Exodus

A girl found herself lost, alone, and confused in the woods. After hours of walking in this unexplored, undesired territory, the girl reached a river. She walked up to it, saw her reflection and began to cry. Her tears hit the surface of the water and awakened a figure therein.

"Why are you crying?" the reflection asked.

The girl thought she was crazy. Certainly it was her own voice she was hearing; had she been alone so long that her own thoughts began to take on an outsider's voice? She poked through the water, penetrating her reflection.

"What are you doing?" the reflection asked.
"What the fuck?" The girl turned around, looked up to the sky, pushed the surface of the water again. This could not be happening.
"What are you trying to touch?" the reflection asked.
"Are you talking to me? or am I crazy?" The girl looked deep and hard into the water as she questioned the reflection. Sure enough their mouths were moving in sync.
"You're not crazy. What do you want from me? I am here after all. Isn't that what you wanted: someone here for you?"
"I want to get out of these woods" the girl responded hopelessly.
"Build yourself a fort out of things you find in the woods--for shelter."

The girl gathered big branches and large leaves from the floor of the woods. She thought she'd go talk to the reflection again, but by the time she was done gathering, the daylight was minimal; hence she would wait until tomorrow to return.

Sleeping was difficult. She could not get comfortable. Every time she remembered the conversation with her reflection a sneaking suspicion of insanity would creep in. Eventually she got tired of her own thoughts and fell asleep. In the morning she went back to the water.

After looking at her reflection with morning eyes--tired morning eyes--the girl said "Okay, now tell me how to get out of here please." She felt bad about being overly demanding, but couldn't muster a semblance of courtesy. Besides, who would she be offending? herself? a figment of her imagination?
"What are you talking about?" The reflection looked perplexed in a condescending way.
"You helped me yesterday; so help me now." She was rather turned off by his lack of knowledge and display of superiority.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Are you nuts?" The reflection looked away.

...are my own eyes turning away from me? she wondered.
...what could he possibly be looking at? i'm right here.

She took a huge rock and dropped it on the face of her reflection. Then she collected small stones and hurled them into the middle of the river. She threw them hard, over and over, until her arm felt like it might rip out of the socket. When the pain of her arm took over the girl screamed long and hard. The scream echoed five times. The final echoe felt like a sacred return--like the fury she released into the air came back to her out of loyalty. She returned to the place where her conversations with the reflection took place. There her face remained staring back at her, as if unaffected by the displays of rage. After a lengthy period of sustained and unobstructed staring the reflection lifted his palm in display.

The girl turned away and ran. She ran like she was being chased. She ran like someone was hanging on to their last breath just waiting for her to arrive. She ran like her body had trained for this moment for years. She made her way to a road. Her toes hit pavement. She was out.