Eleven years later...

"Isn't she the daughter of the town drunk?"

"Aye, she is. Weird to see her 'ere, though. She moved to the city a couple years ago."

"She did? She left her mother all alone?"

"Aye. She basically left her to die."

"Then why is she here?"

"Who knows? Maybe she came to just claim all 'er mama's money."

"Ha! Like that drunk even has money! You and I both know that she wasted that money on all the booze she could get."

I squeezed my upper arms tighter until my knuckles turned white. I sucked in a deep breath to calm down, but the lump in my throat only grew thicker to the point where it grew painful to swallow. My fingers curled around on bed sheets as I pathetically sobbed. The voices continued to echo.

"No, no, wait. Maybe she just wanted to see her poor mama get buried since nobody 'ere likes her."

"Well, who the hell likes a drunk? They're just a walking corpse of waste. They're useless and lost. What's the point in mourning for 'em?"

I curled up in a ball, facing the wall.

"Honey... Can we talk now?"

I opened my eyes, sucking in a sharp breath. I sat up, almost jumping ten feet in the air to see Javon sitting on the bed.

I quickly turned away, rubbing my eyes and cheeks turning red in embarrassment at having been caught in such a poor state.

"Y-Yeah. What's, uh, u-up?" I said, voice hoarse.

"You haven't eaten since we got back from the funeral." He stated, cutting right to the chase.

I lowered my hand and chewed on the inside of my cheek. "Oh."

Javon raised his eyebrows. "'Oh'? That's all you have to say?"

"Um... I'm not hungry."

"That's what you've been saying yesterday."

I rubbed my palms together and averted my eyes. "I..." I trailed off, not really knowing how to defend myself. I didn't have the energy to get out of this bed, much less do other things like eating.

Javon exhaled through his nose. "I'm really sorry about your mom's death. I know. This is hard for you to move on, but I know your mom won't be happy to know that you're starving yourself."

"She... She died hating me. Why would she worry about me?" I whispered, finally looking up to meet Javon's eyes.

Javon reached forward, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear and leaning forward until our foreheads touched. "She never hated you. She was just upset when you left to move to the city."

I sniffled as a fresh wave of tears washed over me.

It was only last week when I received a call from one of my mama's only friend. He told me that my mama was found dead in her bedroom from alcohol poisoning. I returned to my hometown and went numb.

This couldn't be real. My mama wasn't dead. She wasn't the town drunk. She wasn't hated. She wasn't lost. She wasn't a waste.

But yet that was all I heard as we drove through town. A waste, they said. A good for nothing drunk, they said. Nothing to mourn about, they said.

I lowered my eyes catching the gold band on our rings fingers gleaming faintly from the poor lit motel room we were staying at. Normally I would've smiled as the memory of him going down on his knee to propose to me flooded me with an undeniable happiness. But today, I felt nothing of the sort.

I felt nothing, but coldness.

I sniffled and swallowed hard, averting my eyes from our hands. I turned my head away and blinked rapidly to clear my vision. Javon cupped my cheek and kissed the corner of my mouth.

His lips lingered there and he breathed in deeply. "Please try to eat. I don't want you to get sick."

I parted my lips and then quickly snapped them shut. I just nodded my head and Javon leaned back. He climbed off the bed and paused at the doorway.

"I'm going to take Drakon out to the park. There's leftover pizza on the table... I love you, okay?"

I glanced at him briefly and whispered the words back. He forced a smile and closed the door softly behind him. I sighed and slowly climbed out of bed, clutching my oversized flannel shirt tightly as it suddenly got colder. The warmth the bed provided me almost lured me back, but I knew if Javon saw the pizza on the table, he'd never leave me be.

I walked over to the table and lifted a slice of pizza. I took a bite and another until there was nothing left. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I closed the curtains, blocking the glaring sun.

I reached over to grab some tissues when I spotted the keys to my mama's house. That was all she left me—the ownership of her house. Without thinking, I grabbed the keys and pulled up a pair of used leggings and sneakers. I bolted through the door, leaving a note for Javon.

I took my time walking, my eyes glued to the way my beat up sneakers slapped the pavement until I stood in front of my childhood home. I sucked in a deep breath and took a step forward. The two-story house looked completely different from when I last saw it. The white paint was chipping away and the windows were all dusty or shattered with dirty curtains swaying lazily with the wind. The front door looked almost ready to collapse from its loose hinges. The once beautiful and decorated garden now laid vacant in life.

I swallowed hard and took another step until I stood in the foyer. Dust balls and rodents were everywhere and I wrapped my arms around myself at the sight of a dead rat lying in the corner with its insides out. I tiptoed through the house, cringing at the awful smell that seemed to follow me in every room I went. With each step, my heart broke as memories of what used to be a clean home now was taken over by filth and bad decisions.

I stepped out to the backyard and wiped my nose with my sleeve. I paced back and forth at the ruined yard. The picnic table was flipped over and had one leg missing. The branch that held the tire swing snapped and laid in the dead grass in a heap of junk along with the home made slide my step-papa made for my seventh birthday.

I clenched my hands around the ends of my sleeve and sat down on the only lawn chair that wasn't broken. I rested my elbows on my knees and looked down. It was then that the idea to repair my old home came to mind. I lifted my head and glanced at the house.

For the first time in a week, I smiled a small smile and got up. I brushed myself off and was about to head to the park where Javon and Drakon, my son, were when I heard the bushes rattle. I looked over my shoulder to where the woods sat and shivered as the wind picked up.

Leaves of the tall trees fell off their branches and danced away with the wind. A nearby pack of crows took off screeching. I shivered and rubbed the back of my neck. A wave of uneasiness washed over and I held on the lawn chair's arm, gripping it tightly.

Memories of the masked man made my head pound. I tried hard forgetting about my meeting with the legendary monster, but there were nights where I stayed up for hours, thinking if what happened really did happen. Was it all my imagination? No, it couldn't be my imagination. I wasn't blessed with that kind of creative.

Even when I was a kid, I didn't play with imaginary friends. I always thought logically and made children run to their parents when I told there was no such thing as Santa.

I glanced up my old bedroom window that faced towards the woods. The Edgar Allan Poe book was still tucked away somewhere in my room. I decided not to take it when I was packing to go to the city. I didn't know why I left it behind. It just felt right. I thought of handing it back to mask man, or Tristian as he called himself, but the fear of him eating me or doing something like in those stories I heard from Javon kept me at bay.

I gulped and stood upright. Goosebumps prickled my skin as I felt imaginary fingers slowly running through my face. That was also another thing that kept me up at night. His touch... It felt like nothing I felt before. It was soft and cold from the leather gloves he wore.

I sighed, shaking my head to clear my thoughts when I found a piece of paper sticking from under the lawn chair's leg. I frowned and picked it up. As I was unfolding it, the wind picked up again and grasped it right out of my hands. I reached to grab, but it was too high. The paper twisted and twirled as I jumped up to grab it. I didn't realize I was heading towards the woods until my fingers clamped the paper.

I started to unfold it when a twig snapped behind me. I turned around sharply, my face paling.

Tristian stood there with a bundle of heavy broken branches tucked in his arms. He cocked his head to the side as if also surprised to see me. He took a small step back, his boots crunching on the fallen leaves. I stared at his blank mask in stunned silence.

Was he afraid of me? I blinked, watching his body tense up, his legs shuffling around as if he was ready to take off. I reached up to wipe my eyes and took a step back. It wasn't my imagination. I debated on running away, seeing as he looked like he wanted to do the same, but words slipped past my chapped lips.

"Um... H-How you're doing?" I stupidly asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Tristian averted his face from me and appeared to be interested in the plants.

Awkward.

I cleared my throat and pointed behind me. "Well. I, uh, I should g-get going and..." I trailed off as he lifted his head up, his fingers visibly loosening their hold on the branches, "...yeah." I finished off.

He glanced off to the left and cleared his throat. He nodded curtly and began to walk away.

"W-Wait!" I shouted without thinking, my hand thrust out in his direction.

He halted and slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder. I dropped my hand to the side and chewed on the inside of my cheek.

"I... accidently took your book from when you saved me eleven years ago. I still have it if you want it back. N-No, wait, you should get it back because it was rude of me to just take it without your permission. Not that I wanted to steal it or anything. I'm not much of a reader. I find reading quite boring. N-Not that you are boring for reading! Wait, this is coming right. I'm sorry."

Tristian shifted his weight to one leg and slightly tilted his head to the side as if finding my rambling boring.

I chuckled nervously and scratched my ear. "I talk a lot when I'm nervous."

"And why would you be nervous?" He asked, his voice still hoarse and sent an involuntary shiver down my spine.

I mentally shook it off and shrugged one shoulder as a respond. He stared at me for who knows how long and then turned around.

"You can keep it. I have more of Poe's works on my shelves."

I opened my mouth to protest, but in a blink of an eye, Tristian was gone. I did a complete one-eighty, staring wide-eyed at the empty field. How did he disappear like that? Was I imagining this? Was I really talking to Tristian or just a lonely tree for fifteen minutes?

After ten minutes of searching for Tristian, I reluctantly gave up and headed back towards my mama's broken home. I reached up to run my hand through my hair when I realized I still had the folded paper. I paused and slowly unfolded it.

It was a coupon of ten percent off on the next car wash.

And it had been expired since 1999.

I scoffed. Folding it back up, I continued my way towards the park where my husband and son were. I took one last look over my shoulder, still wondering what the hell happened. I sighed and scratched my head. Well, there was one thing that I was certain of; I'm going to lose sleep.