A Forest Beyond the Old Church
She was a shell of a girl, looking for a light that often dimmed. Her face used to be blemish free, coloured by a little makeup, and her eyes sparkled in the dark rooms and corridors, where she sat and listened to grown men bicker about the world.
These rooms and corridors were commonplace as she had no real foundation to fall upon. No structure in her life, no plan. Every piece of her hurt too, pain riffled through her, every sinew of her being stretched beyond the threshold.
Beauty. She had beauty and composure in situations. She knew how to dress well, her teeth gleamed, her body an hourglass. But the spiral cut through, and it took her down a long distance, leaving her traumatised.
The streets had become chaotic in her world. She was left to rest in alleyways, to sleep in rags and dirty sheets. The cold got so bad, she felt like she was floating into death, dragged in by a snap so progressive.
“The forest was dark, her torch on her phone lit and revealed the dirt and foliage. The trees swayed in the wind, screeching and screeching like the devil was lurking…"
She was also damaged. Often lost in state of drunkenness, betraying the people who aided her, and swore to her that they’d pull her through. This was a pipe dream for them, and she was far gone.
Golden dreams were done. Done to death, and she knew the clouds weren’t going to let her go dry. They poured, the sky was heavy and full, the wind was blowing her down, and she was running away from the neon lights, the dirt, the trappings.
Though, she ran from it all, she was still wrecked from the alcohol, thinking violent thoughts, kicking and screaming. And beyond the old church, was the forest where she was born.
A baby born in a forest. A baby given away. Rebecca was this girl destined for obscurity and a life swamped with bad days. She knew she was going to be unloved and put to the test. That test was to overcome addiction, to bloom like the other girls.
The forest was dark, her torch on her phone lit and revealed the dirt and foliage. The trees swayed in the wind, screeching and screeching like the devil was lurking. Her body shook in the cold breeze too, and she felt feeble, like she was going to float above the rotten world.
“Love has lost its magic…"
As she walked, memories flooded back. Snapshots of yesteryear filtered through her mind like a supercomputer made up of the darkest parts. And the forest was, of course, her home but she wasn’t a feral animal.
She reached the birthplace. The tree she was born under carved in her birthdate. Strangely, someone sat there looking like a figment of Rebecca’s imagination, and at a glance, this presence looked ghostly.
The face was hidden. A voice chimed.
‘’I knew you’d come back.’’
Rebecca didn’t know the voice. She didn’t know the presence before her.
‘’Love has lost its magic."
This person’s statement had become poetic.
‘’I don’t know you.’’
‘’Yes, you do.’’
The wind blew down the woman’s hood.
‘’Now you see.’’
Before Rebecca was an older lady. She smiled and spoke softly.
‘’You’re mine. I have waited so long for you.’’
‘’Waited so long? I don’t know you.’’
‘’Do you have the other piece?’’
Rebecca thought hard. She shuffled her thoughts. She knew something bright was beginning to emerge.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out half of a locket.
The lady then showed her the other half.
‘’You can’t be.’’
‘’I gave birth to you right here under a 100-year-old tree.’’
‘’Why did you give me up?’’
‘’Back then was different, they took you from me.’’
Rebecca sat next to her mother and began to ask her a hundred questions.