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“Did it work?” Drake asked eagerly.
“I can’t tell. I don’t feel any different,” I responded nervously.
“In order for this to work you have to open up your mind to me,”
“It’s not that easy you know!”
“Oh I know,” He said in a far away voice. “Just try, please, it’s the only way.”
“No it’s not,” I whispered. “You know there’s another way, we could make it.”
“I can’t do that. I can’t let that happen again.”
“This is different. This time you have me.” I replied, slowly removing the straps from my arms. The straps that would chain me into this chair that would make our minds intertwine.
“You have no idea how hard it is, just being there makes you weak.”
“Please I can’t do it this way. I can’t let you into my mind and have you break my wall that I put up for a purpose. Letting you see all my secrets, fears, and wants would kill me inside.” I took a shaky breath. “It would be bad for both of us.”
“Alissa, please strap yourself back in,” He said reaching for my arm.
“No. Drake, I’m sorry but if you knew me, the whole me,” I shakily plopped down on the floor next to him. “You would… well, hate me.”
“Alissa, you know that isn’t true!” He stroked my cheek making me feel warm on the inside. “Even if you killed my dad or, or…” He trailed off trying to think of something more to say. I looked away refusing his piercing eyes.
“That’s the thing, I…” But he didn’t let me finish.
“Shhh,” He put his finger to my lips. “I know you didn’t kill my brother, it was some maniac, but the point is I know you would never purposely do something to harm me. That’s why I think this is the safest way.” He held up my chin trying to make me look into his eyes.
“You don’t understand,” I chocked nearly crying, removing his hand from my chin and forcing my eyes to look straight past him. “You wouldn’t understand the things I hide, you wouldn’t like what you see. My past is dark and I regret it, that’s why I want to hide it so everyone will forget about it.” I got up and ran from the dark room, into the pouring rain.
Behind me I heard him shout, “Alissa! Alissa! Get back here, damn it!” But I didn’t listen, I just kept running farther down the road.
I listened to my breathing, trying to calm my self. Finally I slowed down to a walk and looked up at the sky. It was flashing with lightning and vibrating with thunder. I was drenched, but it was the good kind of rain. The warm rain that melts through your body and makes you feel good, then the warm wind comes and makes you feel even better. I twirled around and actually laughed for the first time in a few months. My feet sloshed in the massive puddles, and it was like I was a little girl again, dancing in the rain. For the moment my worries about Drake and his ‘Mind Collaborator’ where gone, until I heard running footsteps behind me.
I sighed and stared to jog from the middle of the road and into the woods, my happy, carefree mood vanishing. Of course he would run and follow me, even if I was running in the middle of a rainstorm. I sprinted forward, breathing in the smell of wet leaves and pinecone needles. The smell of the forest after rain, I sucked it in through my nose and let the smell encompass me. If we had to leave, this would be the part I would miss the most. The smell of my forest, the one I spent all my time in. I finally came to a stop beneath one of the biggest trees in the whole forest. I looked up into its tangling branches, letting droplets of water hit my face after slowly coming through the canopy of leaves. I lodged my foot in between two of the branches and swiftly swung my arm up onto another. I swiftly started to climb, even though the bark was slippery, I had done this a billion times and had a feel for where to place my limbs. Finally I got to a nice height and peaked my head out of the leaves. I could see to the road in one direction and on ward into the woods in the other.
I rested my back against the branch and looked out on the beautiful forest like I had done so many times before. But this time it was different, maybe this would be the last time I got to feel like I was in charge, important, and strong. Like I could control the forest from all the way up here. When I’m not here I feel weak and lonely, like I don’t have place in the world below me.
For a moment I forgot Drake was running after me and began to sing. “Change is coming my way but I still feel the same…” My voice faltered when I heard Drake’s voice. “Oh, shit.” I cursed swooping in closer to the trunk of the tree, trying to hide myself.
“Alissa please come down.” He wasn’t fooled by my sudden silence.
“Drake, I can’t leave this place.”
“I know Liss, come down so we can talk about it?” He pleaded.
I swung my arms and let myself fall from branch to branch. I stopped and looked down at him, he seemed so far away, like a helpless worm bracing itself for being eaten. I was close enough to the bottom, so I scooted closer to the end of the branch I was on, jumped, and flipped.
“Alissa!” He yelled running towards me. “Holy crap, don’t you ever scare me like that again!” I swiftly landed on my feet, got up, and brushed myself off.
Smirking at him I said, “Come on Drake, I’m not that much of an idiot that I would jump from a tree if I didn’t think I would make it.”
“Ha-ha, very funny.” But he just smiled and said, “Come on let’s get you dried off.”
I walked over to him and gave him a very wet hug. “You’re stupid for running after me like that.” I whispered in his ear.
“I guess I’m just a fool.” He whispered back, as we started to make our way along the twisted path that led back to the road, and back to the basement in his house. The very basement where he insists I share my whole mind with him. We walked in silence as the rain came to a slow drizzle and my thoughts attacked my brain with constant questions that I had absolutely no answer to.
And yes I am planning on writing a chapter two!