Chapter 3
Alison ran through the dark depths of the wood. It was a cold night and there was nobody around. But she had had enough. Her family just did not like her whatsoever and she was sick of it. So, the brave princess climbed out of her window and ran.
She had been running for almost an hour without stopping. She didn't even know that she had that much energy in her. But she ran and she ran, brambles catching in her hair. Eventually, Alison got tired and found a nearby tree, leaning on it with her back. Clutching her chest, she panted and panted, not even knowing where she was going. Until...she heard the snapping of twigs.
"H-hello?" she stammered nervously "W-who's there?" the snapping of twigs got louder. Alison tried looking into the distance, but saw nothing. The twigs got louder and louder...or maybe just closer and closer.
"H-hello?" she cried, louder "Is there anybody there?"
Her heart was beating fast. She was so sure that it was some mass serial killer that had come to kill her. Suddenly, she felt cold chills all through her body as she heard a slight voice in her ear whisper...
"Boo"
Alison jumped around quickly, her arms covering her face. But instead of a serial killer, or a demon animal, standing before her was Emily Fields.
"Fucking Hell!" Alison screamed "You scared me half to death, Emily!" Emily chuckled.
"Nice to see you too" she said "You know, we really should stop bumping into each other like this..."
"What on earth are you doing out here?" Alison spluttered, a little louder than intended.
"Calm your voice, princess" Emily hushed "You don't wanna wake up the entire village.
"Oh shut up" she growled, brushing the leaves and twigs off of her dress "You shouldn't be out here, you know"
"Neither should you" Emily laughed, pulling a thorn out of Alison's beautiful golden hair "I would ask you what your doing out here, but I think I already know. You can't just run away from your problems"
"Oh yes I can" Alison argued "And I am. Now if you don't mind, I have a train to catch"
"Oh no, girly, you are not going anywhere" Emily firmly grabbed onto her arm to stop her from running.
"Oh yes I am" Alison replied, trying to pull out of Emily's grasp. Emily shook her head.
"I won't let you" She said "Come on, your coming with me"
"I am not going back to that castle!" Alison shouted
"You don't have to" Emily sighed "Come on, just come with me"
Emily led the princess by the hand deeper into the woods. Alison had absolutely no idea where this girl was taking her, but she trusted her for some unknown reason.
"We're here" Emily suddenly said, snapping Alison out of her trance.
"Where's, here?" Alison spat "There's nothing out here. Just trees..."
"Look up" Emily laughed, pointing up in the sky. Alison looked up and was shocked to see a house like thing in the mid of the tree. It was built with wood and leaves and was quite large-big enough for someone to live in there.
"What on earth is that thing?" Alison asked, moving closer towards the tree and rubbing her hand across the bark.
"It's a tree house" Emily replied, moving next to her with her arms folded, looking up at it proudly "And I made it"
"You made this?" Alison gasped in disbelief.
"Oh yeah" Emily announced, slapping her hands against that tree "Just over a year ago. Beautiful, isn't it?"
"I love it" Alison smiled "Can I go up?" Emily laughed and looked at Alison, her eyes eager.
"I didn't bring you all this way to stare at it" she said "Of course you can go up" Alison nervously stepped on the first block of the ladder and slowly began climbing up.
"Uuh, Emily?" She shivered "I-I'm gonna fall!"
"No your not" Emily laughed, keeping her hands out in front of her just in case she DID fall "Besides, if you do fall, I'll catch you"
"You won't be able to catch me" Alison scoffed, continuing with her climbing. Emily rolled her eyes.
"Are you seriously doubting me, Alison Dilaurentis?"
"Not at all" Alison answered "I'm there!" She suddenly reached the top of the ladder. Emily, quickly, scuttled up the ladder and reached the top where Alison had stood up.
"Wow" she suddenly said, walking into the tree house. It was quite a big area, but with only one room. It had a trunk in it, presumably with things Emily liked to collect, a chest of drawers, an old wooden bedside table with a lie candle on it, and one double bed in the middle of the room. Over the other side, there was a balcony looking over the rest of the woods that seemed to never end.
"I love it" Alison smiled "S-so I can sleep here?"
"Of course you can" Emily laughed, walking over to the balcony "As if I would leave you all alone in the middle of the woods at the middle of the night" Alison smirked. Her face suddenly looked slightly confused.
"W-where will you sleep then?" She asked. Emily too looked puzzled, mainly at Alison's question.
"Uhm, in here?" she answered. Alison raised an eyebrow.
"If your in here, then where am I?" she asked. Emily laughed slightly.
"Your in here too, silly" Alison looked surprised.
"What like, on the floor?" Emily giggled, but almost found Alison's questions cute.
"I would never make you sleep on the floor, princess" she said "Your sleeping on the bed"
"Sooo, your sleeping on the floor?" Emily shook her head.
"No" she answered "I'm sleeping in the bed too" Alison almost looked shocked at this.
"With me?" She answered. Emily nodded her head. Alison looked surprised for a little while longer, but then she suddenly got used to the idea.
"Okay" she gulped.
"Glad we've cleared that up" Emily chuckled "Now, come on. I'll show you something"
"They're beautiful" Alison gazed at the stars up above. The two girls had climbed up some stairs that Emily had built in herself and now were both sitting on the roof. Alison twirled her hair in her hand and sighed. Emily sat closely snuggled next to her with a bottle of beer in her hand.
"I know" she smiled "And they're everywhere. They're all twinkly and...amazing" the princess nodded her head in agreement.
"You know" Emily continued "Me and my dad would always come up to the trees at night and watch the stars and see if we could make patterns out of them" Alison looked confused
"How do you make patterns out of the flipping stars?" she laughed, trying to work out how twinkly objects in the sky could form patterns.
"They just look like things" Emily said "Look, there, that one looks like a cat" She pointed up to an arrangement of stars that oddly enough, looked like a cat.
"I think I see it!" Alison suddenly got excited. Emily smiled.
"That was always my dad's favorite" she sighed. Alison looked over at her, and was trying to work things out.
Was
"Emily" she said "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure" Emily answered, taking a swig of her rum that she always seemed to be drinking.
"Why do you always refer to your father as being in the past tense?" Emily's face fell. She stopped the grin she always wore and had a look of intensity in her eyes.
"When I was 10" Emily finally sighed "My dad joined the army, as you may already have known"
"Yes" Alison said "That's where you got the horse from"
"Yes" she confirmed "So anyway, when I was 10 he joined the army for the King. We were all so happy because he was one of the best and was therefore getting paid a lot. He was well good at it too. "One day, when the current war ended, the families of the people all went to meet their loved ones back from the army. I was used to this, you see. Walking up to the hill surrounded by thousands of people. Seeing my dad over the other side and he would run over to me and pick me up and give me cuddles. Then he would carry me on his shoulders back home"
"Oh" Alison whispered. She could see tears welling up in Emily's eyes.
"But" she said "T-there would always be a few people left at the end, who's loved ones wouldn't come back and...and I always used to watch them break down into tears. A-and I never thought...thought that it would be me" her voice suddenly went all pitched and squeaky and Alison realized she was about to cry.
"But it was" she said, wiping her tears "We waited right until the end, until the major's came up and told us that there was no one left. My mom completely lost it- she fell to the floor and started crying so much that she was almost sick"
A tear trickled down Alison's eye-she never realized how much losing someone could mean.
"And so did I" Emily admitted "A lot. Well, I didn't a first. I didn't really understand-I was pretty much shocked. I thought it was a joke. But when the sun started setting and I realized he was gone, I fell to the floor with my mom and cried for hours. We could barely get on our feet to home, and even that took us an hour"
Alison suddenly felt really sad and was almost about to cry herself.
"I'm so sorry" she said "I never should have asked you about it" Emily shook her head.
"It's fine" she said "Sometimes it helps, you know, talking about that day. Helps me process it a bit more"
Everything was silent for a few moments until Alison eventually started shivering.
"Hey, you cold?" Emily asked.
"No. I'm fine" Alison replied.
"No your not" Emily laughed, stepping down off the roof "Come on, let's go inside. I'm tired now anyway"
Alison grabbed her hand and jumped down, watching Emily shift a smile. Then, they walked inside
Alison woke up in a strange place, not knowing where she was. She looked around the room and realized that it wasn't her bedroom, and that it was some sort of strange wooden hut. And then she felt something else...
A hand. A soft, warm, hand wrapped around her waist. There was another hand wrapped around the other side of her, and she realized her own hands were laced in between these hands. There was also a leg draped over hers and her own leg was tangled with it. Alison slowly let go of the hands and rolled over off of the bed. She stood up and peered at Emily, who she had woke up cuddling with.
"God" Alison sighed, rubbing her head. Emily's arms suddenly outstretched and her eyes fluttered open.
"Morning" she yawned, sitting up and brushing the hair out of her face "Sleep okay?"
"Y-yeah" Alison answered, brushing down her dress and her head still splitting "S-so what, shall I just go home then?"
"You can if you want to" Emily shrugged "But you don't have to" Alison raised an eyebrow, walking over the edge of the Tree House where there was a little balcony.
"What else is there to do here?" She asked, looking across the trees.
"Well I was going to go swimming" Emily announced, getting out of the bed and stretching "You can come with me if you want" Alison quickly turned around with a huge grin on her face and her eyes wide.
"Swimming?" She asked "Like in actual water? In an actual lake?" Emily looked confused and laughed at how excited Alison looked.
"Uhm...yes?" She replied, giggling slightly "Have you never been swimming before, princess?"
"No" Alison sadly admitted "My parents never allowed me to go in the water. They say that it's dirty from all the villagers that had swam in it previously, and it would make my skin vile. Is that true?" Emily laughed.
"Not at all" She said "Hardly any of the villagers go in this lake I go to-everyone either bathes in their washing bowl and if they can be bothered to come out here, then they are almost professional great swimmers. So, wanna come?"
"Of course" Alison said, walking over to Emily who was putting her coat on "B-but I have nothing to wear, What do you usually wear for swimming?"
"Uuuh" Emily blushed slightly and bent down to fiddle with a draw. In it, she pulled out a pair of underwear.
"H-here" She stammered, feeling awkward as having to give Alison underwear "Newly sewn. I promise it's never been worn. Alison chuckled.
"Right then" She said "Let's go down to this swimming place or whatever"
"How far is this lake?" Alison panted, slowly following Emily who was almost sprinting.
"Just here" Emily said. The two girls suddenly landed near a small place behind a slightly tall rock. The water was clear as day and the deepest part came up to about Alison's shoulders.
"It's beautiful" Alison said, breathless "Well come on then, let's get in!" Alison ran towards the pool and was just about to jump in when she felt Emily's firm hand grip her wrist.
"Not so fast, girly" She laughed "You gotta change first otherwise you'll ruin that beautiful dress" Alison rolled her eyes as she went and stood next to Emily, who was unbuttoning her shirt and pulling her swimming underwear over her head. Alison's eyes slightly dropped from Emily's face to her stomach, which was perfectly flat and toned with the best abs Alison had ever seen. She slowly gulped at the sight of them.
"You alright there?" Emily laughed, catching Alison's eyes. Alison quickly stopped looking and turned around.
"I'm fine" She snapped "I was...nothing..." Emily rolled her eyes
"Right we can go in now" she announced. Alison nervously stepped into the water and felt the coldness ripple throughout her body. Emily ran to the edge, and jumped in with no hesitation splashing the water against Alison.
"Emily!" Alison laughed, her face annoyed "That water's freezing!" Emily was laughing hysterically at Alison, who was stood dripping wet with water.
"Right your going to pay for that" she insisted. Suddenly, she too jumped in with a huge splash right next to Emily and started splashing water on the other girl.
"Hey!" Emily laughed "That's cold!"
"Tell me about it!" Alison playfully shouted "You got what was coming to you" Emily stood up and splashed the princess with the ice cold water.
"Oh wow" she responded "Are you asking for a full on water fight?" Emily nodded her head.
The water fight seemed to last for hours, Alison splashing Emily with the water and Emily not long doing the same over and over again. They would chase each other round and around in circles laughing and splashing water. Until it got to a point where they were both completely too tired.
"Gotcha!" Emily laughed, splashing Alison. Alison, who was now too tired, started backing away. She accidentally tripped over a piece of rock and crash landed on the edge of the river bank and unfortunately enough, Emily too tripped over the rock. She landed with her hands either side of Alison and their noses were completely touching.
None of them said anything for a few moments, just looked deeply into each others eyes. If anyone had walked past at that moment, it would have looked absolute definite that they were about to kiss...but they didn't. After a while, Emily stood up.
"I should probably get going now" Alison announced. Emily nodded her head.
"Okay" she agreed "Here, take this. It'll help you get dry"
As they both climbed out of the edge of the river bank, Emily threw Alison her jacket and the blonde girl wrapped it around herself.
"Thanks" She said. As she got dry, she peeled the towel away from her body and walked over to the tree that she had left her clothes under. Emily's eyes wandered from her back down further...and just lingered there for a while. Silently, she gulped, realizing how screwed she was. Alison turned around and looked at Emily.
"Hi" Emily said awkwardly, raising a hand "I-I was just...admiring your legs" Alison rolled her eyes.
"Okay" She laughed, stepping into her dress "Are you going back to your tree house then, Forest Pixie?"
"I'll walk you home" Emily instantly offered "Y-you know, we're pretty deep into the woods and I wouldn't want you getting lost.
"Thanks" Alison smiled. Emily watched Alison flick her hair up and walk away, noticing how cute her dimples looked.
"You coming or not?" she then laughed. Emily snapped out of her trance and obediently followed the princess back to her castle.