The Hidden Truth

Amber moved into a new neighborhood with her family when she was 11 years old. This was her third house in two years. Amber was different from other children, but she always managed to make new friends with every move her family made. This move was no different, Amber couldn’t wait to make friends, real friends, friends that would play her games of make-believe. Sure she had her siblings which were fun, but new friends… Ones that didn’t know who she was, what she could do, what she could see, ones that wouldn’t believe that her made up games were truly real through her eyes. Because Amber’s make-believe games were always true, but she knew no one would ever believe her and she was fine with that. She at least found a way to tell people the truth…without telling them the truth. Not even her family new her truths. They just believed she had a very wild imagination.

We arrived at the new house after an hour in the car. As I looked out the window I could see the houses that surround us were older homes, plenty were in need of paint. Two lots to the left of ours was a yard surrounded by a broken chain link fence, this fence had to be at least two of me tall. The yard beyond it was over grown, and through the car window I could see a rundown shack, with a weeping willow broken above. Beyond that I could hear, over the voices of my family, the rapid flow of water in the distance.
I couldn’t help but wonder as I got out of the car what I could find if only I could investigate what that shack was hiding, if I could go beyond its metal walls. Would I be able to feel the energy that surrounds most abandon places? The hidden truth behind that which the eyes can’t see?

“No way”
“Are you excited Amber?!”
Hands in the air, fingers spread wide, with excitement radiating “We-have-a-creek in our backyard!” “I can’t believe it!”
Now even through this excitement of having a creek in our yard, I also held a hidden excitement of being able to investigate that fenced yard, all I would have to do was follow that creek. I already started formulating a plan as I jumped up and down with the anticipation of what this new neighborhood could bring.
“Come in and eat” “We are going to meet the neighbors soon”
“Do they have kids?”
“Yes, I think around yours and your brother’s age”.
“Great!”


A couple weeks later we finally settled into the new house. But the creek and the neighbor-kids made time go by. I was able to start expanding the exploration of my surroundings. My mom felt it was safe enough since she knew the neighborhood better. As long as I didn’t go more than a block away and of course I needed to bring someone with me --the whole safer with a buddy system. But it just meant I could wander and allow myself to investigate while playing detective with my new friend Megan. We had to also include her little brother Shaun, but lucky for us my little brother wanted to play with Shaun too. So it was pretty much like we weren’t stuck with him in the end.

“Megan, we should investigate this foot print at the side of the road”
“Where do you think it came from?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s heading toward that house across the street”
“It looks like a kid’s foot print Amber, it’s about the size of mine?”
“You’re right” “Let’s look for clues, see who it belongs too.”

The foot print in question wasn’t truly there in Megan’s eyes, just while we used our imagination and made up the story as we went along. Through my eyes though…it was, so were the rest that went from the abandoned yard and headed across the road to the steps of the blue house across the street. I knew it was a boys foot prints, I could see him watching us through the second floor window…but that will be found out later as our detective game brings us closer to the clues.

Eleven year olds can’t keep up a make-believe game very long, before they want to move on to something new. So as the hours past Megan began to get bored of playing detective. Which was fine, because I wanted to find a way inside that fence and I couldn’t do that with Megan. When day breaks tomorrow, I will continue my investigation into the foot prints.
The night brought on swirls of darkened dreams. Feelings that made me cold, even under the warmth of my blankets, I shivered. A flash of something falling and an echoing crack, then I woke to something breaking.
I am an eleven year old, woken in the middle of the night, by a dream surrounded by darkness and a feeling of falling from the sky. As I sit in my bed in the middle of the night, what else can I do but lay back down and hope that sleep will come again. But lost spirits never sleep, they wait until the living do, this is the only time they can call out to those who knew them before they passed. But the living do not know it is someone calling for help, for when they awake it’s never remembered. That’s where I come in. The girl that can communicate with these lost spirits… those pictures which flash through my head and the energy that invades my soul…is how they communicate, there are no words spoken. I am just happy that it is only children that I can see, it’s not as scary as it could be.
I’m different from the other children that surround me, those that live and those that are no longer living. There is no escaping this life, but sometimes, I’m not really sure if I would choose to leave it behind if I ever was given that chance. If the lost spirits of children couldn’t connect with me… Then how would they ever find their way, how would they ever tell their story?

The creek was flowing fast today. I took to the woods beside the creek in the dimmed light of the sun. I shouldn’t have to travel far to find that which I was looking for. I came across, over flowing trash cans, lining the fence that I was looking for. Piled junk formed what to me seemed like the perfect steps to gain access to the abandoned lot I was so desperate to investigate.
I found more foot prints, to go with the ones I saw the day I found the boy watching me through an upstairs window. The shack had pieces of splintered branches scattered along the floor, and a hole in the roof…the size of child… Around my size… As I looked through the shattered roof, I saw the willow’s broken limb. My head started spinning, and a faint crying invaded my mind, the cold I felt last night spread over my body and everything suddenly went black. I woke to the rain falling against my skin, surrounded by walls that I couldn’t place. As I looked up, I remembered where I was… Underneath the weeping willow, inside a shack placed in an abandoned lot. All I had were questions running through my head, and the feeling I stumbled upon a troubling scene, that to which I am sure will come to me as I sleep.

The closer I come to the end of the investigation, the clearer everything becomes to me, and I start to understand the truth. What I know so far: This investigation led to a boy around my age, which lives in the blue house across the street from me, when he was in the willow the branch must have broken and he must have fell through the sheds roof. As I slept images of the scene flashed through my dreams… He was playing in the creek, the sun was still shining, but he knew he would have to go home soon. He decided to follow the creek to the shed lot so he could cut across the yard: there was no fence surrounding the yard in his memories. The shed belonged to the neighborhood kids, they used to use it as a fort, and the willow behind the fort was used as a lookout tower. As another scene started to form everything faded into darkness. I was once again woke by darkness, this time I was in my bed and it was morning.
Summer vacation is soon coming to an end and with it comes school and less time to investigate. Within my dream, I feel I am coming close to the end of his story, but I also feel as if he has yet to tell me the whole truth.

I went back to the abandoned shack, guarded by the chain-link fence, to find the hidden truth that this boy has lead me too. I followed the path which was shown to me in my dreams and step by step the reality of my investigation took hold, just as any story does when you come to the end.
Into the creek past mid-day, following the trail which leads the way, to an open lot from within my dreams. I had to climb the fence again, but my reality was mixed with his and as I went over, my wet foot slipped and the fencing caught me drawing blood. Flashes of another piece to this puzzle came to me as I made my way, a foot cut by a sharp rock hidden beneath the power of the rapid water. Close to where the shack stood, a growl was forming from somewhere I could not see, sending shivers down my spine. My mind was telling me to climb the tree, as an energy pulled me and led my way. Wooden boards nailed to a tree, these were the foot holds to help me climb. As soon as I started to climb those worn out pieces of wood, I could faintly see the boy which climbed before me. We made it to the branch’s safety only to realize no one was around to hear our calls. Just as the growl grew, thunder echoed overhead and rain descended from the clouds as night started to fall. His memories were turning into a frightening scene… The sun may have been shining in my reality, but all that surrounded me now was darkness.
The growls grew closer as I became trapped in his reality. But I couldn’t see what it was that caused this feeling of pure hate to take hold. The louder the growl became, the further I went up the branch. I must have went too far, when the thunder echoed once again around me and the growl turned into silence as I felt myself falling. But I never hit solid ground, I felt trapped, like I was in a time warp, feeling like a feather caught in the wind, just swaying but never getting anywhere. I was suffocating inside of his realty and when I thought I would die the scene changed. I was once again walking back home, as the sun started to set, yet with every step that brought me closer to home, I felt my energy waning.

I woke from his realty, and I was once again laying on my back inside the shack, looking up at the tree, through the whole that was in the roof, with the rain gently splashing my face. I was relieved to be free, but saddened by how his story ends... He never made it home, he disappeared completely before he could. His realty was meek, it was suffering, he couldn’t find an escape, and he couldn’t find safety… He thought it was his only escape from the ever present sadness that grew within…the darkness finally took him.




We hear about these cases all too often. Suicide Prevention Month is here and to help spread the word I wrote this short story. I have been to a child's funeral, one that could have been prevented. We as a society need to know the signs, understand the helplessness that children and adults alike can face daily. Be the one that stands up for the weak, be the one that starts a movement to help societies ways. Be the listener that some people need. I understand some use this "weakness" to gain attention, but it is those who are silent that truly need someones help. #SuicideAwareness your support, join a cause that allows you to help others and prevent cases like these...