Not really the prompt

“Henry just told me his parents won’t be home tonight.”  I shut my locker door and looked at Sarah. “And?” “And he invited me to… hang out.” Her lips curved upward in a coy smile. “I think tonight might be the night.” “The night?” I gave her a curious look. “For what?” “To… you know!” I smiled at her. “Don’t make me say it, it ruins the fun of it!” “Of course I know,” I said, laughing.  “I’m nervous, if I’m being honest. But excited.” We began walking to class together. “Wait, so you’ve never-” “Shush!” She covered my mouth. “No, but after tonight that won’t be an issue anymore.” “I just would’ve expected you to have at least a couple under your belt by now.” “That’s the reputation I’ve carefully cultivated, so don’t go ruining it.”  During class, I looked over at Sarah. She sat with her hands neatly folded. Throughout the day, she carried a calm expression. Inside, though, I knew she was as giddy as she could possibly be. She couldn’t hide it from a friend of seventeen years.  I went home that night and slept by myself in a twin bed. The next morning, Sarah was different. I shut my locker door and looked at her. “You haven’t said anything about last night.” She glanced up at me, then quickly glanced back down. “What? Oh, yeah, it was… good.” Her eyes were cloudy, and they wouldn’t look at mine for more than a second. Her hands moved to her mouth to bite her fingernails, a tick I hadn’t seen her have in years. “So did you… you know?” I teased, poking her on the shoulder. Her arm flinched. “Hey, are you okay, Sarah?” That seemed to snap her out of her trance for a second. Her mouth opened to say something, but just as the words were about to leave it, the bell rang.  A sigh escaped her. “We should get to class.” During class, I looked over at Sarah. Her hands sat in her lap. Throughout the day, her face carried a nervous expression. Inside, I had no idea what was going on. I was worried. Whatever it was, I was going to get to the bottom of it. She couldn’t hide it from a friend of seventeen years. Could she? As the days grew shorter, Sarah seemed to, too. Every day seemed to wear her down, until she was a husk of the person I once knew. She started hanging out with Henry, Henry’s friends, and when they broke up, she didn’t run to me like I thought she would. She had new friends, and they taught her things I wouldn’t have thought she wanted to learn.  Whatever they did, though, it seemed to revive her spirit, and she met each day with the same confidence she did before that night at Henry’s house. I saw her with a new boy every week. She stopped talking to me. The days grew longer, and the school day seemed to, too. I devoted every waking moment to studying chemistry, biology, and the like. I graduated high school, I went to med school, I became a doctor.  One day, I received an email from a potential patient, a pregnant woman with AIDS. She wanted help with managing her health during her pregnancy. I gladly accepted her request.  Her name was Sarah. I shut the door to her bedroom and looked at Sarah. She looked older, much older than she should have. Her once-beautiful features had been worn out. But she was still Sarah.  “Hello, doctor,” she said politely. “It’s nice to meet you.” From her bed, she extended her bony hand out to shake mine. My appearance must have changed over the years as well, I thought, because she doesn’t recognize me. Either that, or she doesn’t want to think about her past. I examined her and helped her make plans to keep her health in check, and to hopefully prevent her disease from affecting her baby. I also made plans to check in on her weekly. Before leaving, I had a final question for her. “Who is your baby’s father?” “Oh, I’m afraid I don’t know. But I do know that I’m her mother, and that’s all that matters to me.” Sarah smiled. Despite her worn out looks, she had a certain vivacity about her.  Over the next few months, I sat at Sarah’s bedside once a week. We would talk for hours, long past when her appointment time ended. She would tell me stories about her old life, a life filled with grandeur, with men pining after her every chance they’d get. She married a rich entrepreneur and had everything she could ever want. He died in a car crash, and she inherited his fortune, and could have any man she wanted. And she did.  “When you live your life like that, there’re consequences. That’s what I learned. I only hope she doesn’t learn it as late as I did.” Sarah smiled and rubbed her belly. The days grew shorter, and soon it was time for her baby to be delivered. We rushed her to the hospital, and she wasn’t looking good. She didn’t have the strength to push the baby out, and we had to perform a C-section. Her baby was small and frail, like her. We worried about her health, so we put her in the incubator. Sarah wasn’t doing much better. “Doctor,” she called. “Come here.” I went and sat at her bedside. She reached out her hand, and I grabbed it. “I know it’s you.” “I know,” I whispered. “I just wanted to thank you. You’re the only person in my life who hasn’t tried to get something from me.” I shut my eyes. “She’s going to be okay. She’s going to be strong. Stronger than me.” Sarah said this confidently, and I believed her.  “She needs someone… like you… in her life.” Relaxing her hand, she closed her eyes. I looked at Sarah. “Sarah?” Her hand was cold against mine. I felt my stomach drop, and my head started spinning. I closed my eyes again. “Please don’t leave me again.” I looked at Sarah. Then I shut my eyes. Then I looked at Sarah. Then I shut my eyes, then I looked at Sarah, and she had her hand in my hand, and her hand off the side of the bed, and she carried no expression on her face and inside I knew that she was dead and you couldn’t hide that from anyone. I held her hand close to my heart and sobbed.  I named her child Sarah.

They say that on the 7th of November, just before midnight, you can hear the wails of the Lady of the Woods.

The Lady waits in solitude every year for that beautiful night, when the moon is shining just enough to light a traveler’s way through the forest. Before the ban was placed on children entering the forest, she would lead them away, too. But alas, now she only has the grown ones.

Some say that she eats those that she leads away. It would only make sense, as they are never seen again. No bodies are ever found. Others say that she’s just looking for a friend to play with.

Tonight, I will test my luck. If I can make it out alive, I will tell everyone whether the Lady of the Woods is a cannibal or a child. That is, if she even exists at all.

The air was sucked out of my lungs as I hit the ground. I stood just in time to find myself on the floor again due to another punch. Blood streamed down my face, stinging my eyes. I coughed and felt a ache in my ribs. Still, I stood again. And again, and again, and again.

I didn’t ask for a fight, if you could call that one. I was only trying to stop the fighting.

I had been walking down the hall that morning when I encountered a scene that you might have seen in a high school drama; a guy was being harassed by some kid for stealing his girlfriend or whatever, and things were looking like they were about to get ugly. Everyone else was just standing around, some with cynical smiles, awaiting the inevitable first punch.

As the crowd grew larger, and the guys got more and more agitated, I realized that I had two options to preserve my psyche. One was to walk away and pretend nothing happened, that that was where the conflict had ended. But I knew that that was not what would happen.

I pushed through the crowd and made my way to the front. I got in between the guys, hoping that maybe that would deescalate the situation.

“Get out of my way,” one of them said to me.

“No.”

“Get out of my way before a beat you up too!”

“No.”

“Just get out of here!” The other guy tried to move me, but I wouldn’t budge.

That was how I ended up there. On the floor, my face dripping blood. He kept throwing punches, and finally stopped when he realized there was not a scratch on him. He walked away, the rest of the crowd trickling towards their classes as well. I vaguely remembered a teacher dragging me off to an ambulance before I lost consciousness.

My knees clacked together as I approached the receptionist’s desk. It was a simple question. But of course, the answer could cause great sorrow or relief, depending on what it was. So insurmountable was my plight that I considered turning around and running until I found a suitable spot in the wilderness to sit down and decompose. I lost my luggage. Contained in the pink and white ‘Hello Kitty’ suitcase was the computer which stored all of my work files. In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea to put it in my luggage in the first place. I should have stored it in my carry-on, but I ran out of room and had no time to rearrange my luggage to store it. So, I grabbed the first suitcase I could find, which was unfortunately my daughter Lesley’s old camping bag from when she was ten. But time was ticking away. So, into the children’s case the oh-so-important laptop went. Stopping in my tracks, I reconsidered whether I needed to ask the receptionist anyways. Perhaps I had just missed it on the way in. I walked back to the luggage carousel to check if it was there, nonchalantly scanning the multitudes of suitcases. I sighed when I realized the truth: it was not there. Dejectedly, I dragged myself to the counter.

 “Hello, how can I help you?” said the receptionist, her customer service smile like the Sun on a hot, sticky, humid day. 

 “Hello,” I began. “I’ve lost my luggage, and I was wondering if you have any information on it.”

 “Alright. Can you give me a description of the luggage in question?”

 I gulped. “W-well, you see, it’s… a pink and white ‘Hello Kitty’ suitcase. The name on it probably says Lesley.”

 “I see. And where did you fly from?”

 “The United States. Missouri.”

 “Alright, I’ll contact our airports there. In the meantime, I’ll make an announcement.”

 My hands, caked with sweat, began to shake as she reached for the microphone. I tried to stop her, but no words would escape from my mouth. I watched her raise it up to her mouth, sealing my fate.

 “Attention, passengers. If you find a pink and white ‘Hello Kitty’ suitcase for a man named Lesley, please bring it up to the front desk. If you find a man named Lesley’s pink and white ‘Hello Kitty’ suitcase, please bring it up to the front desk.”

I was walking in the aquarium one day, and to my surprise, what jumps out at me but a great big fish! Startled, I ran to my mommy.

“Don’t be worried,” said my mommy. “Fish are our friends! I’ll tell you all about them.“

“Fish are like you and me, except for what they look like. Fish have three fins and a pretty little tail, just like a mermaid’s! They help them to swim through the water, and their big eyes help them to see!“

“Fish are like you and me, except for what they eat. Fish eat all the plants they can find in the ocean. Big fish eat smaller fish, and even bigger fish eat those fish!“

“Fish are like you and me, except for where they live. Fish swim all around the sea. They also swim in lakes, rivers, and ponds. Fish live all around the world!”

“Fish are like you and me, except for the colors they come in. Red, blue, green, and pink, these are all colors that fish can be!”

“But Mommy,” I began, pointing at the thing, “I don’t see how this fish is like me at all. Its fins, its eyes, its colors, and its smile, I don’t have any of the same things this fish has!”

“You’re right,” my mommy replied. “You and the fish are different, but you have some things in common.”

“Fish are like you and me, because they have families. Some fish swim in groups called schools, which keeps them safe and well-fed. They all have mommys and daddys. This way, they’re never alone!”

“Fish are like you and me, because they love to swim and play. Fish swim all through the water, playing with each other and having so much fun!”

“Fish are like you and me, because they are God’s creatures. He loves each and every one of them and wants them to be safe and happy.”

“So don’t be scared of the fish, he’s not here to hurt you. In fact, he probably wants to play!”

I walked over to the giant fish again and put my hand up against the glass. My new friend swam up to me and tapped the other side with his fin. I giggled at the fact that I was afraid of him. Now I know my fishy friend is just like me!

If we could go back in time, there are a lot of things we would do differently. There are some things we would say, and some that we wouldn’t. If we could go back in time, we would take the next step in spite of our fatigue, because we know what we’ve been searching for lies just around the corner.

      If I could go back in time, I would have told you that I don’t care what you’ve done in the past. I would have hugged you tightly and never let you go, because there was nothing you could ever say that would change the way I thought about you. I would have said everything that was on my mind and not faltered in my words, lest you miss their true meaning and think I no longer cared for you. I would have listened to you. I would have shown you that I loved you.

      But you aren’t here anymore. You blew away like the wind the moment you heard something you didn’t understand. And I wish I could say that I harbor no feelings against you, but I can’t. It breaks my heart to say this, but it’s true. I don’t know why you ran away from me, but I do know that I didn’t run away from you. I feel betrayed, broken, abandoned, and lost. What am I to do if I am to be without you? 

      If this is to be the last thing I say to you, I want to be perfectly clear, candid, and concise. There is one phrase which fulfills all three of these categories. It’s a phrase which in one fell swoop has shattered nations, and brought them together. It can bring peace and war. But I’m not looking to do any of these things. There is only one purpose for my words, one reason that I must say them, and it is this: I love you.

I ducked out of the way just in time to miss the giant beam of light that shot out of the monster’s head. “We’re barely making a dent!” “Barely. But we are doing something.” I opened my visor to address Lieutenant Smith. “But Sir, what good are we doing? He’s taking us out by the hundreds every minute!” “We’re just the distraction. We’ve got backup arriving in-“ he paused to dodge a light beam. I did the same. Out of the clouds, I heard a roar. I looked up to the gray canopy to see a large figure appear. It grew bigger and took the form of something. It had four massive wings, sharp talons, and a long, thick tail. “That,” Lieutenant Smith shouted to me, “is our backup.”