Another Lovely Day in the Neighbourhood

Flash found himself in the clay version of Camp Everfree. A continuation of the forest with every detail down to individual blades of grass formed from clay-like materials. It was an idealistic version of the camp with vignettes of various scenes and people around camp, some even overlapping each other.

On the outer edges, closer to the woods, were the shadows of groping hands, probing the edges of the light. However, Timber seemed unconcerned about them, so Flash presumed they weren’t dangerous. Hopefully.

Besides that, his mind was more focused on an obvious frequent guest in most of the vignettes.

“Why am I in most of these?” Flash asked.

“They’re my memories. Important ones. Of course, you’re in most of them,” Timber answered nonchalantly.

One vignette caught Flash’s attention. A boat washed ashore. Inside were Flash and Timber, holding hands as they looked up at the starry night sky above.

“Wouldn’t it be fun to just float away right now?”

“And get stranded? No thanks!”
“Aw, not like that. Just like, you know, drifting away to fulfill our dreams?”

“What?!”
“Well, we’re stuck here, but we could let the boat take us beyond the boundaries in our imaginations to the place we want to be.”

“You’re not making any sense, Flash. It’s an enclosed lake.”

“You’re really unromantic, you know that?”

“One of us needs to be the practical one in this relationship.”

“This was just after you started college,” Flash remarked.

“Online courses for environmental studies.” Timber walked up next to him. Flash held Timber’s hand in his. “That whole program was annoying.”

“And you were feeling lonely, right? Since you were just always at the Camp studying or working?”

“Yeah… but you came by a lot. Couldn’t feel lonely with my boyfriend always hanging around.”

Flash squeezed Timber’s hand. He squeezed back. He noticed a different scene out of the corner of his eye. They were both at the end of the dock, younger, legs dangling over the surface of the water. From their appearance this was just near the end of high school… when Flash had just broken up with his exe.

He walked toward it, pulling Timber with him. Timber followed.

“It’s my fault.”

“No! Flash, it isn’t—”

“But I let her! So it has to be because of me!”
“Flash, no. She’s a monster who was using you. You did nothing wrong.”
“But I—”
“No buts. She’s gone, you don’t have to deal with her anymore.”
“But what if I go back to her? What if—”
“You won’t. Because I’ll be here to talk you out of it.”
“...Thanks for being here, Timber.”
“Always.”

“We drifted apart in high school when Gloriosa needed you at the camp more, but got closer because of our past relationship with Sunset and SVHKHFGS,” Flash said. “To the point where it just felt like old times. Kind of inevitable that we’d end up together.”

“Yeah,” Timber said. “Though it took a while since I had no idea if you liked guys or not.”

“I wasn’t exactly making it hard considering the comments I was throwing your way whenever we used the camp showers.”

“Fine, it took a while because I’m dense.”

“No more than me.”

They both laughed. As they ebbed into giggles, a question came to Flash’s mind.

“So, what’s your goal now?” Flash asked.

“What do you mean?” Timber replied.

“You pulled me out of Cardboard Town. You told me how we disappeared even if I still don’t remember ‘that’. We’re reminiscing down memory lane so I can remember more about us, I guess? What’s next?”

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean? We’re gonna try and escape, right?”

Timber didn’t respond.

“...Right?”

“...This isn’t the first time we’ve done this. Moondancer and I for some reason are the only ones that consistently remember how we got here and know what this place is. Moondancer is still trying to find a way out—” Timber squeezed Flash’s hand tightly “—I just want to be with you.”

“Sooo, what? We just… stay in Camp? Hang out in this weird fake place and just live our lives as best we can?”

“Yeah, basically.”

“...Timber, that’s not really what you want. Is it?”

In lieu of a response, Timber pulled Flash toward the woods. Though reluctant, Flash allowed himself to be guided.