Page 54
“Hello,” I call, but my voice is rusty and weak and they don’t look up. I try again, clear my throat and yell a little louder. This time they both see me, scrambling up to their feet in unison. The older one, a girl, pushes the smaller boy behind her.
“Can you help me?” I ask. “Please. ”
The boy’s hand comes around and fists in the girl’s sundress, one eye peeking out from behind her hip.
“Go away,” the girl yells. “Get out of here!” The words themselves are strong, but her voice wobbles, her eyes bright with fear. Her pale blond hair skates across her face in the breeze.
I know they can’t do anything for me. That my very presence is terrifying to them. But I can’t bring myself to walk away. A sudden fierce desperation grips me, the knowledge that when these two children flee, I will be completely alone in the world.
“Please,” I say, barely a whisper. “Please. ”
The girl bends down and grabs something from the ground. She pulls her arm back and throws it at me. The rock bounces off the fence just above my hand, the metallic clang loud in the surrounding silence. She grabs the boy by the arm and retreats into the trees. In only seconds they have disappeared from view, the woods once again empty save for me.
I lean my head against my hands. My skin is filthy, dirt caked in uneven patches. My forearm is painted with streaks of dried blood. I’m sure I looked like a monster to those children. Something evil beyond the fence, the child-stealing witch their mother always warned them about.
Tears slip down my cheeks, their salt stinging my lips. I give in, allow myself to weep for everything I’ve lost, for the fear of what’s to come. I grieve the daughter I was, the wife I never wanted to be, the killer I refused to become, the traitor I pretended to be.
I am none of those things now. I raise my head and wipe my eyes. Daughter. Wife. Killer. Traitor. They are all old versions of me. Now I will become a survivor.
I take a deep breath and let go of the fence.
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