Evacuated

The Kingdom Of War

Three months ago..

We climbed all the way to the top of a nearby tree. I poked my head out of the whistling leaves between us. "Look at it!" I gasped at the view. "The waters, the castle, the sky and mountains, it's all ours!" I stated. Jess looked out into the distance and only saw what was really there, hills of farmland. "What exactly am I looking for?" he asked. "You'll know it when you see it. Just close your eyes and keep your mind wide open" I told. Jess glued his eyes shut as hard as he could and opened them seconds later to see the mountains, castle and waters I had imagined. "Wow" he gasped. "What do we call this place?" he asked curiously. "Terabithia" I decided, embracing the glory of the forbidden land we had created.

Present Day...

May Belle and I began to spend a lot of time outside. We went to many many places. Lark Creek wasn't very big, but it seemed like the world to us. We went many places around Lark Creek. We went far east and farther west. We found parks and playgrounds we never knew lied in the pits of Lark Creek. We went to places we knew existed, but never thought of going before. And lemme tell ya, those places were much different when you're actually there, rather than just passing by them in the car. We ended up finding a few certain places we liked to call our own. We found two parks in the opposite direction the bus drives in, we went to whenever we had nothing else to do.

One day, I took her outside because as per the usual, I was looking to get out of the Aarons house and away from Jess. That reason specifically was one of the main reasons May Belle and I began leaving the house and exploring the nature of Lark Creek in the first place. We couldn't take looking at Jess, let alone listening to the kid talk for long without getting migraines to the point where the actual migraines started crying inside our heads. One day, I was looking for a place to read. That is, before Janice ripped up all my papers and book pages at lunch one day as revenge for me planting a pregnancy test on her, causing everyone to think she was sleeping around. I'm not that cruel, I had a very good reason to. One day, May Belle and I were walking to DQ and got ice cream we brought back to school. After parting with May Belle, I went to my locker. Minutes later, she came running up to me with tears in her chocolate brown eyes claiming Janice Avery stole her ice cream. I wasn't gonna stand for that and I promised her that I'd once again, alone this time, get Janice back somehow. And without Jess' help, I was able to put a pregnancy test in her desk the morning the eighth grade class planned to clean out their desks. But it didn't go as well as last time because this time she actually did catch me and got me back for it too. Anyway, May Belle and I went outside in search of a nice and quiet place for me to read and for her to play barbies. We found a hill in the middle of a green grassy landscape and I decided it was the perfect place for us. I read at the top of the hill, laying on my stomach, kicking my legs around getting into my book. May Belle ran around the grassy landscape, up and down the hill playing with her barbies. After I finished, I turned around to reveal a narrow path made up of rocks and dirt, it looked like someplace I would love to go. It was natural and looked like it leaded somewhere familiar, maybe. I grabbed May Belle and the two of us trotted to the bottom of the hill and skipped along the long narrow pathway. We walked on it for what seemed like ever, but eventually we found the end of it. The path ended, but there was more beyond it.

I recognized that view anywhere. "May Belle, why don't you go take a walk down there and I'll meet you back here" I told her. "Why? Why can't I come?" she asked. "Because this is something important. Something I can't tell you" I explained as best as I could. "Who can ya tell?" she pressed. "Why does she always have a way of asking the only questions I don't wanna answer?" I sighed. "Meet me back here in a bit, alright?" I ignored her question. She nodded, realizing that I wasn't going to let her come. I ran deep into the forested area I once knew very well. There it was. "Hang your head back and watch the clouds, feels like flying!" I couldn't forget the memory, the first time I made something old and ordinary into something enchanted. The rope was exactly as Jess and I had left it last. It hadn't moved, not even an inch. I pulled it out from the tree bush we tied it to to make sure we'd be able to get back across. I swung across, letting go of the rope, jumping onto the ground on the other side of the creek. I wandered into my favorite place. "It's been so long, I wonder how the Terabithians have been holding up without their rulers." I found myself standing before the treehouse, or the castle of Terabithia. Except it wasn't Terabithia. It didn't look like the kingdom I once knew. It didn't have that magical feeling when you entered it. It didn't have that sense of power, royalty or beauty when you stood before it. I climbed to the top of the platform. Everything was exactly as Jess and I had left it. I closed my eyes tight. "Keep your mind wide open." My opened eyes revealed nothing I hadn't seen seconds before. Terabithia wasn't...Terabithia anymore. The kingdom had no power invested in it. "What's a matter? Why isn't it working?" I knew why, but I didn't want to admit it. Terabithia isn't Terabithia without the magic of the friendship held between the King and Queen. Without our friendship, trust and loyalty to each other, Terabithia and the Terabithians had no strength. The kingdom was dead without Jess and my strong bond to hold it together. I mean, what kind of kingdom is at peace when the King and Queen are at war? I didn't want to admit that Jess and my friendship being broken was what caused Terabithia to lose its power, because something inside told me that he and I weren't going to be restoring our friendship, definitely not soon enough. "If Jess and I never become friends again, that means Terabithia is...dead."