Fly ∆way Girl

|29|

|JULY BONES|

Josiah never answers the important questions. I hate that. I hate how he answers me with more questions, or how he straight up avoids it. This time, his answer was "we'll explore that later." I want to know where my body is. I need to find myself.

Josiah paced up ahead of me. He obviously doesn't have time to waste, which means that I don't either. I know he can hear my thoughts, but he doesn't care. He doesn't care if I'm totally confused, or upset. It's all about the stupid "mission".

"Can you slow down!?" I called to him. "Where are we going anyway!?"

He stopped to look around, like he was searching for something, but still didn't answer me. It did give me time to catch up though.

Woods lined the road we were walking on down both sides. Josiah's gaze was fixed on the left side.

"This isn't good." He whispered to himself.

"What isn't? What are you talking about?" I asked. He's being weirder than usual.

Again he didn't answer, he just pointed off into the woods.

I followed his outstretched arm. My heart fell into my stomach as I saw what he was talking about.

Fog. Weird fog. Just on the left side of the road, not the right. It hugged the trees so closely, almost as if the fog was a part of each individual tree. It wasn't floating in air, it was attached to the bark and leaves.

It reminded me of the fog in the visions I had so long ago when I drank the alcohol. I'm not sure if it was real that time, but I know it's real now.

"What kind of fog is that?" I asked after studying it for a while.

"It isn't fog. The trees are disappearing." He answered.

What does that even mean. I could yank out my hair I'm so frustrated with him.

"It's not fog that is making the trees look like that. They are blurring out; fading away."

Both of us went to the tree line, I had to explore this. I carefully reached out to touch one after looking to Josiah for permission.

He was right, they weren't tree like anymore. They felt almost like cotton, very thin cotton. I pulled a piece of the bark away. The thin fibers disintegrated right before my eyes.

I gasped. "What does this mean?!"

"Your world is dying." He answered quietly. "We have to hurry and get through the rest of the memories."

"I thought you said it would last long enough for us to finish?!" I asked frantically.

"It will last as long as you let it. It's your world after all. When you're ready to move on, you will." His face wasn't very excited to give me this news, and I wasn't excited to hear it.

"I don't want to move on yet!" I said with thoughts of the dark place clouding my head. "I'm not causing this..."

"You're losing hope whether you realize it or not." He said. "Come on, we need to go."

He took my hand and we were in a new place, or rather one I haven't visited in a while since my days with Larson.

"I already know what happened here." I said simply.

The Jackson's house stood in front of us, complete with the line of red rose bushes down the side. The Hummer was parked in the driveway.

"Larson has taken me here." I thought of the horrible stories he had fed me about this place. The ones about how mean Mr. Jackson was to Mrs. Jackson, and how awful their son was. All the foster kids lived in one, neglected room...