Ties (Book 1)

13. Into the Woods

"Why would you do that?" My chest felt tight and my throat was closing up with panic. I walked fast, almost tripping over. All I needed was to catch up to Levi and explain.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to," Darius yelled after me. If I had not been raised to be a lady in my years of private school and special lessons with Wanda my old nanny, I would have given him the bird.

Once back in the living room area, I asked some people if they had seen Levi, but the answers were all the same; they did not know. In search for him, I walked out the front door. The cold wind lifted my long hair and chills ran through my body. I had worn my black leather boots, thermal leggings, and black leather jacket; my clothing helped only a bit with the weather but still did not feel like enough.

Since our party host, Esteban, lived in a new neighborhood that could barely be considered a neighborhood, there were a lot of trees still up. His house was at the end of the street which meant there was immediate access to woods. I went into the line of trees; at the time, it seemed reasonable for someone as angry as Levi to have gone into the dense woods for some tranquility.

The light diminished as I went further in. The silver light from above became dimmer with only a few rays passing through open spaces in the trees' branches and leaves. I was going down a small hill and did not see a root protruding from the ground. My foot went under the root and I fell, catching myself with my hands. And to add to it, when my hands made contact with the ground, there was a rock as large as a head. My right wrist snapped and I cried out into the night.

I sat up, sitting Indian style; I cradled my wrist and sobbed. Drunk, lost, and without a phone left me no alternative but to wait until sunrise to keep moving. Born and raised in the city, made me frightened of what types of animals could be out in the woods. Every crack or drift made me turn and jump. Eventually the alcohol and exhaustion took me under, and I slept sitting up while my head rested on what seemed like a pine tree that went up to the sky.

Exhaustion was not enough to keep me asleep though. The sky was still purple which meant I had not slept for long. I had a strong urge to vomit when I woke up, and I did.

After emptying my stomach, I stood and walked slowly through the tall trees and shrubs. There was no way for me to know which way I had come from or where I could find civilization. I was hungry and felt sick to my stomach all at once, so I sat down once again and huddled into a little ball to sleep away the pain.

The sun was out but the temperature remained cold, and somehow in my sleep I ended up laying on the floor. The soil had become my pillow and mattress for the night. My hands, nose, and feet felt like ice cubes.

I rose from the ground and dusted myself. "See that's why you don't go into the woods at night by yourself, dumbass!" I walked and hugged myself as I continued to talk to myself like a loony. It was not the alcohol that made me talk aloud because I was beyond sober. It was the loneliness that forced the words out. "I'm lost and no one is going to find me because no one is looking for me." Some tears escaped my eyes with the realization.

I did not know how long I had lumbered through the vegetation; all I knew was that the sun was fleeting away by the minute. It would be dark again, and I would have to sleep on the soil and dead leaves for another night.

I could not stop shivering, and it only made it more difficult to not trip. My nausea would come and go; I would have believed that the alcohol would have been gone from my system by then, since I was thinking clearly, but my stomach thought otherwise. I did promise myself that if I ever left the woods, I would never become intoxicated again. I sat against a tree and looked up at the blood-orange sky with pink clouds as they slowly darkened.