Her Last Wish

Chapter 10

My eyes never left him, as I thought for a moment. Why ever indeed had I come back? Had I found it not dangerous? Was I not too terrified? Then I had recalled. Maybe if I had truly been honest with myself, it may have been due to the fact that this was no longer new to me. "Well, it isn't as scary the second time, to be honest," I stated simply.

He eyed me with confusion. "Whatever is it that you mean as you say "the second time"? You have seen me jump only once, have you not?"

I nodded my head in the slightest way possible, before fixing my gaze upon the ground beneath me. "I. . . Yes, I've seen you but once. But I've seen it happen on someone else,” I was certain I sounded mad. Really, really mad.

"Anybody. .? No, Alice. I do believe that is not possible. You see, I am the only one of my kind. There is nobody else out there who belongs into the same… species as I.” This time, his voice contained disbelief and mockery.

I scoffed--- scoffed! --- before responding. "Yeah, tell it to that boy with blue eyes who just jumped from a tall tree without dying," I said with sarcasm. It had been to my utter astonishment how I had managed to be speaking with sarcasm at a moment like this.

He shook his head then. "You do know that that is possible, do you not?"

"Yes, I'm not stupid. What I meant was a tree tall enough to be a building," I retorted.

He sighed with what may have been one of defeat, before he held my gaze. "I should have known there was never a possibility for you to have ever forgotten that," he muttered.

Wait, forgotten? What is there that I had not forgotten? Now I had been more confused than ever. In fact, confused had been but a mere understatement now. "Wait, what?" I asked. My head had now been swirling with thoughts, and none that had even made any sense whatsoever.

He inhaled deeply, before shutting his eyes as though he had been suffering from a headache. "I will explain everything some other time, I give you my word. You should be informed that it is hardly safe here. Do promise me you would never dare come out here again?"

I nodded in agreement with haste. "W-wait. . . Yes, I promise. But when is some other time exactly?" I pressed, not wishing to give up as easily as he had thought. I needed to understand everything as soon as was possible.

"Thursday then. I do believe I would be back by then," he said, as he began to make his exit. “Well, back to school, that is,” he added. Before I had even the chance to speak, he had melted into the dark, and I could see nothing but his shadow.

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"Amy, what do you think you're doing here?" I asked, startled to have found her awake and laying trembling upon my bed. "And this late?" I added with disbelief. I stood against my bedroom door, looking towards her with disapproval.

She smiled towards me with apparent guilt and weariness. “I couldn’t sleep and I was really scared, Alice,” she whispered, her voice holding guilt and innocence at once if it were possible.

“Scared of what?”

She bit her lip with great hesitation, before deciding it best to answer me truthfully. “Boogieman,” she said, her voice frightened.

Boogieman. I had desired greatly to laugh, yet I thought better than to do so. “But there is no such thing as a boogieman, Amy,” I said, attempting to rid her of her fears.

“There is! I dreamt about him, you know,” she muttered.

I sighed, certain I would not win. “Alright, don’t worry. There is no boogieman in your room, Amy,” I assured her. “I placed…well… anti-boogieman things to keep him away, okay?” I had not known wherever it had been I got the idea of “anti-boogieman” things, but I went along with it nevertheless.