- "No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." -
~ Charles Dicken
Her eyes lingered on the outstretched hand, just a few inches away from her. She pressed her lips together.
"You must have lost your s***, you lunatic!" is what he imagined her to say but instead, she remained quiet and rose to her feet, adjusted the prosthetic leg and dusted her skirt.
She began walking away with arms around her briefcase when out of the blue, she suddenly muttered in a low voice, "Where to, Sanchez?"
Regardless of how emotionless it sounded, it was enough to cause his lips to part with shock. It brought a warm yet suspicious feeling in his chest. Astonished, he continued to gaze at her retreating figure.
She threw a glance at him over her shoulder and unsure whether he heard her the first time, she raised her tone a bit. "You minnow. Why are you still standing ther-"
He interrupted her. She was taken with the wind. Liam did not need further acknowledgement. He took her hand and ran as if to escape from an apocalypse of the undead. She was dragged on by a foreign velocity she couldn't muster herself unless forced to. Her hair zipped up on the wind's tail and her heart began to pound heavily against her ribcage. Liam kept his fingers wrapped around her wrist as he continued to run, dodging people on the sidewalk like playing a real life video game, almost knocking over a group of elderly folks. He hurried across the street without looking left or right, triggering a contagious series of car honks. Her slender arm wobbled in his grasp.
"Don't worry! We are almost there!" he struggled to say over his shoulder. Their eyes met in that split second. She seemed slightly surprised.
The honks of cars, the smell of a fascinating meal bubbling on a stove and the rustle of nature bombarded her. It made her senses go haywire, making her head spin. They were moving so quickly that there was no time to absorb or pick up the details of the things around her until Liam gradually began to slow down. She could barely remain balanced as they were approaching a small opening in tightly interwoven clusters of shrubs. Her lungs inflated with a breath of caution. His grip tightened as they grew closer and Emma's mind wandered to every shadowed corner of her complex mind. 'This boy,' she thought, 'he is quite immature.' He placed a leg through the opening followed immediately by the other as though they were entering another dimension. She followed and did the same.
"Wow." The words escaped her lips dryly.
Standing with the slightest amusement, Emma observed the foreign environment that was introducing itself. There was a thin sheet of awe glistening in her eyes as she had never gazed at anything more blissful and thought that it was perhaps the most beautiful thing she had witnessed in life in a long time. As far as the eye could see, a carpet of hundreds and millions of red, pink and white peonies, enclosed by lanes of overgrown bushes and tall emerald trees on one side, gazed upon a sky of a rich and vivid baby blue and replaced what might have been a bare, dry field years ago. The honey-like smell of nectar roamed the air, tempting busy bees and butterflies to prolong their visit. It reminded her of the kind of garden kings and queens might have.
Two puppies at the distance played a game of hide and seek amongst the flowers with muted little yelps leaping into their ears here and there. They looked like little fluff balls from where they were standing and it added to the beauty of the scenery before them.
"Where are we exactly?" Emma finally decided to say in a subtle, unconcerned voice after a brief moment of silence.
"A secluded field I discovered a couple months ago! Do you like it?" Liam asked with enthusiasm.
"Hm..." she gazed heavenward with a straight face, "I suppose it is pretty."
He smiled like a father who had just successfully taught his child a valuable life lesson and cupped his waist, feeling joyful with a lifted ego.
"Hehe... I bet you didn't expect that, huh?"
She glanced at him briefly, her eyes stripped of its natural glow and full of shadows. "I had no expectations. I only ran along with you because I wanted a temporary escape as well."
He furrowed his eyebrows and a spark of interest sent his heart pulsating with curiosity. Was she running from something too? His lips suddenly gathered into a mischievous smile that Emma didn't like the look of. He thought of an idea that seemed awesome in his head until the words left his lips.
"Tag! You're it," he tapped her shoulder and darted around like a toddler.
"You must think I am your little sibling," she rolled her eyes, "Let's get back now, please. We have work to do."
But the moment she glanced around again, Liam was already running through the field; half his body consumed by the thousands of petals and the other half heading for a tree a couple meters away from them.
She clenched her teeth and her eyes flickered between her wrist where he held her and his disappearing figure amongst the bits of green, red, white and pink that peered at her from all angles.
"Why is this boy one of the most undisciplined persons to ever exist? Why me?" she muttered under her breath and refused to succumb to his desires. He was crazy and immature; there was no other way to describe him, she thought. Then again, she could just walk away.
"Hey, that won't be very nice now, would it?" a voice in her conscience chimed.
Usually, she wouldn't give a damn but it was Rooney. She missed him so much to the point that she could visualize the reaction he'd have on his ghost beside her. He'd pout and frown and tell her how it wouldn't hurt to just give it a try. Had he been there, he was sure to play along with Liam's dumb games. She was no way like him though. Not even close.
"I'm not doing it for him. It is for Rooney. The best I can do is play on his behalf," she muttered to herself whilst boring a hole into the tree with her gaze.
By then, the puppies were gone and she was alone with the wind and a hiding Liam. A few seconds into walking through the field of flowers, she could feel annoyance begin to tattoo her heart.
"It's on Rooney's behalf," she reminded herself, "Let him get a hold of himself."
The closer she grew, the dumber she felt. The feeling reminded her of playing a game of hide and seek with a toddler who just hides under a table in plain open view. She grimaced. This was going on longer than she wanted it to.
The tree appeared bigger and taller the nearer she was. Its trunk, speckled with little lilac flowers here and there and climbing plants that hugged and clung tightly for dare life, ascended into the air, branching off into smaller and smaller branches, supporting thick clusters of leaves which formed what was like a large dense afro. When she was but a meter close, she stopped in her tracks and dropped the briefcase on the ground next to her.
"Enough of this, Sanchez! Quit wasting my time! What are you? A 2 month old baby? I've met 2-year-olds with greater commitment and discipline than you!" she grunted with scorn.
There was no reply. The only sound was the wind's whistle, caressing the petals and leaves with its gentle breath. An image of anger played off on her face. She swallowed hard. She was growing even more impatient, bothered and annoyed as the time passed. With a couple more steps, she gazed around her surroundings cautiously. All she could see were endless peonies and an ancient tree that towered her like giants from the past.
"Sanchez, I will not allow you to make a fool out of me. I'll give you one more chance to get on your legs and start walking over here," she barked, "Or else I'll come there myself and drag you."
Her eyelids drooped about her siren eyes, amplifying the storm that began raging through them. Closing the distance between herself and the tree, she flattened her back against the trunk and made her way around it. As she did so, her eyes widened when she met eyes with Liam, lying amongst the flowers behind the tree, staring at the sky with a similar look among her favorites: stoic and unfazed, except it seemed as if the weight of the limitless sky was crushing his body and left him looking drained of colour and wishing to be dead.
It aroused suspicion in her chest cavity, causing her to arch her eyebrows questioningly. Noticing her, Liam landed his soft eyes on hers.
"What does the sky remind you of, Emma?"
She said nothing and instead, adopted the silence that he gave when she had been calling after him. He was childish, as she said before, immature; audacious to waste time that they barely had.
"I needed to empty my head, Emma. I'm sorry if that was too much to ask for."
A sigh escaped her lips, releasing all the built up suspense and frustration that had accumulated inside her. She stooped and held Liam's ankles. Her hands were warm despite her cold aura. From where he was lying, he could almost 3see her thigh and it made his heart race in a kind of rhythmic way, not the way it would when you're scared. It was awkward. The warm touch sent an electric bolt of tingles through his legs, enough to make him stiffen, sending a rush of blood to his cheeks. She was more than prepared to drag him all the way back to Rooney's house to fulfill the session but noticing his red face, she glowered and released him immediately.
"Oh Goodness, how immature are you?" her judging eyes paired with her grimace left him feeling awfully embarrassed and even more awkward.
There was the feeling again, she thought. It was a feeling that made her want to reach her arm inside his mouth and pull out his intestines.
"I swear it's only because… we never had that sort of skin to skin contact, you know?"
"You disgust me," she clenched her fists.
Her expression worsened and soon returned to one of indifference. Surprisingly however, instead of waiting until she replied further, she watched as the boy got to his knees and planted his forehead at the tip of her shoes with his eyes connected with the floor and his hands clasped above his head begging for mercy.
"I'm so sorry I looked at you that way, Emma Waltz! I know it was disrespectful. I beg you! Forgive me!"
The genuineness in his apology could be felt as far as one hundred miles away. Emma, unsure of what to say, just took a step back. She took many steps back until they were at a good distance apart.
"I know you must hate me right now but please," his voice grew quiet and muffled, "I have just one more request."
"What makes you think that I will do a request for you?" she growled.
"It's not for me. Please!" he begged with his heart in his hands, "It's for my little brother, please. I just want to fulfill his promise before I never see him again. He just wants to talk to someone. A girl. The girl named Emma."