My Sweet Liana

6

A/N: half of this chapter was written in 2014 and the other half is 2019. I decided to revisit this and try to give it an ending.

***

I walked slowly back to the house, dreading having to face Jeff again. I stared at my feet the whole time until something caught my eye. A flash of white in the trees gleamed in the pale moonlight. I sighed and continued to walk, pretending not to notice the rustle of leaves or creak of the branches as though something - or someone - were jumping from them. I pretended not to notice the glowing white that peeked out from the silhouetted leaves.

I looked up to see my charred home in the distance. A stone grew in my stomach and I slowed down a tad bit. The leaves of an old oak tree shook a bit and my shoulders slumped. I looked around a bit and decided to walk to my tree. I'm not ready to die just yet.

I smiled a bit at the familiarity of how the tree bent. At the inviting droop of its branches. Come, Liana, climb my branches and let me hold you a while. It seemed to say. I grabbed the first branch and dragged myself up, climbing the same way I had for years.

It was the first time Jeff had exploded. I was twelve at the time. This was before I had met Masky, before I had discovered the cabin, before I had found the edge of the woods. I had run away, crying. I didn't know where I was going but I knew I wanted to leave. My heart was pounding faster than my feet. I ran to the one place I felt safe. I ran to my tree.

I came upon the same branch that had seen me grow and it felt like returning to an old friend.

"You still there?" I called out to my elusive stalker. I heard him clamber up the tree and peeked over to see him with one leg hooked up on a branch and his arms gripping for dear life while his body slowly sunk down. I suppressed a giggle and extended my hand for him. His mask seemed to glow in the pale moonlight and his auburn hair turned silvery. He was beautiful.

"How do you live in the woods and suck at climbing trees?" I teased. Masky ducked his head in embarrassment. "So what's been going on in your life?"

He thought for a minute, "not much. My roommates suck but that's nothing new." I wanted to ask him about the mansion but didn't. I don;t know why but the words wouldn't form. Instead we sat in comfortable silence, watching the waves gently lap at the shore of the lake.

I was suddenly aware of a deep exhaustion. I've been tired for so long. It almost hurt how much I wanted to lay on this branch and never move. I imagined Jeff finding my body, bugs having already made their home in my ears and the sun baking my rotting flesh. Maybe raccoons would gnaw on my bones. This thought was peaceful and I don't know why.

Masky's presence felt comforting to me. He was warm and solid. I reached out and grabbed his gloved hand. It was soft and sure and I knew that no matter what happened when we climbed down, we would always have this moment. The stars winked at me as though telling me some secret that I couldn;t decipher and this annoyed me.

Masky was the first to break the silence. "Why are you here?"

The question made me laugh and I dropped his hand, the moment lost.

"I'm serious, dammit. You should be in town with the other people. In a bed buried under a million blankets thinking about how great it is to be safe and not here." He sounded almost frantic and deeply sad. He sounded like a helpless child.

"I'm here because of the culmination of choices and actions that led to this moment. I'm here because I got into an argument with my dad because I was out late because I was with you because one late summer afternoon I fell in love because because because. Don't ask why. Say thank you." I'm not sure what possessed me to say all of this but I suspect the moon had something to do with it.

"Thank you..." Masky mumbled and I felt almost bad. Whatever shit I was going through, he didn't need it. I kissed his cheek and began my steady descent.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe." I smiled sadly and walked back to my crumbling home. When I'd first arrived here this place had seemed so magical; a place hidden away from everyone else and tucked safely into the woods. Now I saw it for what it was. A crumbling shack infested with bugs and mold. It's a miracle anything worked. The stolen generator powered the simple electronics but was mostly emergency only.

What Masky said kept bouncing around in my head. I didn't know much about what normal people did outside of these woods. Those girls were the first contact I've had since before my real dad was killed. They didn't seem very nice but neither was Jeff. I thought about my options and decided it would probably be best if I slept on it.

I snuck inside the house, the familiar musty smell hitting me. I silently crept to my room and stared sadly at my door laying flat across my floor. I figured that I should put it back so I grabbed the screwdriver and began doing just that.

The door hung crooked and squealed when moved but it was the best I was doing tonight. I crawled onto the grimy mattress and fell asleep immediately.

As I slipped off, a fading thought occured to me. "I hope I never wake up"