FORSAKEN

Alone

I'd slept the day away, the sun was setting. 

At this end of town, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of stuff, except the obvious road that ended with a T junction, streetlights on each side of the road that were covered by the tree's leaving only the post to the light's visible,  this town was nothing like I could have ever imagined, it was so much more. 

A bell tower sat dead at the end of the road, a rainforest surrounding, giving it the fairytale vibe, moss had engulfed the bricks of the clock tower  leaving a beautiful green glow as the sunset danced along the top. I couldn’t help but think of mum and, her childhood here what it was like for her; did she even miss this place? Mum had no pictures of this town, which I knew of anyway. If she did, she kept it hidden well; because I’ve searched at least sixteen times this year and found nothing! The forest around the clock was picture perfect, fireflies covered a small path that was hidden behind the back of the tower, I take one last look back at the lights from town, I could see why they thought at one stage, that this was a perfect place to raise a family, I would have loved it here growing up here, maybe I did love this place once upon a time, who knows. It’s insane how infuriated I am with my parents, for all the lies and all the secrets. I knew mum was probably leaving a thousand messages asking how we are, or if we got here safe; but I’m utterly petrified that, one I’ll either go off at her about all of this, obviously letting her know where I am, or I could feel so bad for lying that I want to tell her anyway, neither are the options I want, instead I wanted all the facts and motives to back me up, worst-case scenario is that I finally find my father and he already has a family, that isn’t mine. I’d been through so many scenarios sometimes I worried that this was too much for me to deal with alone, sure Astin was here, but he didn’t have anything at all to lose, he knew who his dad was and where his dad was. I wanted to be angry at them both for keeping it a secret, but the rational side of me knew that Paeton was the type of person who no matter the situations, looks for the pieces of light and holds on to them for dear life; so it left me with the nagging question; why did she leave my dad? Mum was a kind and quiet soul, but since I'd learned the truth I'd seen snippets, in her eye’s, they told another story. The fear and pain she tried to hide, were lingering there just under the surface. 

A twig snaps behind me, making my skin crawl; a baby deer stood near a tree staring at me, turning its head from side to side.

"Beautiful." I whispered, he nuzzled his head down to the ground and sat,  maybe the animals weren’t hunted here, wouldn’t that be something; imagine that, a world were creatures didn’t think we were the animals, I guess we can all dream. 

Further ahead down the path fireflies form a ball of light in what looks like a clearing, I look back the deer still watches me as I make my way through to the clearing, a river goes the length of it and disappears in to the darkness on both side.

 I’d never seen any place that ever compared, the grass was defiantly greener on this side; to the right side of the river sat a canapé overlooking its beauty, marble posts holding up the marble circled roof, vines hanging down the side’s making the inside invisible, its reflection shimmering across the water; I make my way over, more aware with every step that tonight was not the night to be walking around in shorts, the goosebumps had started on my legs and made its way up to my arms.

“Well, I’m here. Now, what am I supposed to do?” I call into the night.

 “Why can’t I remember any of this?”  

The marble is cold underneath me, but I don’t care, sitting here is the most at peace I’d felt in god knows how long.

“Excuse me, are you lost?” I jump up spinning around so fast my head hit a post.

 I rub my head waiting for my eyes to adjust again, I see a shadow appear from the floor stand up.

“Crap. I'm  sorry.” He walked over but stopped when I moved backwards, he put his hands up in defense. “I didn’t mean to scare you; I heard you talking to." He cleared his throat. 

"Um, I  thought you’d gotten lost.” I couldn't make out his face under his hood, I’m sure that’s the point of it.

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