No one followed.  She didn't notice.  Chelly had given up hope of finding the way out; She'd given up hope even for making it through the night.  Fully focused in the present moment, what concentration she had left was spent on taking the next step, on proceeding from nowhere to nowhere, waiting for all of it to somehow end.  Step after painful step she went on, caked in mud, beautiful blond hair filthy and snarled with dead leaves and twigs.  The sodden layer of leaves no longer cuscioned her feet, but sucked at them, trying to pull her down.  The wind moving through the trees sounded like rain at a funeral.  The low murmur of the creek as she waded through part of it was like conversation at a wake.  One final hill was too much, and when Chelly collapsed at its crest she no longer cared if she lived or died.  There on the cold, wet ground she fell into a deep sleep      Dawn in the woods is beautiful.  Long before the human eye can detect a brightening in the east, the birds are up and about their business, singing and twirping and chirruping.  Next, as the first hint of pink begins to show, the smaller animals, the squirrels and chipmunks, begin to scamper across the forest floor, adn up into the trees.  As the sun begins to break over the horizon, the invisible facets on the stones in the creek bed catch the light and shine like diamonds.  The water itself is liquid gold, flowing and splashing vigorously on its way.  No matter how late in the summer, the leaves above have the transparent yellow0green of their youth again for a few moments.  Each branch seems limned in gilt, glittering.  The dew makes crystals on every leaf and blade of grass.  Dawn in the woods is beautiful.       For just a moment, as Chelly awoke, she felt the soft moss beneath her, and saw the sun rising abiove the playgound just over the hill where she lay.  She had never been so happy to see it before.  Then her mind cleared, and she realized that she was lying on the floor beside her bed, tangled in the blankets.       Michelle never knew whether her dream was anything like Julie's actual experience or not.  She was never quite able to meet Julie's eyes after that night.  Julie, on her side, avoided Michelle entirely, and if she ever told anyone what happened, it never got back to Michelle.  Certainly Julie's parents never knew.  Allison became heavily involved in drinking; Michelle began to suspect some drug use, too.  They drifted apart.  Michelle could no longer take pleasure in tormenting and gossip, and the rest of her so-called friends stopped calling as they came to realize that she wasn't any fun anymore.  Michelle was more deeply alone than she she had ever been before.       Michelle and Julie spoke only once more, almost a year later, when Julie had begun to put the experience behind her.  Michelle, more lonely than she could stand, approached her after Julie's friends had gone home.       "I didn't mean to betray you.  I'm sorry about...that day."  It wasn't easy for Michelle to say.       "You did mean it, and I can't forgive you."  Julie was completely calm.  She no longer cared what Michelle thought.       "You're my only real friend," Michelle begged.  "You can't turn your back on me now!"       "I was your only real friend."  Julie looked at Michelle with pity in her eyes.  "What you did...you didn't betray me, not really.  You betrayed yourself."       Michelle could only gaze after her as Julie walked away and into her house.  What else could she do?  Julie was right.