By: Alex Richter

On a dull, cloudy Sunday afternoon, an egg hunt takes place. As opposed to last year’s egg hunt, Toby was gloomy as his best friend Mark had moved away. Normally, Toby and Mark would be excited to watch as his little sister hunted eggs, and occasionally they would pitch in if she couldn’t reach one or failed to find one. This year, he didn’t want or feel the need to worry about helping the younger kids.

“Toby!”, his sister, Lani called.

“Yeah?”

“We can’t reach this one,” she said, looking at her best friend. Toby looked at them with hazy eyes, signaling that he was not getting it for them. Both of the children had looked at Toby, yet their strong gaze did not change his mind.

Walking away from the situation, Toby thought it best to head home, he still had felt gloomy. Once he had arrived, he knocked on the door, finding it locked.

“Yes, oh, what’s the matter with you?”, his mum had asked him politely. 

“Mum…I can’t seem to do anything without him, I just feel distressed.”, he says with his British accent seeming crackly due to the sadness in his voice.

“Toby, please go back out there and supervise the other children.”

Toby sighs, “Yes, mum,”

Starting his way back to the woods, Toby sighed and kicked a nearby rock. He saw a flash of a white figure woosh by him, yet he didn’t see anything clearly that would have caused that, unless it was the stone he had kicked. Toby decided to run back into the woods and begin to search for the mysterious being, he intended to find it.

“Hello?” Toby called out into the woods.

“Hi, Toby.”

Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he turns and sees a figure similar to his best friend. Except for a few crucial differences, he was too tall. Mark was tall, but this figure was much taller than Mark was. He was black and white, like a monochrome filter split down the middle of his body. The dark side looked like a gloomy creature, but the other side looked like a happy creature. It’s like something from a dream. 

Who is this? Why does he look like this? This isn’t Mark…I don’t think. 

“Mark?” Toby asks the creature. “How are you here? What-”

Before Toby could finish the sentence, the creature had teleported away. He felt a smile creep onto his face as he felt that wherever the creature was, he liked him. Toby realized at that moment that the mysterious creature wore a pair of Easter Bunny ears on its head. Easter was one of his favorite holidays, so the bunny ears made him happy. He closed his eyes and leaned on the tree behind him, lost in thought, no longer filled with the gloom and sadness that he had felt earlier.

“Toby…”

Toby heard the voice, yet he thought it was a part of his imagination. As he was still far too distracted to think rationally, he thought.

“Toby,”

Toby opened his eyes to find his sister in front of him, she had her eyes closed and looked like she was ready to shout at him.

“Toby!,” Lani shouts at him, “Who are you talking to?”

“No one,” Toby says, thinking about Mark and the strange creature. Maybe he was trying to cheer Toby up, he thought.

“Uhh…Yeah…Sure.”, Lani responds.

“Did you and your friends ever get that egg?”, Toby says, distracting her.

“Pfft, It’s not like you can reach it,” 

“I’ll try!”, Toby says. “Kids, leave this to the professional.” he says, rushing over to the group who had yet to reach the egg.

“Yeah right,”

Mark was watching his best friend make amends with his sister, and a sweet feeling hit him. The figure makes eye contact with Toby, yet Toby looks away and climbs the tall tree. Now that he knew that Toby would be okay on his own, he decided it best to leave soon. Smiling, he decided to not think about when or if he’d come back to the small town. 

Meanwhile, Toby retrieved the egg and climbed down, thinking of who was the strange creature that he’d seen today. Toby gave the egg to his sister, and noticed that the rain began to clear up and the sun shone down onto the woods and town where they’d stood. He walked into the gloom towards the creature, but stayed about 10 feet away from him. Toby noticed that it started raining, and as soon as it did, Mark disappeared, and Toby did not know when or if he’d see him again. 

Well, now I would hope that Mark will always be with me wherever I go; and at least he’s not dead, I know he’s okay. I hope he takes care of himself and visits me soon. I wasn’t planning on doing anything near that this Easter, but wow that was a cool experience to have. Huh, I guess I hunted for something after all.