Crooked Trees

“What? Why?” My eyebrows furrow.

   “Just do it! It’ll be easier to outrun them!”

   It feels awkward, but I do it anyway. And then he starts running again. If we weren’t in a life-or-death situation right now, this would be kind of fun. I resist the urge to laugh, the adrenaline and fear mixing together to make me almost giddy.

   Then finally, the footsteps behind us fade to silent, and Amo stops, waits a second, and lets me down. He’s breathing heavily, and I smile a bit.

   “Thanks for not letting me die.” I murmur.

   He laughs lightly, “I would never. Don’t you worry.”

   The comfort in those words sink into my chest and leave me feeling safe. Safe with this boy I’ve known forever. Which is good. Because I have a feeling, we’ll have to spend a…a long while together, trying to escape these silhouetted monsters.

The rest of the day was uneventful, and we ended up finding a much more hidden spot. It’s a cave. Like one you’d hear about in a fairytale or a made-up story. It’s small, but the entrance is covered by hanging vines.

   Actually, it’s more like a tunnel, it has a hole at the back – an escape route if necessary – covered by more vines. It’s a good hideout.

   “What are we going to eat?” Amo whispers into the slowly fading light as we lay there, trying to get some more sleep. I turn my head to him.

   “I hadn’t even thought of that. Unfortunately, neither of us know how to hunt.” I sigh, wishing I’d learned more life-skills in the past.

   “We might have to learn to. We’re literally in the middle of nowhere.” He says, looking at me too. I sigh, keeping the eye contact.

   “What if they find us Amo?”

   “I said I won’t let you die. That’s a promise. I always keep my promises, remember?”

   Oh, I remember. Somehow, he always does.

   “If that means you may need to sacrifice yourself, I’m not too fond of the idea.”

   He looks at me, his brown eyes stern, “Let’s just both stay alive. Ok?”

   I nod, “Ok.” Then there’s a sound outside and we both freeze, my eyes wide as I look at his. I look for fear in them. I can’t find any. It’s odd. How could he not be scared at all, yet I am completely terrified. Then the sound comes again. And again, and again. Getting more insistent. Louder. Not footsteps. Something much more beautiful.

   A soft, fond smile spread across my face. “Rain. It’s raining.” I whisper. Then I sit up and look at Amo, “It’s raining!” I repeat, excited.

   I grab his hands as he stands too, and we go into the open. It’s the most perfect sort of rain. Heavy but not too heavy, and soft raindrops. I laugh and spin around, my dress twirling out around me in a blur. I put my head up and open my mouth to catch raindrops.

   When I look back at Amo, his face is amused. He’s smiling at me, kind and soft.

   “I love the rain. It’s so beautiful.” I tell him, I’m being loud, but he doesn’t tell me to be quiet. He comes back over and puts his hands out, “Can I have this dance?”

   I take them. Glove in glove, hand in hand, both of us smiling, we start to dance. Reciting the movements we learnt so long ago.

   It’s the most perfect moment. The rain, the outfits, the boy. My best friend since as long as I can remember. The one who promised to keep me safe. The one who I promised to keep safe.

   We just keep dancing, and I wish I could live in this moment forever. Our eyes stay locked on each other’s, and then he twirls me around, my gown spreading out and I stumble right into his arms.

   I swallow as our eyes stay in contact. His arms fall to my waist, and I slide mine up around his neck, and we just keep dancing. No words, just smiles. Just rain. Just us.

I wake up the next day, damp, but smiling. My gown hasn’t yet dried from the rain, but I’m happy. So happy. I sit up and look around. Amo’s still asleep, and I lean against the cave wall. I reach up and start to pull at the hairpins in my updo. There’s so many, and each time I get one out, I place it down on the ground.

   Eventually, my hair falls into its soft (somewhat stiff from the hairspray) waves. It’s still wet from the rain also, but I slowly comb my fingers through it, watching the sunshine through the vines. Then, in my periphery, I can see Amo waking, and sitting up, and I look over at him.

   “Morning.” I say softly, biting down on my lip to stop the smile from becoming too big. He smiles back though.

   “Morning.” His eyes stay on mine for a second before he averts his gaze to look through the vines at the sun.

   His hair is wet too, and the gel is slowly loosening, the shorter strands near his face have come free and sit at his forehead. I’ve always preferred his hair messier anyway.

   I continue to pull out my hair as I watch the sun too. Finally, my hair is almost soft again. Hopefully, it’ll rain again tonight to wash the rest of the hairspray away.

   “I like your hair out.” Amo’s voice says, startling me as I turn to look at him again.

   “What?” I say, a soft blush creeping across my cheeks.

   “Your hair looks nice.” He says, blushing the tiniest bit too.

   “Oh,” I look down, “Thank you.”

   I must admit, now that we’ve escaped, I’m growing quite fond of these outfits. They’re kind of beautiful. I like the gloves too. Somewhere in all the running and drama, the lace choker is gone, and the feet of my stockings has been a bit ripped up, but all together, it’s still a beautiful outfit.

   Amo moves over and pushes the vines aside, letting the soft morning sun stream into the cold and damp cave. The smell of wet trees and plants wafts in and it’s a welcome smell. I love the smell of rain just as much as the actual thing. I move forward too and look at the sky. The clouds are scattered and grey, but in the gaps between them is that same blue sky.

   “Wow.” I murmur, “The skies at the moment are amazing.”

   “They are.” He agrees softly.

The day is slow, sunny, damp, and uneventful. Amo and I go wandering a bit to try and decipher what we could eat or drink, because my stomach is starting to growl. We end up finding things that look like blackberries, and we gather some and hope we don’t die from them, but there doesn’t seem to be many animals around.

   By the time we get back to the cave, it’s getting dark again, and I’m tired, I curl up against the stone wall and fall asleep quickly.

I scream. Black clouds my vision and I can’t hear. I can’t breathe. I can’t see. I can only feel. Feel the beat of my heart slow as fingers around my throat force me to stop everything. I try to scream for help, but nothing comes out. And just like that-

   I wake up. Breathless, panting, sweating, hot, and I wrap my arms around me, looking over at Amo. I breathe out deeply. I’m ok. Right now, I’m ok. Just go back to sleep Epiphany.

   But I can’t. I’m awake for the rest of the night. Or half asleep. I’ve tucked myself as close to the wall as I possibly can and try to get my breathing in order. I watch the sunrise through the vines and as daylight starts to shine into the cave, I start to feel less scared. Everything is less scary in the daylight.

   My wrist has started to hurt again. I must’ve hit it or something in my sleep. I hold it gently in my other hand and sit up while I wait for Amo to awaken.

   He opens his eyes not long after and looks at me. He sits up too.

   “Was that you screaming Epi?” He asks softly, gently.

   I nod, “Oh, yeah it was. I’m so sorry, I had a nightmare.” I explain, feeling childish. He just shakes his head.

   “It’s ok. Would you like to try and find water today?” He questions. I smile.

   “That sounds like a good idea.” I agree.

We go a different direction to yesterday, walking in comfortable quiet, but as we walk, and the sun starts to shine down heavily on us, I begin to feel lightheaded and a bit dizzy, and my head starts to ache as the sunlight just gets brighter and harsher.

   “Amo…” I murmur, about to tell him, but as I am, we come upon a strange occurrence. A perfect row of trees. Long and skinny trunk, no leaves, just empty branches, they reach so high into the sky, and they’re all in a perfect row before us. Just beyond those trees is a forest the same as the one we’re in, but I can see a stream, a small, gentle river. I want the water so badly.

   “This is strange…” Amo whispers and I look up at him.

   “The trees?” I ask, because I agree. They are strange. He nods in response to me.

   “But I’m so thirsty.” I tell him. The water looks so good.

   Amo just shakes his head, “I don’t trust this.” Then there’s a sound behind us. Amo spins around like the speed of light. I spin slowly, so as not to make my headache and slowly increasing dizziness worse. Right before us, are the…Silhouettes.

   Oh no. I keep my eyes trained on them and feel Amo’s hand slip into mine. There’s three of the Silhouettes there.

   In unison, Amo and I take a step backwards. Away from the Silhouettes.

   “To the trees.” Amo whispers, so quiet I only just catch it. I nod, yes. The trees. The creepy trees that we don’t trust. But we don’t trust the Silhouettes more. Then an arm reaches out of the cloaks.

   And that’s when we turn and run.

   We run to the trees and through the thin gaps between them. The outer layer of my skirt catches on…I thought a branch, but there are no branches this low down. Either way it tears, and then I trip over, falling right onto something rough and hard and my shin and palm start to burn and sting.

   I thrash around aimlessly for Amo, and spot him, stumbling over to him and my legs giving way as I reach him. I basically collapse into his arms, and he holds me up. I turn to see the Silhouettes walking away, somehow looking…defeated. I breathe out a massive sigh of relief.

   Amo drags me over to the lake, and we both drink the water. I hope it’s clean. It’s most filtered and clear water I’ve ever seen. It’s beautiful. I drink until my headache goes away, my mouth not feeling dry anymore.

   Now that that’s sorted out, I look at my palm. It isn’t too bad, just a little scraped up and bloody. But it’s still kind of stinging. I’m worried for my shin. There’s a tear in the fabric near there as well.

   I cautiously lift up the skirt and rest it on my thigh.

   “Sh*t!” I exclaim by accident, shocked by the messy, bloody, wound on my leg. Amo’s head snaps over to me, and he sees the injury too.

   “Oh my god!” He moves over to me immediately and looks at my shin. I look away, the blood is making me feel grossed out. There’s so much of it. And it’s so sore. I shut my eyes tight and let Amo figure it out.

   I scream out as he engulfs my leg in water, “Amo!”

   “We need to clean it.” He says sternly. I pound my fists into the ground at the stinging pain. I open my eyes as my leg emerges from the water and I look down at it. It’s clean. Mostly. But it’s started bleeding again immediately.

   “Here.” Amo says, then he rips a bit of the soft underlayer of my dress off and wraps it tightly around my lower leg.

   It still hurts, and I’m bleeding through the fabric already, but hopefully it’ll help. I really don’t want to die any time soon. And that’s when I start crying. I don’t mean to, but I’m just so confused, and sore…and it’s all just a lot. Before I know it, I’m in a tight embrace from my best friend, and I’m crying into the black fabric of his tuxedo.

   “Sorry, I’m sorry.” I mumble, but Amo just holds me tighter. I try to just breathe, but the pain from my injury is making my head spin.

   “Amo…” I whisper, “I feel dizzy.” I tell him. He pulls back and looks at my face, then his eyes glance over to my leg. He suddenly looks worried and helpless.

   “Just…try to rest and drink some more water.” He whispers back gently. I nod, scooping up more water to drink.

   I wince and shut my eyes tight as he fiddles with the cloth and the wound. He presses his hands down hard on my leg and I open my eyes wide.

   “Ow!” I exclaim.

   “Sorry, but for you not to die, it’s going to need pressure.”

   I try to ignore the pain in my leg slowly growing stronger and stronger as the fabric wraps firmly around my wound.

After about an hour, I’m half asleep, the pain now just a dull ache. Amo’s thoroughly examined the berries we gathered earlier and rinsed them off in the river. Then he sits next to me, slipping off his shoes and sliding his feet into the cool water. My feet have been in there all afternoon.

   Then he turns to me, and I open my eyes fully, waking myself up properly, but the soft sunlight makes me sleepy still.

   “Isn’t it weird how the Silhouettes didn’t follow us through the trees?” He mumbles.

   I look at him more, “I hadn’t really thought about it…” But now that I am thinking about it…it is weird.  

   My eyebrows pull together in confusion as I ponder it. They’ve been trying to catch us this whole time, so why would they stop? And now that I think about it, they probably could have caught us a few times there. Maybe they thought we’d die of natural causes. I was close to dying of thirst, I think. And if Amo wasn’t here, I would be dead. Either caught by the Silhouettes, or bled to death by this river.

   But none of this answers the question of why they didn’t follow us. Unless…they couldn’t. But how…

   I look back at the tree line. It still looks odd. And the forest beyond, that we were in not long ago still looks as beautiful as it did when were there. Then I look back at Amo.

   “Do you think maybe…maybe they couldn’t?” I whisper. He looks back at the trees.

   “It’s…it’s possible but also…it’s also impossible.” He murmurs back. That I agree with. I nod so he knows I agree. This is…confusing.

   “Maybe we should just go to sleep. Talk in the morning. Maybe we’ll have more energy.” I suggest. He nods in agreement.

   “Yeah ok. Let’s sleep.”