His voice was suddenly quiet and soft as he lay down across the tree branch. "I was just a shadow in this town. Maybe it's good you're here. Maybe it won't take them a week to notice that I'm missing." He slid around the branch until his back was parallel with the ground, and then he dropped his legs until he was just holding on with his arms.
"Liam!"
"I'm not sorry. People always write these suicide notes saying how sorry they are. I'm not sorry."
I watched in horror as he let go of the tree branch, his eyes radiating victory. I reached up to catch him but the slack in the rope snagged on the only other tree limb he hadn't cut from that branch. He hung there, gagging in a way that was barely audible.
My stomach dropped and my mind raced, touching on several different courses of action inside of a second before I made a move.
I snatched the knife he had thrown out of the dirt and scrambled up the tree. My body's physical memory remembering all of the good hand holds from my childhood. It only took three seconds for me to perch on the branch he was tied to.
Carefully, I moved out to where the rope pulled the branch down with Liam's weight. I sawed and sawed and sawed. Seconds felt like minutes as I whipped my hand back and forth, the teeth of the knife hacking away at the rope.
I watched the rope fray and slip. As the rope dropped off of the tree, my hand slipped and I fell forward, eating bark. The impact made it impossible for me to regain my balance. I felt the free fall as I hurtled toward the earth, and I felt the impact of the ground as it knocked me into darkness.
6
I woke up in the hospital, my dad staring over the railing with blood shot eyes. I had a pretty bad concussion and was unconscious for several hours. I was probably just too tired to pull myself around after the emotional experiences I had over the past forty-eight hours, plus the lack of sleep.
I asked how dad knew I was out there. He had been the one to find us. I half thought he was going to tell me that Rayla had told him, but he said he had watched me as I left the house because he was worried after our strange conversation. He had watched me until I disappeared over the hill. "I just had a feeling something wasn't right," he told me.
They wanted to know how I had known Liam was out there, and I was so dopey waking up that I told them the truth. I told them about Rayla and about the conversation I had overheard.
That landed me in therapy. Apparently they thought I was traumatized by the whole thing. She thought the death of mom and Rayla, plus the break-up with Jordan had made my head conjure up this whole ghost thing.
Together, with the therapist, we traced back everything that got me to that apple tree. The conversation I had overheard behind the barber shop was not what I thought it was at all. The conversation had been over a gambling debate but wasn't nearly as sinister as I had imagined. The guy had been referring to the barber being able to feed his kids, not that the guy would kill them.
I had read a paper Liam had written that was very dark and depressing and centered around the apple tree, the week before Jordan broke up with me. We edited several of each other's papers in class. The therapist tried to convince me that this was why I felt the need to get close to Liam and why I decided to go to the tree that night. But why that night?
She could rationalize it all she wanted. I could nod and agree so she and the rest of the world didn't think I was crazy, but I believe straight down to my soul that Rayla saved Liam's life. I might not be completely sane but nor was Rayla's ghost completely fabricated. She saved his life. No one in this town or beyond could convince me of anything different.
I visited Liam while he was in the hospital. He was bitter and refused to talk to me at first. They moved him to the psychiatric ward after a couple days. When he was able to get visitation, I went. Every day until he started slowly talking to me, I went.
I learned a lot about him in the days following his suicide attempt, and he learned a lot about me. I found out that a genius isn't so strange after all.
We went to college together after graduation. He planned on med school, and I was slightly less ambitious with my plans for a business degree.
I never talked to Rayla again. She never walked in my dreams, but Liam’s life was her parting gift to me. It was as if I'd finally got to say goodbye.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shandy L. Kurth writes in the young adult genre. She enjoys writing realistic fiction and strives to connect the reader to the human condition.
Shandy L. Kurth is an Early Childhood Teacher by day and a writer by night. She lives in Kansas with her husband and two pups.
Other works by this Author:
DEVASTATION: Built on Fear 1
(Young Adult, Dystopian, Action, Thriller)
Available at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Apple and more!
https://www.amazon.com/Devastation-Built-Fear-Shandy-Kurth/dp/146807119X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354395428&sr=8-1&keywords=Shandy+L.+Kurth
ISOLATION: Built on Fear 2
2nd book of the Built on Fear series
(Young Adult, Dystopian, Action, Thriller)
Available at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Apple and more!
https://www.amazon.com/Isolation-Built-Shandy-L-Kurth/dp/1479345253/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354395673&sr=1-2&keywords=Shandy+L.+Kurth
IT CAN ALWAYS GET WORSE
(Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Action, Thriller)
https://www.amazon.com/Can-Always-Get-Worse-ebook/dp/B0092WZY9O/ref=sr_1_3_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354395558&sr=1-3&keywords=Shandy+L.+Kurth
Find this Author online:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Shandy-L-Kurth/112882395460694
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5399929.Shandy_L_Kurthhttps://www.wattpad.com/user/ShandyKurth
https://www.wattpad.com/user/ShandyKurth
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