#13 Silhouette - Scathchruth

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We set off in the direction we last saw the Frisbee. Lyle and I turned on our phone flashlights, deciding to split up in order to cover more ground. I took the right side while Lyle took the left. We weren't more than twenty feet away when Lyle called out to me.

"Think we'll find any aliens out here?" She jested referring to my outburst about an unidentified flying object.

"It was a really big frisbee alright?" I protested as I walked through the thicket waving my flashlight around in slow waves.

Lyle chuckled. "You sound like my friend, he's really into conspiracy theories."

"Does he have a cork board with a bunch of thumbtacks and red string connecting them?"

"How did you know?"

"Just an educated guess." I shrugged to myself. "So this is your last night isn't it." I noted remembering she took the room for three nights and that we'd have another family coming in soon to take her place. I'd been trying to put off the thought for as long as I could but it needed to come to the surface sooner or later.

Whether I figured her out or not I was happy to have met Lyle.

"I guess so." She replied a drop of regret in her voice -or maybe it was just my imagination.

"What are your plans after you leave?" I ventured casually peaking my head under a bush with little luck.

"Not sure."

"So what you just hop in your car and drive until you run out of gas?"

"It's a foolproof strategy. You should try it sometime."

"I don't think I'd get very far." I snorted remembering my last failed attempt to leave by train.

"You never know." Her words carried through the branches as if she were the voice of reason.

This time I didn't respond. Not because I didn't want to but because I didn't have a reply. The truth was, for me, it was much harder to leave than filling up my gas tank, packing a few pairs of undies, and waving a simple goodbye over my shoulder.

If I left, I would be leaving my mother.

The thought isn't rational, she was technically the one who left me. And I could take a painting or two of hers with me, just to keep her close. However, there was something unsettling about being more than a day away from Unit #16.

As much as I was curious about the world, I was bound here by my curiosity over my mother and what little detail I had about her.

So no. I couldn't just hop in a car and drive until the gas light came on. There were things that anchored me here. Until I dug the hooks out of the sand I was meant to stay.

I turned to look back through the trees, I could clearly see the outline of the fire blazing some fifty feet away. The voices of muted conversation carried through the trees. It was comforting to be close yet removed from the event. There was no stress to please or host, but I also knew that I wasn't alone.

My mind shifted gear at the thought of the crowd gathered around the fire. The night had been so busy I'd completely forgotten about the unexplained tension I'd felt between Lyle and the two men. I ran through the faces I'd catalogued while at the table, Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones were one of the few guests I hadn't seen.

"Lyle," I began as I took a few deliberate steps in her direction. "Why do you think those men thought they knew you?"

"What men?"

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