The Hybrid (16 page)

Quickly, Tru grabbed her towel from the floor, wrapping it around her body once more, and then gathered her
clothes and headed back for her bedroom. She tried to
stay quiet, peaking her head through the door first, before
walking
out
into
the
hall,
hoping
her
grandmother
wouldn’t catch her, see her spine⎯ if she hadn’t already
⎯ and freak out. But Maggie was nowhere in sight, so Tru
hurried down the narrow carpeted pathway, shutting her
bedroom door quickly behind her.

Tru dressed in complete silence
⎯ choosing her normal attire of jeans and a plain grey hoodie⎯ before casually laying on her bed while she waited for her damp hair
to air dry. And when she felt it was dry enough, she quickly pulled her long locks into a loose bun and headed for
the bedroom door once more. Slowly, Tru opened the
white door, walked to the kitchen to grab her jacket and
the post-it note with Bethany’s address that her grandmother had taken the time to scribble down, and headed
for the front door. She remained as silent as possible as
she passed by her grandparents in the living room. And as
she pulled on the door handle, and felt the cool air stream
into the house, Maggie looked up from her newspaper
and over at her granddaughter standing in the doorway.

“Uh huh,” Tru said as she closed the door behind herself.
Tru strolled down the narrow pathway that led away
from the house. About halfway down the yard, it split in
two different directions. One path went off to the right,
connecting to the driveway. The other led straight to the
sidewalk that ran parallel to the street. As she looked over
her shoulder to glance back at the front door⎯ wishing
she could just thank Bethany the next day at school⎯ she
could see her grandma peering at her through a small
opening in the blinds of the kitchen window. Tru pretended as though she hadn’t seen her and turned around
to look back at the street.
“Better make it look like you’re going over to Bethany’s,” Tru said to herself, knowing her grandmother knew
Bethany wasn’t home yet. So, Tru followed the walkway
to the street, and turned to the right, following the road
past three very large, extravagant houses.
When she felt that she was far enough away, and she
couldn’t see the front of the house anymore, Tru crossed
the street and continued walking, passing up Bethany’s
house along the way. Tru looked casually over her shoulder from time to time, hoping her grandmother wasn’t
possibly following her.
As Tru walked, the road in front of her came to an intersection. If she continued to walk straight, the road
would follow alongside a few more houses, eventually
turning into a cul-de-sac. If she turned to the right, about
three more houses would accompany the road, and then
come to a dead end, right at the edge of the forest. Tru
looked to her left, seeing more houses, and then back at
the forest. She knew where she wanted to go, but her feet
wouldn’t take her there.

Why, on Earth, would anyone want to go back to the
place where they almost died
? she asked herself.
“Because I need answers,” she said aloud.

But from this side of the block, Tru was much farther
away from the meadow that she had come to know and
love. She questioned whether or not she would be able to
find it from where she was.

Tru looked at the trees on her right once more, then
over her shoulder and down the street toward her grandmother’s house. Without thinking, she turned to the right,
and walked down the short, dead-ended road.

As Tru neared the end of the street, she could see a
short wooden barricade that had a small red sign on it
reading ‘Dead End.’ Quickly, she hopped over it, as if she
were jumping over a hurtle, and walked the few short feet
to where the dirt met up with the pavement. It was hard
for Tru to find a path through the forest. For the first
couple of feet, it was a clear, gravel trail, but almost instantly disappeared under mud, moss, thick ferns, fallen
trees, and weeds. Soon, Tru quickly realized that she
wasn’t even following a path anymore. And when she
glanced up at the sky ⎯ or what she could see of it
through the canopy of trees ⎯ she felt a drop of water
land gently on her cheek.

“What am I doing?” she asked aloud. The sudden noise
of her own voice pierced through the silence. And the
more Tru thought about what she was about to do, the
more she thought of her grandmother. Tru knew she
couldn’t leave her again. And what if this time, when she
reached the meadow, she were to find a fate worse than
Airi waiting for her? What if she didn’t come back this
time?

Tru looked over her shoulder. If she squinted, she
could just barely see the edge of the forest where she had
entered just moments ago. The trees were thick, making it
hard for what remained of the daylight to pierce through
their branches and down onto the forest floor. The farther
into the forest Tru advanced, the darker it became. Soon
she wouldn’t have been able to see anything in front of
her.

The rain was falling faster and harder now, sounding
like the beating of drums as the giant drops of water fell
on her face and the muddy ground around her. Her hair
and clothes quickly became saturated with water. Tru
looked down at the ground, letting the water trickle off of
her face, and noticed that the path that she had been trying to follow, was really a dried up creek bed that was
now quickly filling with water. The water began to pool up
where she stood, so she moved her feet out of the way and
watched the water slowly make its way toward the opening in the trees, meandering through rocks, under fallen
trees, turning the mud of the creek bed into dirty rainwater. Tru quickly turned around, and followed alongside
the stream, jumping over it at times, until she reached the
street.

When she was back on the pavement, Tru paused. The
smell of the rain comforted her, and in that moment, she
knew exactly where she needed to go. Hurriedly, Tru
walked as fast as she could toward the edge of town, looking at the ground the entire way. And when she reached
the narrow, two-lane highway that led out of town, she
began to run.

The short, ten-minute drive Tru and her grandmother
had taken just days before, was much longer on foot ⎯
probably close to an hour ⎯ and the cold air and rain
weren’t helping much. But as Tru neared the graveyard,
she began to run faster, her strides feeling as though she
was flying through the air.

The graveyard was quiet. The sound of Tru’s heavy
breathing rang out across the field of tombstones, as her
heart pounded in her chest. Trying to catch her breath,
she slowly meandered through the plaques and stones,
toward the very edge of the field to her father’s grave.

“Hi, Dad,” she said as she kneeled in front of the stone
with her father’s name. “I’m back.” Tru tried to smile, but
she knew she was just trying to cover up her true feelings.
“I need some help, Dad,” Tru continued, sitting down on
the moist grass. “I have never been so confused in my
entire life. I need a sign, Dad, some sort of message.
Grandma is hiding things from me. Things I already know
the answers to, but I’ve been hiding things from her too. I
need to know if I should tell her.”

Tru crossed her hands over her lap and looked at the
ground. Tears began to stream down her face. “And I’m
falling in love with someone I could never have,” she
whispered, wiping away her tears with the back of her
jacket sleeve.

After a few more minutes, Tru’s crying began to subside. As she looked up at her father’s stone, tracing a gentle finger around his engraved name, something caught
her eye. Off in the distance, standing between Tru and the
line of trees nearly thirty yards away stood a small figure.

Tru squinted through the rain as she rose from the
ground, and began walking closer to the shape. But the
object did not move. And as Tru grew closer to it, she
could see that the figure she was looking at, was that of a
small girl. The girl watched Tru advance across the grass,
and remained still, watching Tru with curiosity.

The little girl
⎯ possibly no older than seven ⎯looked
as though she had grown up on the streets.
Her clothes
were merely rags, disheveled and tattered, or maybe old
bed sheets that looked as though they had been washed
with swamp water and dirt for soap. Her light brown hair
was a ratted mess, and her feet were covered in mud, all
the way up to her ankle. Her dark brown eyes pierced at
Tru across the field, and Tru could have sworn that she
hadn’t once seen the girl blink. The rain and cold air
seemed to have no affect on her⎯ she did not shiver nor
did she wipe away a single drop of water that fell on her
face.

“Hello, there,” Tru said. But the young girl did not respond. “Where are your parents?” Tru continued as she
quickly glanced around the graveyard, looking for any
sign of people. But the two girls were completely alone.
“Are you lost?” Tru asked. The girl still did not move.
Tru was about twenty feet away when the little girl decided to move. But she did not run, like Tru had expected,
nor did she speak. Instead, the girl held up her hand, signaling for Tru to stop. So, Tru stopped, watching the girl
carefully. Slowly, the girl lowered her hand. After a few
seconds, the girl began turning around. Tru gasped the
second she saw what was on her back.

Folded neatly
between
the
young
girl’s shoulder
blades, was a pair of small golden wings. They looked
frayed and shabby⎯ just like the clothes she was wearing
⎯ but somehow soft and velvety at the same time. They
were much smaller than Edyn’s, as if they still had many
more years to go before they were fully grown. Tru wondered how she was able to fly with such ruined wings. But
as Tru examined the poor girl’s wings, she noticed that
she did not stop walking when she had turned around.
Instead, she continued in a perfectly straight line toward
the thick forest just a few yards away from them.

Tru quickly began to follow the girl, keeping some distance, but still close enough to be able to keep up if the
girl decided to start running. The young girl did not seem
to care that Tru was following her. Instead, she stopped
and turned to look back at Tru.

The little girl smiled at Tru, holding out a hand. But
this time, it looked as though she were waiting for Tru to
grab it. Tru glanced over her own shoulder, at the rest of
the graveyard, hoping there were no witnesses. When she
was sure they were still completely alone, Tru wiped her
brow, pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, and hurried
over to the girl to grab her hand.

The little girl smiled up at Tru, but remained silent.
Tru couldn’t help but noticed how warm her hand was,
and instantly, she was reminded of Edyn’s hand tightly
wrapped around hers. Tru smiled back at the girl as they
walked toward the pine trees.

The little girl did not respond. Instead, she let go of
Tru’s hand and sped up her pace, jumping and skipping
through the forest, splashing her already muddy feet in
the puddles that had gathered around them. Tru began to
run, keeping a steady pace alongside the girl. But as Tru
began to run faster, so did the girl. Soon, Tru was no
longer able to see the little girl in front of her. She ran so
fast, zigzagging her way in and out of the trees, that she
was nearly invisible.

“Oh God,” she said aloud. “She tricked me! She led me
here. She’s one of the bad ones!” Tru looked around the
trees once more. And as she slowly crossed her arms over
her chest, trying to gather a bit of warmth for her hands, a
rustling in the bushes behind her caused her to let out a
slight scream.

The crunching leaves and rustling bushes drew closer,
and as Tru began to back away from the noise, she could
tell that the sounds before her were the sounds of heavy
footsteps.

Tru placed a hand over her mouth, in an effort to try
and silence her heavy breathing as much as possible. She
could feel her heart pounding away in her chest, and she
hoped whoever was growing nearer couldn’t hear that
too.

Oh God. Oh God. This is it.
Tru silently backed her way closer to a tree with low
hanging branches, trying to hide as much as she could
while she stared at the space in front of her where the
footsteps were coming from. And as she felt the bark of
the tree against her back and the tips of her fingers, the
footsteps stopped.
“Hello?” a man’s deep voice echoed through the trees.
He sounded close. “Hello?” he called again. Tru couldn’t
see his face yet, but she knew he was just a few short feet
away. “Is anyone there? We have guns! Show yourself and
you wont get hurt!”
Guns? Fairies don’t use guns.
“We don’t want to hurt you!” a younger man called out.
Suddenly, another rustling sound was heard. Tru slowly pulled down the branch that was in front of her so she
could see clearly, and as she did so, she could see the faint
figure of a man in a bright orange vest emerging from the
pines and shrubbery.
Hunters
.
“I’m here!” Tru shouted, as she slowly made her way
out from the cover of the tree behind her. “Don’t shoot!”
Tru raised her arms, hoping the men would see her before
they opened fire, mistaking her for a deer.
The younger man turned and looked at Tru carefully as
he aimed the barrel of his gun in her direction. Tru
stopped in her tracks, baffled that he was still pointing it
at her.
“Lower your weapon, Jim!” the older man said as he
strode closer to the two of them. “It’s just a girl, not a
damn bear!” And as the older, slender man walked past
the man named Jim, he gave him a sour look.
Tru took a deep breath, thankful that the older man
had come out of the trees when he had.
“I’m Sheriff West. This buffoon over here is my son
Jim.” Sheriff West pointed at the young man, who now
looked extremely embarrassed. “We were out hunting. I
hope we didn’t startle you miss.” The sheriff held out his
leather-gloved hand, waiting for Tru to take it.
Tru, still slightly shaken, grabbed
the man’s hand.
“Gertrude Mason.”
The old man shook her hand with a smile on his face.
“You’re Margaret and Ben’s granddaughter? I heard they
moved you here! Well, well, well, it’s nice to finally meet
you.” He tipped his camouflage baseball cap as he spoke.
Tru released his hand quickly. “Nice to meet you, too.”
“Well, I
should
be asking what you’re doing out here.
Especially since you are soaked to the bone with nothing
very warm on.”
“I
was visiting
my
father.” Tru
casually
threw her
thumb over her shoulder, hoping she was pointing in the
general direction of the graveyard. “At the graveyard,” she
added.
“How did you manage to find yourself all the way out
here?” Jim asked this time.
Tru looked at both of the men standing in front of her.
“I just thought I would go for a walk, and somehow, I
guess I got a little turned around.” She carefully wiped
her cold, damp nose on the back of her sleeve before
pushing a sopping wet strand of hair behind her ear.
“Did you drive to the graveyard?” Sheriff West asked.
“No, I walked there too.”
The men looked at her in amazement. “You walked six
miles?” Sheriff West looked at his son.
“Yes.” Tru looked at the ground, then back up at the
men.
“Well, we’re going to give you a ride back home. You’re
going to catch a cold in this weather!” The sheriff quickly
removed his neon-orange vest, followed by his heavy,
camouflaged jacket and wrapped it around Tru’s shoulders. He then redressed himself with the orange vest, and
looked at his son once more. “Go run back to the truck
and get it warmed up. We’ll meet you there.”
“Thank you,” Tru responded, looking up at the tall
slender man as he carefully wrapped an arm around her
shoulders.
The walk through the forest was short. When they
reached the 1967 blue Ford pick-up parked just past the
edge of the trees, Jim was already inside, waiting. When
he saw his father and Tru emerging from the trunks of the
pines, he quickly slid over to the passenger’s side and
buckled himself in. Sheriff West pulled open the driver’s
side door, and looked at Tru.
“After you,” he said with a smile.
Tru hurriedly climbed into the truck, removing the
Sheriff’s jacket so she could fit inside better, and slid her
body into the middle seat. The truck was warm ⎯ even
the cracked and faded leather seats⎯ and it felt nice having the heater blow the comforting air against her cheeks.
She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, realizing how
thankful she was that the Sheriff had been in the woods.
Tru knew that if the two men had not have found her, she
would have been out there for days, walking around in
circles, trying to find her way out of the maze of trees.