Leaves like Blood

The leaves dripped from Cyn’s fingers like blood. She ached all over from the fall. The fall that she had somehow survived. She was banged up, but not too badly, considering how far she had fallen. Her right ankle screamed with pain when she walked, so she shifted to put more weight on her left. 

There was a crunching sound of leaves and twigs coming her way. She dashed behind a tree. Her heart started to race and she took a deep breath trying to calm herself. The laughter of children greeted her like sweet music on the wind. 

Cyn came out from behind the tree and greeted the laughing children with a smile. The laughter stopped immediately, and they gasped when they saw her. Their mother grabbed them in a protective embrace.

Cyn forgot that she was not quite herself, but disguised. The old toothless man in the woods is probably not the best one to greet people with. She was rushed for time when she grabbed it. 

Her mind was like molasses trying to remember everything. It all happened so quickly. The sniveling two-faced Harold had ratted her out. Cyn was stretched out in her seat on her boss’s private jet trying to get some rest on their long flight to New York. She sensed more than heard him when she opened her eyes and saw Harold looking down at her. She slammed her seat forward and ripped off her sleep mask. Cyn stood up suddenly. “What!”

He was drenched in sweat and he wiped the sweat from his face with his shirt sleeve. “I know what you are.”

Cyn groaned. “What do you know?” Surely Harold wasn’t that smart. She always thought he was an idiot.

“Oh, you think you’re so smart, but I know,” he laughed like a maniac.

“You’re not making any sense. Maybe you should take a deep breath and calm down.” She thought that she had finally found a place to settle. Cyn was tired of running, but now she was on a plane 35,000 or so feet up in the air.

“You people disgust me.” Harold continued, but Cyn was barely listening. She was trying to figure out how to escape. Maybe she could hit him over the head and lock him in the bathroom. She looked around. The room was not empty and people were staring at them. 

“You people.” She jabbed him in the chest with her finger. “What do you mean by you people? Upwardly mobile white women?” She balled her hands up into fists. She knew that she needed to buy herself some time. Confrontation was her best play. “Are you that threatened by a woman being smarter and better than you? Well, get used to it.” And she shoved him hard and he landed on his back and he hit his head on the base of another seat. 

Cyn pivoted on her heel and stormed off. She walked as quickly as she could. Shock was her best bet.

Then, he called after her. “I mean you enhanced people. Don’t try to deny it. I have video proof. They’re waiting for you when we land.” Her shoulders tensed, but she kept walking. 

She grabbed the bag that she had hidden by the bathroom and slipped inside. Cyn put the disguise on. She knew she had to hurry they were coming. She closed her eyes and imagined that she was weightless that she was no longer matter. The floor rushed up to meet her and she slid through and kept falling until she saw the earth below. She needed to slow down and become matter again or she would slip through the earth. She saw a forest with beautiful leaves of reds, oranges, and yellows. She reached towards the leaves to catch her fall. Right before Cyn hit, she closed her eyes, and imagined she was as light as a feather, and the leaves were there to catch her fall. They absorbed her weight, but they seemed confused and turned to liquid. 

Now she was standing in front of a mother with her two children dripping with liquified leaves that looked like blood. “I’m sorry to have startled you. I’m lost.”

The woman just continued to stare. Then time stopped, but not for Cyn and the girls. One of the little girls walked to Cyn and held out her hand. “Don’t be scared. My sister and I are enhanced too. My mother doesn’t know about it. I can stop time, and my sister can… How can I put this? She can alter memory. Take off your disguise. Our mother will think you’re our aunt and you can live with us.” 

Cyn fell to her knees and started to cry. “I’ve been looking for a home for so long.” She slipped out of her disguise. 

Time resumed. “Oh my god! Cyn where have you been?” The little girls’ mother said. 

Somehow Cyn knew her name too. “Oh Lizzie! I’ve missed you.” 

“Please come home with us. We have plenty of room especially now that their father Harold left.”