It all started with the
fire. Or no…long before that. But it didn't matter then. No one
thought anything of it before then. Only because no one cared much
about her then. After the fire, that's when people noticed. After
the fire, everyone disappeared, and there was no one else to care of
her, but herself. And once they began to pay attention, they began to
see it. They could then see the darkness that plagued her heart.
Alice, a brilliant girl, she held a powerful mind. She carried
great intellect, wisdom, and fear. She knew and experienced much more
than she was meant too. And later, her mind left her, she had been
put to waste. Long dark hair hung around her shoulders; enchanting
green eyes secretly concealing truths. Her sickly pale skin blended
in with the white sheets of the steel bed, her thin frame hidden
under her oversized clothes. A smile never crossed her face; a tear
is never spilled.
Alice, cursed with insanity, yet claimed more
sanity then the chaotic Earth. They tried to understand her, peer
into her soul, yet came out empty handed, just as clueless as before.
An innocent child possessing awesome strength. If only she would
control it…
"Hello Alice."
Green eyes shifted away from the window to set themselves upon
the psychiatrist in the doorway. "Hello Dr. Stanpole," she
replied in a polite tone, before letting her eyes trail back to the
window.
"How are you today? Feeling better I hope?" He asked
as he stepped inside the room, shutting the door behind him. She
merely nodded in response; gaze still glued at the window.
"I'm
glad your doing better, he replied, pulling up a chair beside her
bed.
"Yes." She refused to look back at him; something Dr.
Stanpole was quick to note.
"Alice, have I upset you?" he
asked, warm brown eyes studying her stolid face, trying to detect any
sign of emotion.
"No," she answered curtly.
"Then
what's wrong, Alice?" he questioned, placing a giant hand over
her thin, cold ones.
"I'd prefer not to talk about it,"
was her response, ignoring his comforting touch as she kept a fixed
stare out the window.
"You know you can tell me anything Alice.
Don't be afraid to say it. I won't tell anybody. I just want to
know what's wrong so I can help you," he reminded in his friendly
voice.
"I know. I'm just not in the mood to talk about it.
Not now."
"I understand. You'll tell me later than, won't
you?"
"Yes."
"Would you rather me leave now, and come
back tomorrow?"
The fifteen year old merely shrugged. Suddenly
she felt Dr. Stanpole's soft pressure leave her hand and heard the
scraping of the chair against the cement floor.
"Would you like
to tell me what it is your looking at?"
"Wilbur."
"Wilbur?" Following the direction of her eyes, he met the
giant willow tree.
"Yes. He's sad today. The devilish
children came by and pulled at his whipping fingers, and stripped him
of his covers. They laughed and carved into his heart names of people
he shall never met. They trashed his home in disregard and leave him
now to weep. I should have stopped them, yet I didn't. And still
now I do nothing but watch him cry and shed leaves of sadness."
Dr. Stanpole was quiet for a moment, busy scribbling notes onto
his pad, before looking back up. "You can't help it Alice. You
must stay here. It's not your fault."
"But it is. I could
have told those kids to go away and leave him be…but I chose not
to. I kept quiet and watched them torture him. Watched as they
punished him for his evils…"
"Evils? But he's just a
tree. What evils could Wilbur have committed?"
Alice finally
turned to face the psychiatrist. Her knowing eyes studied the
twenty-five year old, taking in every detail. His messy chocolate
brown hair fell to friendly brown eyes and curled around his face.
His long, crooked nose held up the fragile frames of his reading
glasses, and his crooked smile lit up his pleasant face. Around his
neck he wore a warm red scarf that showed up nicely against his honey
colored skin.
"Why, his existence of course," she answered
matter-of-factly before turning back to the window. Sitting beside
the windowsill, bathed in the sun's soft glow, she seemed almost
ghost like and unreal. "Alice-"
"I'd rather you leave me
now."
