Evacuated

Royalty Returns?

Things had escalated into something completely different the next few days following the night of April 18th.

April 19th or 20th, one of the two, we all were hanging out casually at our favorite park. It was me who introduced them all to it, and like most things, that lead back to April 17th.

April 17th, I wandered around as much as I could, as far as I could and for as long as I could. I ventured so far to the outskirts of Lark Creek and found this little park, blue and back equipment with two faulty saucer swings side-by-side. Nobody was there. It was beat hot outside but nobody was there.

I got on and laid myself down, listening to my favorite song, I Learned From You by Miley Cyrus and the first one in my playlist, my not-so-creative side titled "Leslie Burke." I played the song and laid down on the saucer. I rocked myself with my legs that's dangled just off the ledge of the saucer, closed my eyes and relaxed as I listened to the song.

Not too long after May Belle and I became what we are today, I brought her there. I was hesitant because I wanted it to be my place and my place only, but I decided that keeping secrets from May Belle was setting myself up for a lifetime of revealed secrets by May Belle herself. I realized it's be better just to tell her things myself than to have her find them out some other way.

I eventually brought JJ, Garcia, Emily and the rest of the BAU team and their friends and family there as well. I tried to keep it sacred from them too but May Belle and I ended up coming to an agreement on the fact that some things were better let out than kept in.

May Belle was kinda familiar with the concept of Narnia, my favorite book series I sometimes talked about. I tried to explain the concept to her before but I couldn't say much to have the helpless girl understand something such as Narnia.

The only thing about Narnia that spooked me was not the talking animals, strange creatures or magic entrances but the name of a place in the country of Narnia that sounded all too familiar. Terebinthia it was called. There was a town in Narnia called Terebinthia which was too terribly close to Terabithia for my liking.

I told May Belle about Narnia including Terebinthia and she did pronounce the name wrong and called the strangely familiar land by "Terebathia." Jess was sitting on the bench nearby and heard May Belle's voice spew out a name similar to Terabithia and suddenly jumped to the conclusion that I foolishly took her to Terabithia and told her everything.

At that point in time, I did not. She was referring to Narnia's land and just mispronounced it. And the topic of the whole Narnia-Terebinthia thing lead Jess on to Terabithia excitedly demand I go with him there in that moment.

The last time we went there together was April 12th. And he got mad at me and stormed off when I accidentally touched the topic of child abuse a little too harshly. We hadn't been to Terabithia since and the thought of going there together after over two months time scared me deeply.

I didn't want to ruin Terabithia by bringing even a hint of the new versions of either of us to our sacred land. I was scared that even if we weren't fighting that moment, we'd bring our negative energy that still lingered within us that was bound to come back sooner or later into Terabithia and thus decided against it.

Jess pleaded me to come and somehow was able to drag me away from the park setting. I told him it was a far way away and other excuses not to go. But all the way back to his house, he wasn't going to give in, we were doomed to return to Terabithia after all that time and what it brought us.

We all travelled by bike to go to the park earlier that day and so we returned to the house only to drop our bikes and then I knew we'd end up going to Terabithia, my heart tried its darnest not to bear it.

But Jess obviously had a different plan at that point in time and when I turned to his house to return the bikes, he questioned my motives and said that because it was a long way to Terabithia, we should bring our bikes to make the journey blandly shorter.

I insisted against that because our bikes would never be able to bear the bumps and rocks of the ridged path to Terabithia and we couldn't get them across the creek anyway, so what was the point? But more importantly I fought because I was tired of change. I wanted things to be as old as they used to be and changing the way we got to the enchanted rope that lead us to Terabithia was not something I was willing to change. But I didn't tell Jess this, just fought my first argument.

In the end, both Jess and I were fatally upset with each other and lost the will to go to Terabithia, if I had any at all. Jess refused to leave his bike at home and I refused to bring mine to Terabithia, so we ended up not going and he stubbornly pushed ahead of the rest of us to avoid any affliction with me in any sort of way.

And that began a ridiculous fight that went on prior to the rest of this chapter. Next, we'll find out whether that was really the end of us or whether the story of Jesslie had an unfinished chapter or two. Tune into the next chapter of Evacuated, coming soon, to find out what happens next.