Let Go, It's a Lie

"Did the apple not have good flavor?" Inquired the violet eyed child as she retrieved the discarded fruit from the ground. Her soft, blonde curls framed her delicate face in the shimmering sunlight of the garden. "Sometimes one must eat the whole fruit to fully appreciate its flavor." She held the fruit out for Aden to take.

"I'd really rather not."

The girl smiled sweetly without withdrawing her offering. "Truth may be bitter at times, but even the bitterness of truth is better than the sweetness of deceit."

Reluctantly, Aden took the fruit from her hand. "Are you saying that what I see is the truth?"

"It's your truth."

"If I don't like what I see, can I change it?"

"Can a river flow back to its origin? Can a child return to the point of conception?"

"But I have betrayed her!" He let his tears stain his cheeks as they made their way down. He discovered he had been hired to betray Rose. The girl he loves beyond life itself and the pain of that realization tore him at his core.

"Have you?"

"Haven't I?"

"Only one way to know for sure." She smiled knowingly at him.

He held the fruit to his lips while keeping his eyes on her. Her eyes blinked once with internal eyelids. For a split second her violet eyes held a golden hue with elongated pupils. She parted her lips only slightly in anticipation of his bite. Aden furrowed his eyebrows and pulled the fruit back to examine it. He heard her frustrated sigh as he focused on the browning flesh of the apple. As it softened in his hand, he realized these memories were not his and this girl was not his friend. He closed his hand around the fruit, demolishing it into pieces before her widened eyes. "What kind of sorcery are you practicing here?" He demanded. "Who are you?! WHAT are you?!" he stretched his hand to her shoulder only to watch in horror as it passed through her body. "I'm losing my mind." He mumbled to himself, staring at his empty hand in disbelief.

"Why does everyone say that when they see me?" The girl complained. She shrugged her shoulders and tsked. "The hard way it is." She said under her breath as she dove for Aden's neck. Before he could process what was happening, she sunk her teeth into his flesh.

He cried out in pain as he tried to pull away from the little girl. His back hit a hard surface, transferring the pain from his neck to his spine. He arched his back and felt the surface beneath his hands. Carpet. Carpet? He opened his eyes and found himself on the floor of a bedroom. "Are you okay?" Asked a meek voice above him. It took a minute to focus on his surroundings. "You have a bad dream or something?"

Squinting, he brought the face behind the voice into focus. "Mom?" He was in his parents' home? He looked at the décor around the room as he got up from the floor. This is the Twin Falls house. He's in high school. "Um… Yeah. I guess so. What's today?"

"Seriously, honey. You sure you okay?"

He rubbed the spot on his neck that still burned from the bite. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little… never mind. School day?"

The woman furrowed her brows. "No. Church day. You stayed up too late playing those stupid video games again, didn't you?"

Video games? What video games? "Um, yes?" He glanced to her right to see the gaming system set up on his dresser. The TV was still on. "Sorry, Mom."

"Well, get dressed. We're leaving in ten minutes and you'd better be ready."

"Can't I skip it this week? I have homework to get done." He didn't. At least not that he could remember, but he wanted to get oriented into whatever timeline he was in.

"Not this week. You invited your girlfriend, remember? It'd be pretty awful for you to ditch the one day she decided to come. Besides, if homework can wait for your video game, then it can wait for church too."

Girlfriend? Rose? Okay, this may lead to the answers. "Okay, Mom. I'll be right down." He dressed quickly and ran down the hall to the kitchen. His parents were clearing their breakfast dishes from the table. "I've half a mind to take that gaming system out of your room, young man." His father spoke sternly.

"That's a good idea, Dad." He agreed as he grabbed an apple off the counter. "How about we put it in the family room instead. Bedtime cutoff?"

His father scowled. "Who are you and what have you done with our son?"

"I'm not your son?!" He asked his father incredulously. For a moment, Aden panicked. He looked at is hands to see if maybe that ghost girl had sent him into another boy's body. He ran to look at his reflection in the toaster. He looked like he remembered, though his eyes seemed a darker blue.

"Such a comedian, you are!" The man replied ruffling his hair. "Come on now, before we're late."

He rode in the backseat of their sedan watching his parents interact. His mother was similar in appearance to him with blonde hair, pale skin and blue eyes. His father sported dark hair and brown eyes but had the same facial features as Aden as well as a similar height and body build. These observations cemented the fact that these two people were indeed his real parents though he couldn't yet recall their names. Sasha was a name that came to mind, but it didn't sound right for his mother. Grace maybe? He would have to pay attention to how other people greeted them to be sure.

Walking into the church, a staff member reached his hand out in greeting to his dad, calling him Sasha. 'Odd name for a man,' Aden thought. "There's a young lady in foyer waiting for you Kaden," The man said with a smile. "She seemed a bit nervous about being here this morning."

"Thank you," he replied and walked past them to the main foyer. He saw Rose standing near the far wall hugging herself, wearing dark sunglasses as to avoid eye contact with anyone. Aden walked up to her and wrapped her in a hug and kissed the top of her head before she could protest. Electricity shot through him causing the room to melt into blackness. He thought he heard cries of confusion and shock, but he couldn't make out anything clear. Strange images of a life he didn't recognize shot through his psyche at lightning speeds.

"Let go," he heard male voice say. "Let go," it repeated. "It's a lie." He forced himself to release Rose from his arms but when he did so, she was gone. The church was gone. He stood within a bright light with nothing and no one else. He spun around looking for the source of the voice. He found nothing but light. No shadows. No nothing. Suddenly a jolt of pain stabbed him in the neck.

He reached for the stinging spot where the ghost girl had bitten him. He drew his fingers back bloody. "What the…" His mind buzzed unnaturally and the light began to fade as he fell to his knees. He felt his body go limp. He was losing consciousness.