` beyond the threshold ?

[b`ek .]

i can't feel you,
you're always so far away

Was it dark? To be honest she couldn't tell, it was always dark in this part of the forest like the light could simply not penetrate it. Some thought it frightning. No, most thought it frightning it just seemed that Nessa was the strange one who was not afraid of that inky blackness. She was enthralled by it, enthralled by the tales that accompanied it, it was like an itch that she could not scratch; she just continued to think about it, she had to find out what was beyond the last oak. What was beyond the threshold of this strange, desolate place.

Nessa lingered by the large oak tree, one arm was half wrapped around the trunk of the tree and the other hand hung limply by her side. She watched the line of trees with an expression that was close to hunger, yet even with such longing in her body and in her mind; she did not step beyond the oak tree. Once, she had even considered doing so, she had even lifted her foot to take that first step, but, something had stopped her, it was as if all her muscles had frozen in place, as if her breath ceased in her throat. She had fallen to the ground gasping and all she could think of was Jazz and how angry he would have been at her. Since that experience she had never attempted to go further than the old oak, but that did not stop her wondering, did not stop her questioning; what if?

Slowly, very slowly, she sat down against the trunk, her blue eyes never strayed far from the line of trees. To anyone watching it would have been strange to see a young girl, only seventeen, sitting on her own by the oak tree. You would have thought her a runaway, which essentialy, she was. But the local college held no appeal for her, she knew she was fucked up, she knew there was something wrong with her but she did not need that school, the only person she ever needed was Jazz and the only reason she was still at that school was because of him. Nessa sighed and leaned her head against the tree, closing her eyes to the outside world, she didn't want to dissapoint Jazz; he was the only person that actually cared about her.

Faintly, as if in the distance she thought she heard a dog howl and her whole body stiffened and her eyes flashed open. Nessa hated dogs and was terrified of them before almost everything. After a brief scan of the surrounding area she convinced herself that the dog was not here; that it was far far away. She allowed herself to relax again, slowly closing her eyes once more.