Share Girl’s Story Part 3

One last party before summer.

No parents.

No rules.

No consequences.

Location attached.

Mike laughed first.

"Told you somebody was throwing one."

Scott spun his keys around one finger.

"Way out in the woods?"

"Means no cops."

Quenten grinned.

"Means no curfew."

Charlie shrugged.

"I'm only going because you idiots wouldn't leave me alone."

Mark slipped his phone into his pocket.

"I hear it's supposed to be insane."

Mike smirked.

"Girls?"

Mark smiled.

"The text promised total debauchery."

Quenten slapped him on the shoulder.

"Now you're talking."

Five boys climbed into Scott's car.

Music thundered from the speakers.

They sped toward Blue Tree Forest.

None of them noticed...

their GPS had stopped updating miles ago.

The party never appeared.

Only trees.

Blue trunks stretched toward a moonless sky.

Scott slowed the car.

"...This doesn't look right."

Mike looked out the window.

"Maybe it's farther in."

Mark laughed.

"What?"

"You scared?"

Scott snorted.

"Of trees?"

The five of them climbed out.

Beer in hand.

Phones in pocket.

Still expecting music.

Still expecting girls.

Instead...

they found silence.

"You came."

The voice floated gently between the trees.

Mark turned.

A woman stepped from the darkness.

Flames curled up both arms.

Orange light danced beneath her skin.

Her dress looked stitched together from dozens of different lives.

She smiled.

Not warmly.

Knowingly.

Mike leaned toward Mark.

"Dude..."

"...she's kinda hot."

Share Girl ignored him.

She was looking only at Mark.

He frowned.

"...Do I know you?"

She tilted her head.

"No."

The flames slowly dimmed.

The painted smile softened.

For just a heartbeat...

the scavenged clothes seemed to fade.

Beneath them stood a girl in simple jeans and an old riding hoodie.

A girl with tired eyes.

A girl he'd forgotten.

"Remember me now?"

Mark blinked.

"...Amber?"

She smiled.

"And they say a good ex doesn't know what to say."

The illusion returned.

The flames climbed her arms once more.

The smile remained.

"What is this place?"

Charlie asked.

Share Girl looked around the forest as though seeing it for the first time.

"This place..."

"...reveals who you are."

Scott laughed.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means you still have a choice."

Mark folded his arms.

"A choice?"

She nodded.

"You can still go home."

The boys exchanged surprised looks.

Mike grinned.

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"What do we have to do?"

Share Girl looked at each of them.

One by one.

"Tell the truth."

Silence.

"Apologize."

Quenten laughed first.

"That's it?"

Scott rolled his eyes.

"You dragged us into the woods for an apology?"

Mike snickered.

"I think she's crazy."

Charlie looked uncertain.

Mark stepped forward.

"Amber..."

"I'm sorry..."

"If I hurt your feelings..."

Share Girl interrupted him gently.

"You don't mean it."

Mark blinked.

"What?"

"I can see it."

She stepped closer.

"In your soul."

The smile left his face.

"Oh, come on."

"It was high school."

"We were kids."

"You'll get over it."

Share Girl stared at him.

"No."

"You already did."

Mark's expression hardened.

"So what?"

"You want me to cry?"

"You want me on my knees?"

"I was king of the world."

Share Girl frowned.

Not angry.

Confused.

"But..."

"...you weren't."

He laughed.

"Not yet."

Somewhere deep within the forest...

a horn sounded.

Long.

Ancient.

Beautiful.

Every bird fell silent.

Every insect stopped singing.

Share Girl didn't even turn toward the sound.

She'd been expecting it.

The boys hadn't.

"What was that?"

No one answered.

Mark looked around.

"Where's Mike?"

Share Girl listened.

For a moment...

nothing.

Then...

a melody drifted through the trees.

Soft.

Wordless.

Beautiful.

She smiled sadly.

"He's still singing."

"Scott?"

A brilliant streak of light shot across the night sky.

Gone before anyone could point.

"There he goes."

"Quenten?"

Mark turned toward Quinten.

He was still there, one hand pressed against his stomach.

The trees shifted between them.

When they settled...

he was gone.

Somewhere off the trail, something enormous grunted.

Share Girl lowered her eyes.

“He finally lost his appetite.”

"And Charlie?"

In the distance...

a towering figure crossed between the blue trunks.

Broad shoulders.

Great antlers.

Carrying something wounded through the darkness.

Share Girl watched him disappear.

"He became what he always wanted to be."

"No..."

Mark whispered.

"No."

He backed away.

"This isn't real."

"It doesn't have to happen."

Share Girl nodded.

"It doesn't."

His eyes widened.

"It... doesn't?"

She shook her head.

"No."

"You can still leave."

Hope flooded his face.

"How?"

She answered with heartbreaking simplicity.

"Tell the truth."

He opened his mouth.

Closed it.

Opened it again.

"I'm..."

The words stuck.

His jaw tightened.

Finally...

he smiled.

The same smile she'd fallen in love with.

Practiced.

Confident.

Empty.

"I'm sorry."

Share Girl looked into his eyes.

For a long time.

Then she quietly said,

"No."

"What?"

"You still don't mean it."

His smile disappeared.

"I don't have to apologize to anybody."

Share Girl's shoulders slumped.

There was no anger left in her.

Only disappointment.

"Is apologizing so wrong?"

Mark lifted his chin.

"It is when you're king of the world."

Share Girl looked past him.

Toward the trees.

Toward the approaching music of tiny wings.

"But..."

"...you're not."

Golden lights emerged from the darkness.

Fairies.

Dozens of them.

Then hundreds.

They parted like attendants before a royal procession.

At their center walked Orion.

Crowned.

Regal.

Smiling.

He looked at Mark the way a falcon looks at a rabbit.

Mark took an involuntary step backward.

"...Amber?"

Share Girl smiled one last time.

"My name..."

"...is Share Girl."

She stepped aside.

Making room for Orion.

The last thing Mark saw before the lights surrounded him...

was Share Girl watching with quiet, immeasurable sadness.

Not because justice had come.

Because it hadn't been avoided.

The forest had offered every one of them a way home.

None of them had taken it.

Share Girl watched until the last golden light disappeared into the trees.

Silence returned.

Deep.

Ancient.

The kind of silence that seemed to swallow even memory.

She looked down.

The flames still crawled beneath her skin.

Across her wrists.

Up her forearms.

Mark.

Still burning there.

Nothing had changed.

She rubbed at one of the tattoos with her thumb.

The fire refused to fade.

"...I thought..."

Her voice drifted away.

She didn't know what she'd thought.

That Amber would come back?

That revenge would hurt less than being forgotten?

That telling the truth would somehow put everything back where it belonged?

Instead...

she felt empty.

She turned.

And began the long walk back toward the Weeping Willow.

The tree was exactly where she'd left it.

Its branches hung low beneath the stars.

Dark tears slid slowly down the bark.

Simon sat beneath it with his hickory walking stick resting across his knees.

He didn't look up.

"You came back."

Share Girl sat beside him.

Not gracefully.

Like a teenager collapsing onto a curb after the worst day of her life.

For a long time...

neither of them spoke.

Finally...

very quietly...

"...Simon?"

"Yes?"

"...I don't feel well."

Simon nodded once.

"I know."

She wrapped her arms around her knees.

"They all chose."

"Yes."

"I gave them every chance."

"I know."

"They could've gone home."

"They could have."

She stared at the grass.

"...Why didn't they?"

Simon watched another tear fall from the Weeping Willow.

"Because the hardest truth to tell..."

"...is the one about ourselves."

Share Girl frowned.

"I thought..."

"...I thought I'd feel better."

"You thought revenge would heal Amber."

She looked away.

"I guess."

Simon shook his head gently.

"Amber was never waiting at the end of revenge."

Silence settled again.

The tree continued to weep.

After several minutes Simon asked,

"Would you like to know what became of them?"

Share Girl hesitated.

"...No."

Another pause.

"...Will they suffer?"

Simon considered the question.

"The forest gives everyone exactly what they ask for."

She nodded slowly.

That answer somehow made perfect sense.

Something moved near the roots of the Willow.

Share Girl looked over.

A middle-aged woman sat on the ground in a torn dress.

Simon smiled faintly.

"You said you didn't feel well."

Share Girl nodded.

"I don't."

He looked toward Veronica.

"...Loneliness has a way of making every wound feel deeper."

Share Girl followed his gaze.

For the first time...

she didn't see a prisoner.

She saw another lonely person.

"...Can..."

She stopped.

Simon waited patiently.

"...Can she stay with me?"

Simon looked almost amused.

"You don't need my permission."

Share Girl looked confused.

"I don't?"

"No."

"Friendship is never mine to give."

He picked up his walking stick and stood.

"It has to be chosen."

Share Girl looked back toward Veronica.

Veronica slowly met her eyes.

Neither smiled.

Neither spoke.

There was simply an understanding.

Two broken souls...

too exhausted to pretend anymore.

Simon turned toward the forest.

"I have somewhere else to be."

He started walking.

After a few steps he stopped.

Without turning around he said,

"The truth has a funny way of finding lonely people."

Then he disappeared beneath the blue trees.

Share Girl remained beneath the Weeping Willow until dawn began to color the horizon.

Veronica had fallen asleep against the trunk.

Share Girl watched the first light catch the distant Field of Golden Flowers.

She remembered...

just for a heartbeat...

a little girl standing beside a fence.

Watching Appaloosas run across a pasture.

Wanting nothing more than to ride one.

The memory vanished almost as quickly as it came.

She looked down.

The flames were still there.

"...Maybe someday."

She whispered it to herself.

She wasn't sure why.

Or what it meant.

But somewhere deep inside the girl called Amber...

something had answered.

And it sounded like hope.