Alive and Undone

The only sound on the freezing, empty street was the sound of the harsh wind blowing leaves about on the pavement and a shudder slid down Jason’s back, the eerie quiet making him feel uneasy. The yellow beams of the streetlights only illuminate a few feet radius, and as he walks through one he’s swallowed by darkness almost immediately.

“Sydney, where the hell are we going?” he asked quietly.

She shushed him before slinking across the street, the lamppost on the corner lighting up her features for a few brief seconds. Blazing red hair partially covered by a black beanie, sparkling blue eyes and full lips tilted down in an annoyed frown. She looks back towards him but he hadn’t moved an inch.

“For fucks’ sake, Jace. Stop being such a pussy.”

With a small groan he streaked over to her, heart thundering in his chest. He had been jolted awake earlier by soft knocking on his bedroom window, and he had pulled the curtains back to see Sydney standing there, white teeth flashing in the darkness. When she had asked him to come out and play, he had been helpless to deny her and had pulled on some clothes and climbed out his window into his backyard.

All he had on was a pair of Superman pajama pants, a random sweatshirt he had pulled off his bedroom floor and a pair of Vans he had stuffed his sockless feet into. The chilly air was whipping about Jason’s ankles, sending shivers up his body and down his back. He stuck his hands into his pockets and hopped around a little bit, trying to warm up his frozen feet.

But then Sydney was sprinting down the street again and through someone’s yard and he took off after her, still confused as to where they’re going. He slipped around the back corner of the house and ran right into her. She was pressed against the wood siding, index finger held up to her lips, head shaking from side to side.

The lights were on in the house, voices drifting out from under an open window.

“Let’s just go back, Sydney,” he muttered. “I don’t even know what we’re doing.”

She didn’t say anything, just snuck under the window ledge and crept along the grass. When she reached the other side of the house, she turned back around and motioned for him to follow. Another strong wind blew by him and he shivered, contemplating just leaving and go back home to his warm bed. But then Sydney mouthed please at him and he was crawling across the grass over to her without thinking.

A few more turns down a couple streets and he realized where they were going. The streetlights were further apart, the trees and bushes lining the sidewalk overgrown and unkempt.

“Sydney, why are we here?” he whispered fiercely. “Do you not see the No Trespassing signs?”

The street stopped abruptly, a tall chain-link fence at the end, metal signs hanging all over it. A padlock and chains wrapped around the latch on the small door, barely visible over the ivy vines crawling all over it.

“The park’s been closed for years and it’s supposed to be haunted. I am not going in there.”

“Jason, just follow my lead.”

He watched her stick one Converse covered foot into the fence, then the other, slowly scaling the metal links. One leg swung over the top, and then the other and she dropped down to the grass below. With a wicked grin, she gripped the chain links and looked at him through the metal.

“Come on, Jace. What are you so scared of?”

The lack of light should have made it harder to see, but her white sweatpants and yellow hoodie made her stick out like a sore thumb. But it was her eyes, shining such a bright blue that looked so expectant and hopeful and the next thing he knew he was clinging onto the fence for dear life as he climbed it.

He joined her on the overgrown grass on the other side, feet crunching into the frost-covered blades. Branches of nearby trees snagged in his clothing and messy blonde hair and he was about to turn to complain, but stopped short. The smile that Sydney was leveling at him made his heart ache. He had never seen her so happy, and all because he broke a little rules and climbed a fence.

She snatched his hand and started pulling him farther into the park, still grinning crazily. Even though the park had been abandoned, there was an obvious path that cut through the tall grass and bushes and he realized this was not the first time that Sydney had broken in.

He wondered bitterly how many other boys had followed her into the darkness.

The ground they were walking on slowly started to steepen and they headed uphill the trees thinning and bushes lessening to reveal a level hilltop. Sydney dropped his hand and sprinted forward, climbing up the hill quickly.

Without the lights of the streets, the houses or the cars, the night turned vibrant, pulsing with blues and black, the yellow hue of the city gone. The stars were so bright here in the park, a beauty he had never seen before.

When Sydney reached the top she laughed happily and turned back towards Jason.

“I like to come here when I can’t sleep. Something about the wide open sky makes my problems seems so small and easier to forget,” she cast her gaze down to the grass, feet snuffling around a bit. “I’ve never shown anybody else.”

A minute or so passed in silence while he tried to figure out what to say.

“I’m honored,” he finally sputtered, shocked to his very core.

With a satisfied grin she spun, arms spread wide, beanie flying off to let her red waves fly in the wind. He watched her come undone in the night, watched her vibrate with life and it was just so beautiful. Mid-spin she stopped and looked at him, one eyebrow raised, as if to ask are you coming?

Jason shot forward, hands scrambling to find purchase on the grassy hill as he climbed; to gaze at the stars with her and to finally come alive.