Bonfire
Third person's POV,
"The cinnamons are in the red bag. Ashley's got the water bottles and the sodas?" Hazel shouts louder, to get the approval she needs. Ashley nods.
"Ruby, you got the sandwiches?" Ruby gives a thumbs up.
"Michelle has the supplies." Silence finds its way back. "Michelle!" Hazel shouts. "What?" Michelle shouts back. "You're supposed to shout yes back." Bree notifies, as she instructs annoyed.
"Oh, okay. Yes!" Michelle approves. Hazel nods.
"Amie and Bree –" Hazel starts, but is cut off by Amie. "We've got the petrol, just in case the rocks don't start the fire."
"Lighter and the match sticks. Let's burn 'em." Bree cuts in, as she winks at Amie. Who laughs at her.
"And and. What else did I ask for?" Hazel wonders to herself, moving her fingers in the air. "Sausages and their buns." Florence reminds, as she raises the bag of food supplies, in front of her face. "Got them." "Now." Florence begins, as she asks Hazel to sit down and hands her a glass of water. "You need to breathe." Hazel stares at the clear liquid in the glass. "And drink." Ashley reminds.
As she gulps it in one go. Then, realization sinks in. As Hazel asks, "Scarlett. Where is she?"
That was, what was missing.
Upstairs, Scarlett sits on her bed. Looking at and away from the bathroom door. Should she? Should she not? She gets up, thinking about how everyone is ready and done and she hasn't even changed. She looks at the untouched packet of marshmallows on her bed. Her task of the bonfire. She diverts her gaze to her reflection in the mirror. She frowns, as she realizes that her own reflection is laughing at her. Saying words like,
Scared Scarlett, Cowardly Scarlett, Immature Scarlett.
Suddenly, getting strength from the criticism. She walks up to the door. Mustering up all she's got. She pushes it open. Silence is what meets her.
No one's here, her subconscious convinces.
She grabs her clothes from the closet and places them on the bed. As she finally steps in. Taking deep breaths and calming her racing heart. Yes, her friends had asked her to use their restrooms. Florence had even insisted on changing rooms. But, she knew she couldn't run from her fears. If that, Poppy wanted to reach her. She knew, where to find her. She won't run or hide.
With that thought, she turned the tap and splashed the cool water over her face. Her body going stiff, as it dreaded chances of seeing her again in the mirror. But, she rubbed her teeth against each other. As she lifted her head up high and opened her eyes. She saw herself.
Normal, normal, normal. Her inner self chants.
She did her morning routine and nothing out of the ordinary happened. And she started believing, that she day dreamed. Before, exiting the bathroom though. She glanced back at the window, which served the view of the poppy field. She wanted to go back and look through it again. But, she wasn't strong enough. Her mind wanted to go back. But her heart raced.
She justified herself by saying, time was running out.
As if on cue, Hazel shouted, "Scarlett!"
She quickly changed and left the room with the packet of marshmallows in her hand. When they saw her descending the stairs, they all stopped, what they were doing to look at her. Hazel and so did everybody had worry etched on their faces. She sighed.
"Marshmallows." She said, as she waved them in the air.
"Are you okay?" Amie was the first one to ask.
"Mellow. Mellow." She sang, as Scarlett grinned like a high school-er with a crush. Everyone laughed, as the tension in the room dissipated. Bree jumped to hug her.
"Damn, sweeter than marshmallow. Sissy."
Hazel messed her hair, as she pecked her left cheek. "Guys, gross." Ashley laughed. "Exactly." Scarlett replied, as she rubbed the eminent of someone else's mouth.
"Okay, now." Florence announces, as she carries an empty cardboard box with her. "Since, everybody is here. Let's start with the holiday ritual!"
"Urgh, what? Do we have to dance around fire, now?" Bree comments, which makes everybody laugh. She continues, "My name is Rumpelstiltskin." Her groggy voice makes everyone have a fit.
She drops the box on the floor. "Holiday Rule: Drop your phones in the box, if you want to have fun." She pauses, as she sees, Bree aiming her switched on phone towards the box. "They better be switched off." Amie knits her eyebrows, "What for?"
"How will we know, if it's ringing?" Ruby asks.
"Simple, Ru. We won't." Bree snickers.
"I disapprove." "I don't agree with this." Ashley and Michelle object in unison. "Florence, this is a completely stupid thing to do. What if we have an important call?" Hazel tries to teach her bestie some sense. "What about pictures? We are all here to make memories, right?" Ruby asks.
Scarlett looks up at the word, memories. Because, memories are one thing that aren't helping her to move on. She looks at her phone and wonders who to call? She called her mother this morning, for her daily investigation. Yes, she did tell her mother everything, only leaving out the parts that should actually be told. Other than that, everyone important was in this room. She presses the power button and places it in the box.
Florence looks at the girl, who didn't question a word. And wonders, why her? She is so young. She could have argued, even resisted. But she didn't. One chance, this one doesn't give one chance not to love her. Scarlett goes and sits back, like she doesn't notice her friends arguing with Florence. Reasoning to keep their phones, for what? Scarlett slowly drowns to the fact, they have a loved one who calls. And not only for investigation. Florence looks at her and sees how the place has already started doing its work on her. And too early, she's already started dreading this. To be here.
But, now. She's here. There's no way around.
"Guys, guys! Listen. If we have the phones, we'll constantly be using them. So, isn't it better to have a holiday; just like old times?" Florence reasons back.
"No, I want to –" Michelle starts to argue. As Hazel stops her, whilst looking Florence in the eye. As hard as it is to let it sink in. Hazel might have started doubting her bestie. Though, she speaks against it. "She's right. We're all social freaks and I hardly doubt we'll enjoy the nature this way." Michelle scowls, as she puts her phone down. On cue, everyone does it. Amie resists, but Florence folds her arms and she narrows her eyes while doing it.
"Let's get going, then!" Ruby says, excited. Everyone carries two logs with themselves. Except Scarlett and Michelle, who carry the supplies.
The walk wasn't very far from the lake house and it went quite merry, as the besties admired the forest on their way to their destination.
"I wish, I could live here." Bree admitted, as she sighed dramatically. "I wish the exact same thing!" Ashley seconded her opinion. Everyone loved the forest already. But, Scarlett had thoughts of her own. Because, after yesterday she had a sinking feeling for the place. She did not say anything though. She didn't want to ruin the trip for the girls. They just seemed so happy.
"Scarlett? I was talking to you." Ruby reaches for her shoulder, snapping her back to reality. Scarlett puts up a fake smile through her dreaded emotions. "Sorry, I was just lost." Scarlett admits.
"No, it's fine. The beauty is worth losing yourself for." Ruby gushes, as she looks around. Scarlett wonders, how little does she know. That so much beauty was more dangerous, than it was fun.
"Did you see the heart carved there?" Ruby asks, as she points at the bark of some tree. Scarlett concentrates and indeed a heart with three names on top, is what she sees. Wes, Jay and Sabrina.
She walks against the track to get a closer look at it. The names are written so roughly, but so beautiful. She runs her fingers carelessly threw them. Wondering who these three were. "Guys! We're losing you." Florence shouts, walking ahead of the group. As Ruby answers with, "Coming!" She grabs a lost Scarlett and shakes her lightly. "Come on." She nods her way, as she walks on the track still looking at those names.
Then, they run to catch up. Wavering the story behind these three names. Even the trees would have laughed. How little these girls knew? And how little knowledge was dangerous.
Fifteen minutes later,
Florence stops to stretch as she drops herself on the plush uneven greens. She groans and all the girls look at her crazy. "Seriously, Florence. This is so not the time to warm up." Ashley frowns. She starts laughing, looking at the looks of her friends. "This is it, guys!" Amie scowls, "What? A bunch of bushes for bonfire?" Michelle seconds her opinion, "Yeah, what's so special here?" Florence gets up and walks towards those bushes. Making her friends utterly speechless.
"Woah." Bree gasps. As déjà vu hits all of them. Their favourite spot of the woods didn't change a bit. The same old tree trunk lying as a forest bench. The grass looked oddly fresh. The main fireplace still had some logs for fire and the beautiful lining of lake. The lake was so close yet so far. The tall trees that crowded the girls were a shade to them, protecting them from the sunlight. Happy with everything around them. Bree finally opened her secret purple bag, she had been keeping close to herself. Looking once and once again at her friends, checking if either one was watching her. When she saw everybody busy in their chores. She placed down, the biggest surprise of them all.
"Oh my God! You brought a speaker!" Ruby squealed. She looked at the girl, and forced down her urge to curse. Ruby was dumber than a stick to her. Like right now, she just ruined her chance of a dialogue of surprise. "Apparently." She rubbed her teeth together. Scarlett sensed the dismay before anyone else and clapped her hands together.
"Then, let's get the party started!"
Two hours and fifty nine songs later. Scarlett laid down on the grass, thinking how weirdly soft it was. Michelle fell on her arm, as she shook her head towards the still dancing Bree. She always needed a dancing partner, Scarlett smiled as she looked at her hyper active bestie. But, she couldn't join in, her muscles started making noises. Dancing was an exercise to her; especially after her mother took fitness dancing classes on weekends. Ashley got up to dance, as Ed Sheeran's "shape of you" started playing. Ruby whistled. Wasn't it her favourite? Amie thought as she joined in too. Michelle still breathing heavily, hooted.
Hazel was winding up the mess, the girls had made. "These girls will never grow up." She laughed shaking her head, as she watched Bree dance again. Gosh, that girl had stamina. She laughed inwardly, as she remembered Roman. Oh Lord! Unholy, unholy.
"What's up?" Florence had just snapped her out of her fantasy, when her sister shouted, "Sis, water!" She looked at Michelle and thought of messing with that kid. Besides, she didn't even help her clean up. She threw the water bottle targeting her face and indeed.
An "OUCH!" was heard. Scarlett laughed so hard, the water spilled further on her peach pink tee.
Michelle cursed.
Before, Hazel had a chance, everyone chorused, "Language!" Then, roars of laughter was heard in the forest. Like the music wasn't loud enough, Florence wondered to herself. But, even she couldn't deny how much fun she was having.
Michelle got up, continuously shaking and trying her best to air dry her, now very wet shirt. She glared at her sister, who looked away. "I'm going back to the lake house." Michelle announced, clearly unhappy. "No, stay. It's almost time for spooky stories." Florence urged, looking at the sky. The sun was about to set. "Horror stories and darkness are the main elements of bonfire." Amie added. "You don't wanna miss that."
"Plus, it's going to be dark soon. Remember, what Uncle Burton said?" Scarlett flinches at the mention of his name. "One person walks, only till daylight."
Scarlett gulps and tries her best to calm down. He's gone. She reminds herself, then she blurts before thinking,
"I'll go with her."
The music hangs in the air, as everyone assesses the situation. Hazel nods. "What about the way?" Ruby asks, worried. "You guys know it, right?" Michelle nods. Florence looks at Scarlett, getting an unsettling feeling about this. She doesn't want her to go. No, not yet; her brain processes. But, what can she do or say to stop her? Even, if she does stop her. What's planned will always happen, one way or another. She'll only become a bridge.
She glances at her with those heavy eyelids and a heavier heart. And wonders,
One last?