A/N: Ah, yes, there is more.

Return to the Forest

Part One

If only they could hear screaming like I do. Alone, late at night when blackness merges with dusk. I usually lie under the stars, right on the same bleachers where I first felt for him. Sometimes, I feel his warmth brush over my face. Sometimes, I hallucinate his body sitting next to me, no longer dead. Robbie, Master of Disguise.

"Take your pill, please." Uncle Milford shoves a little green pill in my face. "Stop making me ask you every five seconds."

I place the pill under my tongue. Spit it out later. No one can tell if I haven't taken it because I walk around like a zombie most of the time. One of the side-effects of anti-depressants is numbness anyways. I portray no emotions. I am an empty canvas.

"There," Milford says, "Much better. If you don't cooperate for once and for all they're going to send you away."

"I know."

"I don't think you completely understand where they will send you."

"Probably a morgue."

"Stephanie! I am being serious."

I shrug. I announce I am going for a walk. It is a little after eight p.m. and night is inching in. I put on my pair of black sneakers that I threw against a wall earlier. I cleaned up the mud print before Uncle Milford saw. Last thing I need him to see is my anger.

"Be back-"

"Before midnight, I know." I interrupt him and leave the house.

Outside is humid. It is the beginning of June. Tonight is a very special night. Tonight marks a year since Robbie passed away. Uncle Milford forgot – I reminded him this morning with tears in my eyes and my black funeral dress on. I haven't taken it off all day.

I walk past Ziggy's house. He is staring out the window, expecting me to return eye contact. My old friends blame Robbie for his own death; they say he brought it on himself by making so many dangerous inventions. He wasn't a genius, but he never asked to die. Needless to say, I don't talk to anyone in this town aside from my burdened Uncle and the occasional Blue Freak. Sportacus, hero to everyone but me. Sportacus, pervert extraordinaire. Hitting on Stephanie after her soulmate died is a great idea. Let's try this every month and see how it goes. Eventually she will give in.

I never wanted to sleep with him. I was purely confused and hopeless. I don't blame myself for giving in. I gave him my body once. After that, I felt like a traitor, cheater, and adulterer. I never wanted Sportacus.

Tonight I walk farther than the bleachers. I force my strained legs through a field and up to remnants of what was once a giant billboard. Nothing is left at Robbie's except for rubble and the entrance to his underground home. I have tried to dig through planks of metal to reach inside. Tonight, there is one more piece to remove. It is the ladder.