“I can feel you there, watching me. Are you waiting for me to say something interesting?” The girl says, face shrouded in cloth with only the tip of her nose and pale lips peeking out from under her cloak. “I can feel your body tremble. Your breath, distant. Come, sit with me. The sunset shouldn’t be long.”
She placed her hand on the trunk of the fallen oak tree where she sat. The moss and vines that blanketed the tree trunk seemed to perk as her hand drew near. Her hand, soft and gray with fingertips pink from the evening chill.
I couldn’t move, or maybe, I didn’t want to.
She places her hand back on her lap and sighs.
We wait, listening to the crescendo of crickets and nightly fauna from the forest that sprawled in front of us, surrounded by brambles that seem to guide the forest’s edge. The sounds of nature are only interrupted by my own quivering breaths. The distant mountains shield the sun, leaving rays of the dying light shooting through the sky.
“Come sit. You’re going to miss it.” She said.
My shy steps make little sound from the wet grass underfoot, but I step towards her, each step heavier than the last. I walk around the log and stand in front of her. Even with her eyes shrouded by the cloak, I knew that she paid no attention to me and instead, gazing into the distance. The last ray of light faded and it was but a moment before darkness closed upon the land like curtains on a play, blackening the trees.
“My, what a sight to behold. If I might ask, why did you miss it?” She asked and folded her hands in front of her.
I stood near her, still. My breath continued to tremble from the chilled air that had penetrated my bones.
“Oh, I must apologize. It had just dawned on me. You do not understand me, do you? Just here in this world to escape your own. For it is not the sunset you seek, nor I, but something else perhaps?” She slid off the tree truck and onto her feet, combing her cloak behind her back. She approached me with folded hands and stood close. Her feet were bare and yet, her height was just shy of my collar. “Come with me. Let us find it together.”
Her hand gently wrapped around my arm and she clasped her fingers together. My bare arms feel her touch, cold and her skin soft as fine soil. She did not need to tug on my arm for me to follow. Walking together, we step towards the brambles and my step becomes hesitant, but she continues. The brambles crack and bend, folding itself into an archway leading deeper into the forest. The darkness had engulfed all, except for a path ahead illuminated by moonlight. It was a moment until I had realized the canopy above had split itself to help light the way. Each step we take, the small undergrowth around us, raised to attention and lowered as we pass.
“Your mind, a restless fog and an endless field of questions without form. You wait for me to answer them, unsatisfied until I do, without knowing fully what you cannot ask. Worry not, we shall find the answers together.”
I stop suddenly and the girl untangles her fingers from my arm. My lip twitched as I tried to form a word. “W-where?” I could only utter a whisper.
“So you do speak, but this is not truly the answer you seek, is it? Where and who is only the surface, but to dive deep is where the answers truly lie.” She stepped close to me, grabbed the hood of her cloak with both hands and lowered it onto her shoulders. She gazed into me with glistening purple eyes for a moment and smiled. “What if I said this was a dream? Would you be unsatisfied? If I were to suggest that I was not real, or yet, maybe you were not real, would that leave nothing behind but a foul memory?”
She placed her hands on my chest to brace herself as she leaned close. Her hair smelled of a cool breeze after rainfall and the hue shifted under the moonlight. She raised up to her toes and whispered into my ear. I leaned down for her whispers to meet my ear.
“Maybe, it is not the answers you truly seek, but a fleeting sense of peace that you haven’t yet found in your world.”
She lowers herself and my body grows heavy and legs struggle to hold my weight. I gently lower myself to the ground, holding her arms as she holds mine, guiding me to the damp soil below.
“P-please… Stay.” I begged and held her arms tight. “S–sta…” My chest could not hold steady to press the smooth words. The lump in my throat chokes me and my eyes tear.
She knelt in front of me, legs tucked under. The girl released my arms and with a gentle touch, caressed my face with silken fingertips. “You do not belong here, but I will always be here, waiting for your return.”
I cried. I didn’t want to leave here, but I knew I couldn’t stay. I look through blurred vision of endless tears at the beautiful calm of the dark forest. The sounds of crickets become muted and the rusting of the trees fade. My body slumps into hers as she held me tight.
She whispers, “The pain you feel will only end once I am forgot, pain I hope you hold dear, deep in your heart, as I shall do the same.”
Written In the Code_ 