was a bang a couple of yards ahead of him. He stopped, frozen on the spot. ‘What could it be?’ He thought to himself. He stood debating if he wanted to go investigate or go back to Antykla.

There was another bang, this time behind him. Back towards Antykla. He started walking away from the second bang. The bang happened again, this time louder as if what was causing it was getting closer. He started to walk faster, hoping he would get there before whatever was causing the bangs got closer to him. There was another bang, it sounded like it was right behind him. He turned around as quickly as he could. There was nothing or nobody here. He turned and ran as fast as he possibly could. The bangs stayed with him, getting more and more frequent.

He turned and jumped the fence hoping to lose whatever it was. The banging started slowing down and getting quieter as if the cause of them was staying on the path. He turned to walk back to the path to see what would happen. The bangs started again. He turned back around and walked away again. He looked around, he was lost. So he turned right in the forest hoping it would lead him towards the next town.

Nicholai just walked as straight as he could, hoping to hear someone or even an animal make some sort of noise. Anything but that banging again. It was silent apart from the breeze whistling through the trees. This helped Nicholai relax a bit. As he was walking along listening to the whistling there was a noise. Like a twig being stepped on and broken. He spun round. There was a man just standing looking at him, lifting his foot off the twig slowly. Nicholai turned and stepped once. “Please, I am lost. Been wandering around what feels like a few days now.” The man said. Nicholai stopped. “Oh, I am lost too. I was walking on the path.” “Did you hear that banging too?” The man interrupted.

Nicholai just looked at the man, unable to look away. His clothes are dirty with little holes. But his face was clean, like he had washed it. So were his hands. “Yes, I heard the banging. Do you know what caused it?” He asked the man. “I do not, when I heard it I just ran in here and have been trying to find my way out since.” The two men just stood in silence.

The man turned and saw the path, “should we try to get on the path again, see if we can actually walk down it?”. Nicholai looked down at the floor, “I’ve already tried. The second you step back on it the banging starts again.” The man looked in deep thought. “Maybe it won't happen if there's two of us.” Nicholai thought for a moment. “I guess we could try it, test to see if we can walk on it together.”

The two men walked towards the path. They stopped at the edge, wanting to try but also being afraid the banging would still happen. They looked at each other and both nodded. They put one foot out in front of them and took a step onto the path at the same time. They then brought their other foot and placed it next to the one they stepped with first. There was silence, they turned to walk hoping it was the right way.

They looked around as they were walking, not saying a word worried if they spoke the banging would start again. Nicholai noticed a fountain in the forest. He turned to the man. “Should we go use this fountain to get cleaned up and see if it is safe to drink?” The man looked at him then looked where Nicholai was pointing, there was no fountain. Just all tree’s. “Sorry, but there is no fountain, are you hallucinating?" He said confused. Nicholai turned back, it was gone.

The man turned and said “My name is Arthur, thought why we are travelling together you should at least know that.” “My name is Nicholai, I am positive I saw a fountain. Clear as day. It had daisies and leaves around it. Like they were scratched in.” Arthur looked at Nicholai and back where he had pointed to before. It was there this time. “Nicholai, is that the fountain you saw?” He asked. “Yes, it is.” He replied excitedly.

The two men walked towards the fountain. As they got closer Arthur noticed a smell. “Do you smell that Niocholai?” He asked but there was no reply. He realised Nicholai was not next to him. He looked around, he was nowhere to be seen, like he vanished. “Nicholai, where are you?” He shouted. He looked around frantically trying to find Nicholai. From behind he heard a bang. He turned around as fast as he could,hoping to see where it came from and what made it.

There was nothing around that could have caused it. Arthur started walking closer to the fountain, the closer he got the stronger the smell got. He stopped looking around, wondering where Nicholai was. He still couldn’t see him.

Nicholai was walking towards the fountain, wondering where Arthur was. He just vanished as they were walking. He shouted but got no reply. They were walking next to each other but could not see or hear each other. This was weird, was it the doing of the entity?. Arthur turned around to walk back towards the path, once he got away from the fountain he could see Nicholai again. He shouted Nicholai but there was no response. Nicholai stopped standing still, looking around.

He turned and walked in Arthur's direction. After a little while he noticed Arthur. “Where have you been? I've been shouting for you.” He asked. “I've been here the whole time, shouting for you.” Was the response. They just stood looking around, “should we walk towards the fountain again to see if it happens again?” Arthur said to Nicholai. “Yes, if it happens again we should move backwards to see when we reappear for each other.” Nicholai suggested. “Agreed.” Said Arthur.

The two men started walking towards the fountain again, Once again as they got closer to the fountain they stopped seeing each other. They both took one step back. Arthur drew a line in the dirt to show where they could walk up to before not being able to see each other. They stood next to the line wondering what was causing them to not see each other.

They turned and walked back to the path to try to find their way to the next town. They walked in silence, matching each others speed. Arthur looked at Nicholai then back to where they were heading.

After a while Arthur stopped and looked at Nicholai. “I think there is something ahead,” he said. “Yes, from this distance it looks like gates.” Nicholai responded. They carried on walking but faster than before, hoping what they could see was gates to a town, any town.