Oblivion

four

Dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans and a dark green hoodie, I was sitting by the old oak tree. Carving my name into it since I like to leave my mark in the world - and I was bored. 

It was quiet just how I like it, and nobody was outside either - a plus for me. The rustling of the leaves in the tree was unbelievably calming and at this very moment I was in joy. 

"What are you doing?" Dropping the sharp rock in my hand I whipped around to come meet the face of Zayden Stone.

A scowl appeared on my face, this was my time where I can avoid the annoying human species. But he didn't seem fazed at all, as if he was taunting me he took a seat next to me leaning against the tree with his eyes closed.

"It's late. What are you doing out?" I questioned him, genuinely curious for his reason to be.

"I could ask the same of you."

"And if I answer, will you tell me your reason?" I knew what the answer would be. Zayden was a closed book, and as hard as I tried I couldn't open him.

"No."

"Exactly." With a pointed look I took a similar position to his, but my eyes were opened as I gazed out admiring the beautiful view.

"It's nice out." I said to him.

"Very." We settled into a silence, and it was nothing like the ones we usually had. This one was awkward and I hated it.

"Are you feeling better?" I quietly mumbled - even though there was nobody but us two out here.

"Yes. Thank you, once again."

"I didn't do anything." He chuckled at my words causing a frown to settle on my face. Contradicting me, a small smile took over his face as he popped open one eye looking at me followed by the other one. He turned towards the tree and took a look to what I was doing before he had happened to interrupt me. 

"You didn't finish."

"Someone happened to interrupt me." He rolled his eyes at me and grabbed the rock I had dropped and started to finish carving out my name. Once he was done with that, he started carving out his own.

"Do you know the story of this oak tree?" He questioned me - not sparing a glance my way and continuing to carve out his name.

"No, all I know is that it's fucking ancient." I said to him looking up taking a whole glance at the tree. 

"Thirteen years back, MIddleton had a killer. He was insane, unbelievably insane. People feared going out in the daytime and the night as well. The mayor even set a curfew, eventually he was caught though. They said he had a mental illness and after a long time of help and medication they said he was cured. So they made the most dumbass move and let him go. But once you have your hands tainted there's no going back. After he came out he was good, for a while. He found a woman he fell in love with and she was crazy enough to love him back. They had five children. One day, he went insane. Crazier than he ever was, well that's what they say. He waited until night time rolled by, and he did it. He killed his wife and four of his children. Not being able to get to to the youngest one who was 5-years-old at the time. He looked for him, he looked until he was ripping his hair out of his head but finally gave up. In the middle of the night, he dragged his whole family here and hung them on this very tree, and then he had the audacity to kill himself. They say the trees haunted. They tried to cut it down, but it was to large and in a place where too much damage would've been done. At first people avoided this place but like many things it was forgotten, and now it's just a dreary old oak tree."

He glanced at me with curiosity - probably to see what my reaction would be.

"How can someone do that?" I whispered looking at my hands.

"He was insane."

"Insanity isn't an excuse." Zayden looked at me and then slowly nodded.

"You're the first person to say that."

I looked at him, observing him closely. He was lightly brushing over where he carved his name. I got up brushing my pants, trying to get off as much dirt as I possibly could and then looked him in the eyes.

"At the end of the day, we're all insane. Most just know how to hide it better than others."