Fall in San Diego

23. these stupid stories

"The trees are now connected
Like the melody of a piece of music
It guides you while you move
Through black, white, thin and thick."

That was the next clue. We'd found it on the last ash tree just right before we saw the lake.

Michelle had calmed down. After screaming and shaking and scaring the shit out of us she suddenly came back to normal. She still looked disoriented though and we advised her to sit and rest her head.

“Music,” I said.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“I'm getting something…” I murmured, snapping my fingers and racking my brain.

“I want to think straightforward this time but I also don't–”

“Like a piano!” I suddenly blurted. “The melody…the guide, what do you call it, the scale and the keys or notes? They guide you while you move through the keys right? The black and white keys which I'm sure are also thin and thick respectively of the piano.”

From Peter's eyes I could see that he was calculating.

“And how can this be connected with the trees?”

“I can't seem to find…Michelle?”

We turned to her. She had gotten up and she was strolling to the lake as if in a trance.

“Michelle!” I called out and got up immediately.

She kept walking, like she didn't hear me. She was just going straight to the water.

We ran over to her and I grabbed her arm. Tanya grabbed her other arm.

“Leave me!” she said, struggling a bit. She sounded normal at least.

“What are you doing?” Peter asked her.

“I'm going to stay in the lake.”

We all looked back and forth between each other.

“What? What do you mean by that?” Peter tried again.

“It's the only way.” She looked up at me. Her eyes glistened and she looked like she was in great pain. Emotionally.

“The only way to what? Leave the forest?”

“No…” she looked down and her arms suddenly became limp. “The only way to see my family."

My forehead creased as I stared down at her.

“What? And how did you decide that?”

“He told me!” Tears spilled and rolled down her cheeks. “The dark figure. He said it to me. He said I should jump into the lake. That my family would come back.”

She had started to struggle again. I held her arm as tight as I could but damn she was strong. She started to scream suddenly and thrash her limbs wildly.

“I want to see them! Leave me alone! LET GO!”

Peter stood and watched in horror. I did my best to hold her down and Tanya was also doing a good job.

Until Michelle somehow got her arm free for one second and for that second I slipped up, I paid dearly.

I felt a terrible pain in my gut and it was then my brain registered that I had been punched.

Tanya was startled by her sudden move and then let her go in the process. She took off immediately, catching even Peter off guard and in a few seconds she had jumped into the water.

We all ran over and when we got to the edge we stood looking at one another.

“The fuck do we do now?” Peter asked.

Michelle burst through the surface of the water and took deep breaths. She started to thrash in the water. She was struggling. She'd go under and then come up and we just stared stupidly at her.

“Move!” Peter suddenly screamed and I snapped into action. Once I got into the water, I swam over to her and grabbed her by the arm. Surprisingly, she was still resisting my grip.

I had to use all the strength I had to drag her out of the water. When we had gotten out, Peter and Tanya suddenly ran over to her and held her down.

She lay on the floor, chest heaving. I walked over slowly to her.

After she'd calmed down a little she tried to break out of their grip.

“Leave me, I'm not going anymore.”

“Yeah right missy,” Peter said and held on tighter.

“Michelle what was that about?” I asked and knelt down gently next to her.

“I just wanted to see them and I–” she started to sob. “I w-wanted to do a-anything possible.”

“Who was the guy that spoke to you?”

“It was the dark figure that hurt me before. He's the thing I've been seeing ever since I came to these woods. He's been trying to tell me things and when I don't listen he'll try to hurt me.” I let her sob for a little and get herself before she went on.

“Now he's telling me that he knows what I want the most. T-that he knows w-what we all want the most. And he's going to talk to all of you but he wanted to start with me.”

We all stared at her incredulously. Peter and Tanya loosened up their grip and let her go. Michelle sat up, hugged her knees to her chest and sobbed.

“And now I–” she paused and her eyes widened like she just saw the big black guy standing right in front of her.

“Now you what?” Tanya asked slowly.

Michelle began to sob harder. The sobs got louder and louder and then she just crumpled to the floor.

We all watched in horror. We had no idea what to do.

“I'm so stupid!” she bellowed.

“What do you mean?” I managed.

“They’re dead. They've been dead for a long time. I just didn't want to accept it and I made up these stupid stories that I tell people and they look at me like I'm crazy but I believed I was the sane person…”

She took in quick shallow breaths murmuring that she was fine that we shouldn't come near her.

“All the foster homes they put me in, I'd scream and cry and say that my parents were somewhere out there and that I will find them. And I ran away from every single one, lying to myself that they're out there. And I ended up believing it for a while. And now I remember…”

We finally snapped out of our dumbfounded state and went over to console her.

“Michelle, it's alright. We understand,” Tanya said gently and she hugged her tight.

“Michelle, it's fine. I'm sorry about everything but we're here for you. And it's going to be alright,” I added.

Michelle nodded and tried to calm herself down while all sat in silence.

We had been sitting there for a long time and Michelle's sobbing had ceased. Peter got up suddenly and said we had to go back.

We agreed without a word and started to move. A few steps was what we had taken when we began to see thin white lines made of some weird material strung on the trees all around us.

“What the…? This wasn't here when we…” Peter began as soon as we stopped to stare in awe. “The clue.”

“What?” Tanya murmured as she reached out to grab one of the ropes. It tore away easily like a spider’s web but when I tried to feel it for myself I noticed that it wasn't. It wasn't clingy, it was stronger and it felt like cotton. And they were in straight lines, I thought.

A single line of the rope that was tied to a branch was connected to a tree and another ran from that tree and stopped at another and it just went on like that.

“The trees are now connected.”

+_+_+
A/N

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