Pith

       We walked along the coast, forest on the right, ocean the left. The milky pink sky melted further down the horizon and Becca was pleading for an orange slice from my backpack. We had been out along the coast for about seven hours now, longer than Becca had hoped, but I insisted we trudge along for the best spot to watch the sun cascade down the cliffs at dusk. We were now about a 20-minute walk from the scenic area I found out here alone last Tuesday morning and it was too late, the sun had completely disappeared and the trees were now creating a blanket of darkness within the forest.

        Becca was afraid of most things, cats with sharp claws, riding in someone else’s car, “the plants that trap those bugs”, and the dark. She begged to turn around several times but I laughed telling her we’d be fine, this is a place many people have traveled through, and not a single one has had a ghost story to tell. That wasn’t entirely true, in all honesty, I had heard multiple stories about people who had seen dark figures walking through the woods, warning people to stay away from the Maine coastline after dusk and not to arrive until dawn completely broke. There was also an article printed two years ago about a young man who went missing within the walls of the trees, but in the missing person photograph he looked somewhat disheveled and my best bet was that he was a druggy, up to no good out here anyways.

        There was no reason to frighten her, it would make the journey less enjoyable, and we’d be heading back soon anyway. I listened to her cries for the oranges and slung my bag down the side of my shoulder at a halt, with a bit of irritation. I grabbed the baggy out of my front zipper pocket and we sat along the cliffs for a moment, letting my legs dangle off the side while she sat knees tucked five feet back from the edge. We talked a bit about school and she expressed her over-excitement about her new class starting on Monday, which I didn’t care much for. The longer we spoke the darker it got and I’m not sure if it was Becca’s irrational fears or if it was the silent stillness of the forest that started playing tricks on her mind.

        “Liz look at the trees,” Becca said, eyes wide and fixated on a spot across the ocean I just couldn’t see. I looked at her with confusion as she pointed to a large group of pines, too far, blending into the darkness.

       “What about them?”, I stared at her rather than where she was pointing, shocked by her dazed expression.

       “The second largest pine to the left Liz, don’t you see it?”

        I looked away from Becca and attempted to scope out what exactly it was that she was looking at. I caught a shadowy glimpse of a bird-looking figure. It was large and sitting in a way that seemed it was overlooking the cliffs to the North. I told Becca it looked like an eagle, how common they were out here, and how many tourists drew to this area because of it. She broke her stare and looked down, brushing the flaky pith off of her jeans, then quickly shot up.

         “Let’s just go”, she said looking at her feet and crushing the skin of the orange between her fingers nervously.

          I swung my backpack up over my shoulders and nodded, it was best to leave when she was too spooked, the situation would become intolerable if she was too fearful. We started along the way we came and Becca had her head turned and fixated on the same spot she pointed out, not looking where she was going and continuously tripping over the rocky floor. We continued on and my annoyance inched further as her grunts grew, as if the breath that each trip took away was surprising to her every time. About an hour into the hike back Becca became silent and her steps were in sync with mine, almost as if she wasn’t there. I turned to ask her if she wanted a swig of my water and she was gone, I froze, shocked she wasn’t trembling and stitched to my thigh. There was no noise of critters running along the dead pine needles, no birds, no shuffling of the leaves and suddenly my breaths weighed heavy and echoed across the woods. I called her name and there was no answer. I wondered for how long she wasn’t following behind, and I thought about where she could have gone. Ran into the woods? Fell and scraped her knee? Fell off the rocky cliffs? I surely would have heard. The silence broke and down towards the water in the corner of my eye I saw the wings, the same wings we saw in the distance I claimed to be an eagle. Only these wings were attached to a human-like figure, a smooth head, lanky arms, and long legs. I began calling for Becca more frantically this time, I seemed to actually care where she had gone now and once I turned my head from the figure there she was stepping from the woods with light beads of sweat dripping from her hairline and a blank expression. I didn’t ask her where she went I simply told her to get a move on and whipped my head back around staring at my shoes. When I turned back to see if she was following, like I demanded, I was met with a large figure standing tall seven feet above my head. Looking up it had no face and next to Becca she seemed ant-like but unafraid.

        Becca looked at me angrily though unbothered, no tremble in her voice.

       “I knew you lied” 

         I blinked for a split second and when I opened my eyes there was only a small pile of flaky skin spread across the rocks and the breeze that flew through my loose strands of hair smelled of mandarins.