What Not To Do In The Valley

Other People

Kimber kept the things she stole in a box under her bed for three days.

Micheal's been leaving the house more often, but never comes back bloody. 

He hasn't told Mrs Hive, but she knows Jay got hurt. She knows he's hiding something. 

The surrounding forest has been filled with thorny vines for the duration of their collected grounding. 

The vines had favourites, parting for Micheal whenever he told them it was important. For everyone else, they had to give the vines a real reason.

Mike wouldn't let Kimber come with him, and she asked him so much that he started avoiding her. Now she knows what Will feels like.

She scratched her neck and held the box under her arm as she resigned herself to visiting the second most human-passing person allowed to go outside.

Will was collecting extra bags, knowing how quickly they ran out of food the last time they were grounded.

She caught him at the door and he stepped aside to let her pass, but she kept looking at him.

"I need your help," She said.

"I don't want to be used as an escape."

Kimber shifted her footing. "Well, I didn't want you to steal my DNA and diagnose me with depression, so you owe me." She took a handful of bags off of him. "I'll help carry everything."

The vines were deep green like wet moss and twisted around themselves like sailing knots. Kimber had seen razors smaller than those thorns. 

Will bent down and stuttered on about the groceries until the plants withdrew. Unwinding and clearing a thin path for him to shuffle down. Kimber followed carefully. 

"I have somewhere I need to be..." Kimber announced.

"That's unexpected," Will remarked, using his sarcastic face. 

"Could you come with?"

"So I can let you back in? No. I'm not waiting for you, either. I don't like the woods."

"We'd go to the village, actually."

Will stood still. Looking at her sceptically. "I'm the punchline, aren't I?" He asked tiredly.

"What?"

"I don't know why you're getting so close to me all of a sudden. I'm sorry I said those things. There's no way I'm letting you take me somewhere I don't know. I don't want to be laughed at."

Kimber looked at the trees behind him, avoiding his eyes. She handed the bags back to him slowly.

She then held the box out to him. "There's money in here."

Will furrowed his brow and looked from it to her and back.

"I need your help to sell this stuff to humans. Name your price, you can have some of it!"

Will waited for her to say something more, but she just held the box still. He sighed. "...okay."

He was more scarred than the people he passed on the street. A few stared, but he was human and they were human. Kimber walked with him for the first block or so but stayed outside the shop.

She tried to avoid onlookers.

He wished she would've come with, and instead created the most awkward experience of his life trying to speak with the person behind the counter. 

Her nametag said Robert and she kept asking him to speak up. 

He couldn't stop wondering if the tiny bird skull on her necklace was real or not. She also didn't believe anything he gave her was real until she examined it.

He got the most money for a small old teacup, which she immediately bought herself after realising what it was. Apparently, she had a collection.

Kimber went through the handful of cash on the way back, giving him a small cut of it. 

She looked between her money and his, unsure.

"Are you... buying a lot?" He asked her.

She started taking a detour through a patch of grass between houses. Leading him down a few roads until they could see the local police station. 

Watching it from afar, Kimber then looked at Will. "I need you to go in there and ask about their detectives."

He blinked. Then shook his head. "You'll have to do your own research."

Will handed his money back to her and began to head home. Kimber scratched her neck, watching him go. 

He looked back at her, unsure about leaving her alone here. 

She played with the stitching on her neck. Pulling at them with her fingernails thoughtfully. "Can you wait a few hours?"

Kimber loosened the thread around the front of her neck and picked at the flesh to irritate it and make it bleed. 

She lay down on the sidewalk and unfocused her eyes, relaxing her face and muscles like a corpse. Her back and shoulders became wet as the blood slowly pooled and she waited for somebody to find her.

There were footsteps. A passing car. Two neighbours running into each other on the way home. 

An excited old lady casually stepped over her to tell the driver about her day and lovely children. 

Kimber witnessed various people coming home from work or going out for the night, seemingly too tired or busy to care.

Someone came close to acknowledging her when he complained about the state of the sidewalks these days. 

Will had watched from a distance, nervously waiting for her. She heard him approach and exclaim shockedly about her dead body. 

Only then did anyone pay her real attention. 

The police were called and Will moved elsewhere. Kimber's eyes had blurred from not blinking, but she could see the detective accessing her. 

He was confused. Like he'd never done this before. 

She hoped he had - escaping from the morgue later that night and walking with Will down the road out of town.

"I'm really tired, Kimber," Will admitted, looking at the gas station ahead of them.

Kimber tried to keep her head upright. "Tell you what: we can split up for the night and I'll come back in a few days."

He looked at her strangely. 

"I'll be fine," She promised. "but could I have your jacket?"

He handed it over and she buttoned it up, tugging on the collar so it hid her horrific neck. She didn't want to scare the detective. 

Not that he seemed the frightened type, walking far ahead of them down that same dark road.