Where The Earth Meets The Sky

Chapter 16- Calix's POV

  With Liana still crying softly in my lap, I can’t easily get up, so I just sit, offering as much comfort as I can muster. Liana’s vise like grip on my collar loosens, and her hands drops into her lap. She sniffles, but soon her crying stops all together. With her head still leaning against my chest, I can’t see her facial expression clearly, but I can only imagine her fallen features.

  “Should I give up?” She whimpers softly.

  “No,” I say. “I shouldn’t have said that. You shouldn’t give up, but you shouldn’t come here anymore either.”

  Liana looks up, and a small smile has crept onto her face.

  “I don’t know why I ever thought you would have turned me in,” She says laughing.

  I shake my head. Even though that day I had first seen Liana in the woods seems like forever ago, less than a week’s time has passed.

  “Don’t you think your Papa is going to be worried?” I ask, looking up at the sky. It looks like it’s about four.

  She shrugs.

  “I don’t want to go back,” She admits. “It feels strange without Blaze.”

  I try to imagine being at home without Bruin or Marcus. The thought is unthinkable, and I suddenly understand why she doesn’t want to go home.

  “Look, I would love nothing more than to stay in these woods, but it isn’t safe anymore,” I say sighing.

  “It has never been safe,” Lana whispers, and I look up, shocked by her statement.

  “Calix, isn’t it weird that I have only been near the rock pile once? I come to the woods all the time, but the idea of going near that rock pile hadn’t occurred to me. The one time I did go near it, it exploded,” She says beginning to digress. “The threat has always been there, we just weren’t brave enough to discover it. I think someone set it there on purpose; as a warning. What if there’s something we aren’t supposed to know and that’s why we have been told to never go past the boundaries? What if that bomb was meant to keep curious people out? And maybe, it’s someone’s curiosity that could be the key to everything.”

  I’m taken aback by Liana’s passionate speech. She seems to mean every word she is saying.

  “I don’t know,” I say. “That sounds so farfetched.”

  “But you and I both saw the bomb!” Liana sputters.

  “The bomb could have been left over from years and years ago. It was probably here before our parents were even born,” I say, trying not to doubt my own words.

  Liana gives me a long look.

  “My Mama told my brothers and I something once,” She says, her voice growing quiet. “She said ‘Our lives have shaped us to fear the unknown when we should be embracing it. Curiosity could be the key to everything.’ We fear what we do not know, Calix. We shouldn’t have to.”

  Liana is right about one thing. I am fearing the unknown with every ounce of my being. And though she hides it well, I have a feeling she is too.

  A knock on my door jars me from my sleep, and I nearly hit my head on my bed’s wooden backboard.

  Bruin sits up beside me, his hair rumpled and matted where he has been resting his head on a pillow. I hear Marcus’s blanket rustle and soon his head appears beside me.

  Papa walks into the room, a blinding light behind him causing us to shrink away.

  “Rise and shine,” Papa says, his voice booming.

  Marcus groans, and I mentally curse his stupidity. It’s almost as if he wants to make papa upset.

  Papa just shrugs. He walks over to our bed, pushing up the blinds on our window, letting sun trickle in.

  I squint, watching as the path finally comes into focus. I gasp when I see Liana trekking up the path, her gaze set upon my house. I cringe. This really isn’t a good time.

  I sit up, pulling my shirt off of the back of my bed, but Papa grabs it, tucking it under his arm.

  “That needs to be washed,” Papa says. “We are gonna be wearing our coats while we’re cutting down lumber. I promise you will be warm enough”

  I hear a light tap on the front door and shudder. Such a bad time.

  I step onto the cold wooden floor, listening to the padding of my feet. I reach the door before mama can, and she sends me a grateful smile.

  I open the door a crack, looking down at Liana. Her gaze darts from my chest to my face, her eyes puffy like she has been crying.

  “I’m sorry,” She whimpers. “I just need to talk.”

  I look behind me, and Mama stands, coming to join me at the door.

  She gasps when she sees Liana, startling me.

  “Calix let the poor thing in,” She scolds, grabbing Liana’s hands in her own. Liana nods, sending Mama a weary smile. I pull out a chair for her, letting her sit at the old wooden table, and then I see it. The cut in her hand from the day before has festered up, pus trailing down her arm.

  I reach for her hand, turning her arm up on the table so that Mama can see it as well. She gasps, her hand flying to cover her surprise.

  “Something on the rocks,” She says to me. “It burns.”

  I think back to yesterday, remembering the deep gash crawling across her palm.

  She obviously hadn’t cleaned it thoroughly, and now she’s paying the price.

  “Papa was home… I was worried about him asking questions… I couldn’t find the medicine,” She whispers. Tears pool in her eyes, and catch on her lashes.

  “You poor thing,” Mama says, reaching for a wet cloth. Liana squirms when the cloth caresses her hand, but no sounds slip through her pale lips.

  Liana opens her eyes, and looks around the room while Mama tends to her wound. I too look at my home, trying to see it through her eyes. Our front door has nearly fallen off its hinges, letting in some cold autumn air. Our kitchen is nothing more than a pump near the counter and a worn table with five wobbly chairs.

  I try to imagine what Liana’s house must look like. It is most likely lavish in every sense of the word. I bet her floors sparkle and her doors don’t squeak. I bet her mattress is stuffed with feathers and her house is always the perfect temperature.

  As if sensing my thoughts, she settles her gaze in her lap, no longer taking in her surroundings.

  I clear my throat.

  “I’ll finish cleaning her hand Mama. Why don’t you find her some herbs to rub on her wound?” In reality I only wish to find out what Liana came to tell me, but I also know that I could never find the correct herbs even if it was spelled out in front of me. Mama nods, making her way towards the closet down the hall.

  “Why did you come here?” I ask softly, fully aware of Papa’s presence in the other room.

  “I came because I need to talk to you,” Liana whispers. “You seem to be the only person who believes me.”

  I shrug, running the damp cloth over her silky skin.

  “What do you need to tell me?” I ask leaning forward, hoping for an actual answer.

  “I saw him,” She says, sighing. “I saw Blaze.”