Page 45 of Teach Me How To Fly

As soon as I stepped a foot outside the backyard and led my feet into the heart of the forest, I searched my pocket for my phone and as soon as I picked it up, I pressed my thumb on the contact application and called Maksen.

The tears were running down my cheeks, each one of them meeting on my chin. I was broken to the bone, and my soul was crushed in so many pieces I didn’t ever think I would have.

My father wasn’t my father, and my sister wasn’t my sister.

So who am I?

“Annalise? Anna, are you there?”

Maksen’s voice took me out of my thoughts and made me realize that I walked until I reached the edge of the forest.

“Please come and get me out of here. Please, come here now,” I mumbled and felt how hard it was for me to speak any word as the bursts of crying were announcing themselves.

“What happened? Where are you?”

“I’m in our place. In that beautiful place I took you to, and I don’t think I’ll make it. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to accept it, I don’t fucking know who I am or who I’m supposed to be. Please, just come and get me.”

I didn’t let him give me an answer because I ended the call and put the phone back into my pocket. I started crying louder, deeper and more brokenhearted than I’d been a couple of seconds ago.

I was watching the horizon line, lost and numb to my feelings and just wanting to disappear and never come back.

I couldn’t believe what I just heard. I couldn’t believe that I lived in a total lie that my father created for me. He was an awful man, but now he was the devil himself for me.

She’s not my blood.

They screamed at me to stop, but I didn’t.

I continued to run, trying so hard to get as far as I could from them. I didn’t want to hear anything they had to say to me, especially nothing from my so-called father.

My body was trembling so hard that I felt my jaw clenching and my knees almost melting like ice cream on a torrid day of summer.

It was hard for me to breathe and even think clearly, but the moment I saw the little boat I knew coming on the river, I knew that Maksen was close.

I looked at him as he was getting closer and the moment he was close enough to the river banks, I hopped into the boat and fell into his arms without even thinking about how the man who was driving it could see us.

I didn’t care. All I wanted was for him to hold me and tell me that everything was going to be okay, no matter how cliche that might sound.

“I’m here, little angel,” he whispered between my hair strands as the boat was moving away from the shore of the forest.

His words were like bandages on the open wounds of my soul, and I felt better hearing them, but nothing could’ve made all the pain go away.

“What happened? Tell me who did this to you. Tell me who made you let all these tears fall on your face,” he added as he caressed my face with his calloused fingers.

I was just keeping silent as I was sobbing with my head resting on his chest. I bit my lower lip and put my hands around his body, hugging him tight and inhaling his scent, hoping to find something that would comfort me.

He continued to caress me and hold me to his chest while leaving soft kisses on the top of my head.

I moved away from Maksen and wiped off the tears that were still rolling down my face. I furrowed and bit my inner cheek as I gazed at him.

“My father will search for us at your house first. We need to go somewhere else,” I said, feeling the fear creeping into my body.

I didn’t want to see my dad trying to break into Maksen’s house just to try and talk to me, because I didn’t want to hearhim say any other word. I wanted him to disappear from my life. I wanted to be left alone in my grief while I was trying to process everything.

“We’ll go somewhere else then. There are plenty of places your father won’t search for us,” he quickly replied and I saw on his face how worried he was for me.

I felt bad for making him worry, but he was the only one to whom I could talk about what happened. And I knew that once I told him what happened, he’d feel every single thing I was also feeling.

“I want to go to Lydia,” I said, trying to snuggle into the hoodie I was wearing. “Lukyan always told me that I wasn’t allowed to go there, so I want to see my aunt. I think she can help me,” I added and I saw the little confused furrow on his face.

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