May 17th
I couldn't bring myself to say another word to the little girl. We just continued walking until we found another shed and slept there. I didn't dream last night.
We just kept on walking through the vast forest, the sweet smell of maple and cinnamon filling our noses.
"Is this your world," the little girl asked me. "It's strangely peaceful, but also kinda empty. And what's with that building. It looks really old and gross. And that school over there. Why is it in your world?"
I stayed silent. I just couldn't say anything to her. My mind was still struggling to process what she said to me yesterday.
"You're kinda like me," the little girl said. "I guess we both don't have any good memories from when we were still alive."
She was right. Good memories never existed in my life. It was always tragedy after tragedy. I could never look forward to anything. I felt isolated inside my home and couldn't make friends. I could never go out and do anything.
I always had to stay home with my mother.
"I knew you would just ignore me," the little girl said. "I knew I could never tell anyone about it. If I did, they would all just ignore me as well. Pretend that I never existed."
The little girl didn't say anything for awhile. We both just continued walking in complete silence. I could tell that she was starting to cry, but she kept the tears from falling. Strong girl.
I started to feel guilty.
We walked for hours. We never slowed down or even looked tired. We just continued walking. I remembered that physical pain didn't exist in this place.
The little girl was still fighting the tears that wanted to leak out. She really shouldn't be holding tears like that inside. Those are the kind of tears that need to be cried.
"I was just surprised." I finally said.
The little girl looked up at me, her eyes completely watered. No tears though.
"There are some people who can listen to the stuff you said and act immediately. But, there are also people, like me, who might need a minute to process the stuff you just said. I'm not trying to ignore you. I just didn't know what to say."
I hope I explained that to her well enough.
She looked at me awkwardly, but then started doing something that kinda worried me.
She started laughing.
"Are you an idiot?" She suddenly said through her laughs.
"HUH?!?! Where did that come from," I exclaimed. "I open up to you and THIS is what I get?!"
"I'm sorry I'm sorry!! I just didn't expect you to say that. I salad that a long time ago, so I thought that you just completely forgot what I said."
"Hey! I may be a little awkward and may not ever know the right thing to say in some situations, but I'm not THAT terrible of a guy!"
The little girl wasn't even listening to me anymore. She just kept laughing and laughing at whatever stupidity she saw in me.
But then, those laughs suddenly turned to cries. And it didn't take long for her to start bawling her eyes out. Her arms wrapped around my neck as she hurried her face into my chest.
She reminded me of Cole when I met him for the first time. It pained me to see her crying like this, but I knew now that this was a good thing. It was her way of saying that she trusted me and was opening up to me.
I wonder what it feels like to cry in someone's arms. Though, I'm too embarrassed to even try doing that.
The little girl is asleep now. I'm carrying her to the next shed for us to stay the night in. I carried her on my back and slouched a little to keep her from falling.
Another shed appeared in the Forrest and I was about to enter it, but before I did the little girl said something to me.
"Emily," she said. "That's...my...name."
She was still half asleep, but I heard her clearly and knew that she meant to say that to me.
"Nice to meet you Emily," I said with a smile. "My name's Alex."