Secret

"I've never seen you here before."

I jumped so high I hit my head on the branch hanging above me.

There was a girl sitting in the tree. She had blonde hair that came to just below her shoulders and a silver mask. It covered the area around her eyes and hid them in shadow. I couldn't tell what color her irises were.

She giggled when I touched my hand to my now throbbing head. I scowled up at her as I tried to slow my beating heart.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked, angry and frustrated and startled. I just wanted to explore the forest, I didn't want to have a heart attack because of some lunatic in a tree.

"I'm a secret. Who are you?" she asked, tip toeing across the branch she'd just been sitting on. She walked like those people in circuses that walked on tightropes. The cream-colored dress she was wearing fluttered slightly.

"I'm Evan. I've just moved into the house over that way," I said, pointing in the general direction of my new home. I had no idea why I was telling her this. I hadn’t even realized I was saying it until it was out. "I wanted to see the forest. I didn't expect to meet a crazy girl in a tree." My voice held a hint of anger. I didn't mean to put it there, but I didn't regret it.

"Oh, I'm not crazy, darling. I'm a secret," she whispered, stepping behind a branch and swung out from behind another, her ankles twisted around it and her fingers barely touching the bark. I didn't know how she did it and I didn't know how she wasn't falling and I was so tired of her already that I didn't bother trying to figure any of it out on my own.

"What do you even mean? And what are you doing in a tree? And scaring me?" I squinted my eyes slightly in a glare. "Actually, you know what? I don't care. I'm going back," I turned on my heel and started walking off. My head hurt and this chick pissed me off.

"Oh, don't leave! We've only just met!" She was gliding from branch to branch, her tip toeing barely moving the leaves growing on the trees.

"I don't care," I grumbled, my fingers curling into fists.

"You will," she whispered as I passed her. She had stopped on a branch above my head. She was sitting on her heels, her toes digging into the bark.

"And why would I?"

"Because Ani could get hurt if you don't."

I stopped. I turned back around and looked at her. She was still sitting on her heels.

"How do you know about Ani?"

She pursed her lips and brought her index finger up, pressing it to her mouth. She stood and stepped behind a branch, popping out from behind the trunk I'd been standing next to. I jumped slightly again.

"You need to stop being so skittish. And angry. And you need to listen."

"Stop telling me what I need and tell me how you know about Ani," I hissed.

"I'm a secret. I know all kinds of things," her voice sounded like a song. I wanted to turn her off. "I know things people don't want anyone to know. Secrets, secrets, secrets. Won't you people ever learn?"

I wanted to smack her. Slap that stupid smirk off her face. Pull her mask off so I knew what color her eyes were.

"How do you know about Ani?" I asked once more, biting out every word. I wanted an answer and I wanted it now.

"You need to relax. Listen to the wind," she spoke like she hadn't heard me. "Listen to Ani. She's right, you know."

I wanted to punch her.

"She's a smart girl," she sang, skipping back behind the tree. She didn't reappear. I turned around and didn't see her. I turned back and my nose almost bumped hers. She was hanging upside down from a branch above me. "You should listen."

"Who are you?" I screamed at her. I felt like I was falling. She pulled herself into a sitting position on the branch, her back to me, then fell forward, her legs whipping into the air then following the rest of her body behind the branch. She swung up onto another branch several trees away.

"I'm a secret," she grinned at me. I blinked and she was gone.