The Land Where Songbirds Sing

Chapter Four

And for once, bravery looked a lot like
running away
- Kat Savage

CHAPTER FOUR
Peyton Russell

Peyton watched as the girls ran away, recognizing only Savanna. She sighed, before standing up to head back to her cabin, ready to brace herself from her very angry father.
As she opened the door, a plate was swung into her face, the ceramic breaking into a thousand little pieces and puncturing Peyton's skin in multiple places.
She winced in pain, letting out a small whimper. Peyton couldn't show any sign of weakness with her father, or there could be consequences.
"Why were you in my way?" he hissed.
Peyton knew he didn't mean to hit her with the plate, as he would normally throw stuff when he was mad, but he normally didn't hit her. He only would if he was really mad. Although he only ever used his hand, never a plate, which is why she assumed he didn't mean to.
Peyton didn't answer, but instead looked around the very tattered and messy room. Broken plates were all over the floor, which would make it almost impossible to walk through the room. A dining room chair was in pieces near a wall.  Right above the chair was an indent in the burgundy wall.
She then began to look up at her father, avoiding eye contact just to be safe. His fists were red, which made Peyton assume he had been punching things, and he had warped wrinkles that locked his face into an angry glare. She then accidentally looked him in the eyes and flinched. His eyes no longer held love for her, like they did a few years ago. Instead, there was only fury, and disappointment.
"Answer me!" he shouted in a gruff voice, and he grabbed her by her shirt to pull her closer to him.
"I'm sorry!" she wailed. "I won't be in your way next time!"
He let out a gruff "good" before dropping her. She scurried off upstairs, careful to avoid stepping on any ceramic.
Once she was upstairs, she ran into her bathroom to fix up her cuts from the plate.
As she looked at herself in the mirror, she winced. Most of the pieces were out of her face, but one piece of ceramic was stuck right below her eye.
Peyton whimpered while pulling the ceramic out of her eye, finally letting tears fall.
She grabbed a paper towel, and gently batted her cut down with it to soak up the blood. While she held the paper towel to her eye, she counted how many cuts she had.
Five from a single plate... she thought.
Peyton grabbed some healing herbs from under her bathroom counter, and grabbed a few neem leaves. She squeezed the juice out of the leaves, and rubbed it into the wounds to prevent infection.
I'm going to need stitches... she thought in annoyance. How the hell am I going to get stitches in the middle of the woods?
Suddenly, she got an idea, and her eyes lit up.
I'm going to have to run away.

*~•~*

Peyton was walking along a forest path that she knew led to the city. She had a tattered but functional black backpack over her shoulders, with only the essentials she would need.
She had some clothes, food, water, a first aid kit in case a hospital didn't work out, and a few other things, but the most important thing was money. She didn't have a job, but she managed to steal a couple hundred dollar bills from her father's wallet. It was a risky but necessary move. With any luck, the hospital would heal her for free, and she'd be able to spend the money on other necessities, but she highly doubted that. She made sure, much to her dismay, to leave her phone and any electronic devices behind, as she was aware that she could be tracked by the police if she had them.
She watched the path below her slowly turn into a sidewalk, and the trees around her soon disappeared and she was now surrounded by small houses which she assumed were in the suburbs of the city.
After walking for close to an hour, she finally reached the "city" part of the city. House apartments surrounded her, and she was so focused on listening to the unusual city sounds, such as a loud, ear-piercing scream of a car horn, to notice that there was a girl in front of her.
Peyton accidentally rammed into the girl, and she apologized quickly.
The girl's eyes were a beautiful ocean blue, and they shimmered ecstatically, looking excited to see her.
"Oh my gosh hi!" she squealed, and grabbed Peyton's hands and jumped up and down. "You're Peyton! From the woods!"
How does she know my name? Peyton thought, raising her eyebrows suspiciously.
"Oops, I forgot! You have no idea who I am!" she laughed. "I'm Brooklyn. I saw you in the woods when I was at Savanna's cabin. She said your name was Peyton. It is Peyton, right?"
"Yes, it's Peyton," Peyton sighed. She was exhausted from walking, and all of the sudden excitement was making her even more tired. "Do you know where the closest hospital is?"
"Yeah, I do!" she chirped, and grabbed Peyton's hand and began walking east. "Why do you need to go to a hospital?"
"I need stitches," Peyton responded, with a bland tint to her voice.
"Oh no! What happened?" Brooklyn asked.
Peyton ignored her question. She didn't know how to tell Brooklyn what happened without freaking her out. What would she say? That her father threw a plate at her because he can get abusive?
Brooklyn must've noticed she was uncomfortable, because she didn't dig further.
Peyton sighed in relief as she saw a red cross sign, which she knew was the hospital, and she let go of Brooklyn's hand, and began to walk inside, leaving her behind.
"Wait!"
Peyton turned around abruptly.
"A child under 18 cannot go in there alone, this hospital doesn't allow it," Brooklyn said, matter of factly.
"I'm not a child," Peyton hissed.
"I can come with you!" She offered.
"That's stupid! You're under 18 too!" Peyton rolled her eyes, beginning to walk inside. She knew she could be under 18 to go inside.
"Please can I come?" she begged, grabbing Peyton's hand to hold her back.
"Fine," Peyton said, rolling her eyes once again and walking inside the emergency room.
She walked up towards the front desk and said bluntly, "I need stitches."
"Do you have a parent or guardian here?" the desk lady asked, and Peyton shook her head.
The desk lady sighed, and began to say something else but Peyton interrupted her. "I would have my father here if he wasn't the cause for me needing stitches."
The desk lady's eyes widened, and nodded her head. "Alright, we can give you stitches, although it will cost you around 400-500 dollars."
Peyton nodded, letting go of Brooklyn's hand to grab a clipboard from the desk lady to fill it out.
Sitting down, she froze, realizing she only had around 350 dollars.
"You can't afford it, can you?" Brooklyn asked, which caused Peyton to jump. She had completely forgotten she was there.
Peyton shook her head. "I only have like 350 dollars. Hopefully they'll just take it."
"I can pay for the rest," Brooklyn said with a smile."
"That's 50-150 dollars on someone you barely know! I can't ask you to do that!" Peyton said with a horrified look on her face.
"Don't care, I'm paying for the rest," Brooklyn said determinedly.
Peyton huffed in annoyance, but gave up arguing. They sat in silence for a few minutes.
"Peyton?" She heard a lady call her name.
Peyton got up, and followed the lady into a room with a hospital bed in the center. She looked over at the side, and saw some needles and something that looked like a silk strand, which Peyton assumed was to hold the cut together.
Peyton shivered slightly, as needles scared her. She knew she would have to get stitches, but the idea of them freaked her out.
Brooklyn patted her back, which made Peyton jump once again, as she completely forgot she was there. She must have noticed Peyton was uncomfortable, though, otherwise it wouldn't make sense that she was trying to reassure her.
"You may sit there, Peyton," the nurse said, "The doctor should be here in a few minutes to fix you up."
Peyton nodded, and in a blink of an eye, the nurse was gone.
"You'll be fine," Brooklyn reassured, and she grabbed Peyton's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "I've gotten stitches before. They just give you some pain-relievers so you don't feel a thing."
Peyton's eyes bulged. She should have guessed she would be awake while getting the stitches, but it still scared the heck out of her.
After a couple of minutes passed, a doctor came in.
He told her some instructions, and she laid down on the hospital bed after he gave her some pain-relievers. Peyton clutched the sides of the bed anxiously, as if she was holding on for dear life.
Brooklyn must have noticed the anxiety again, as she gave Peyton's hand another squeeze and decided to start a conversation.
"What's your favorite bird?" Brooklyn asked, her eyes bright with excitement.
"I guess a nightingale," Peyton responded, not putting much effort into a conversation.
"Really?! Oh my gosh!! That's my absolute favorite songbird in the whole wide world!" She squealed. "I love songbirds so much!" Her eyes started to get slightly sad thinking about the songbirds as she said something else. "I've always wanted to live in the woods. Ever since I was young, I would go camping and fantasize about songbirds, the peaceful living, and living in solitude."
Peyton blinked her eyes. She never considered the woods as peaceful, and a great place to live. She always saw it as a prison, or a a hidden fortress with no way in or out. She saw it as a place she could never be free, always under the rules of her father. And maybe she couldn't be free, not while her father hurt her. But now while she was in the city, she was scared. She didn't know city ways, and she had no idea how she could survive without her father. She was only 14, so she wouldn't be able to do many things without a guardian. Let alone that, where would she stay? How would she be able to afford food?
"Peyton, are you okay?" Brooklyn asked quietly, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Peyton didn't notice her eyes were brimming with tears.
"Yeah, I- I'm... fine," she muttered, lying to her.
Brooklyn looked uncertain, but she didn't push further.
She felt something go into her skin, and it didn't hurt, but she was very startled and she let out a yelp.
"It doesn't hurt, does it?" the doctor asked, not looking very concerned.
She shook her head, and Brooklyn held her hand in comfort.
"Why do you want to live in the woods?" Peyton asked. "The city seems much better."
"The city, it's busy, it's hectic. There's so many people, and at times it can be hard to breathe," she said. "But the woods, they calm me. They're peaceful, and non-judgmental. I can be myself there without fear of what others think."
"Why do you care what people think about you?" Peyton asked.
"I don't like the idea of people not liking me. A few people, it's fine, but I mostly worry about what my friends think about me. I fear if I do anything wrong, even if I walk a way that's slightly off, then everyone will hate me," she said quietly. "It's really bad. I can't even get through the day without feeling anxious, but I've learned to just push through the fear at this point."
"Do I make you feel... that way?" Peyton asked warily.
"Surprisingly, no," Brooklyn said quietly, looking down at her feet. "You're the first person I've felt no fear around."
"Maybe it's because we both have a connection with the woods," Peyton muttered to herself.
Brooklyn nodded, and the deep conversation quickly faded into an excited one, Brooklyn chattering happily about nonsense.
"All done," she heard the doctor say, and Peyton sat up. "The stitches should disintegrate in a few weeks, so you won't have to have them taken out."
Peyton mumbled a "thanks" and the doctor walked out with a nod.
Peyton got up, and opened the door with Brooklyn following behind her.
"Thanks Brooklyn," Peyton said quietly. "Thanks for coming with me, and trusting me enough to open up."
"It's no big deal," she said, shrugging. "Why are you down here in the city if you live in the forest? And why don't you have a guardian with you if that's too intrusive to ask."
Peyton looked at her feet, and answered quietly, "I'll tell you outside."
When they got up to the front desk, Brooklyn handed the lady her debit card, and Peyton gave Brooklyn all of her cash.
Leaving, Peyton said, "Thanks for paying."
"No problem."
Peyton looked over at Brooklyn, and saw her looking at the ground uncomfortably, following her out.. Peyton could tell she wanted her to answer the question now.
"The reason... I don't have my father here because he hit me with the plate," Peyton said quietly. "He can get... abusive when he's angry, and he doesn't let me leave the forest. He was mad when I opened my door to the cabin, and he accidentally threw a plate at me. But he didn't care that I was bleeding, he just grabbed me by my shirt and told me to stay out of his way. He didn't even care enough to see if I was okay."
Tears filled Peyton's eyes as she spoke, and Brooklyn turned to face her and hugged her.
"I'm sorry that has happened to you," Brooklyn murmured into the crook of Peyton's neck. "Would you like to stay at my place for the time being?"
Peyton nodded eagerly with a sad smile, hugging Brooklyn back tighter than she hugged as she sobbed quietly into her new friend's shoulder.