A Tall Tail

Trigger warning(s): Ableism, mentioned bullying and attempted murder

It was a bright and sunny afternoon with a warm summer breeze. A big charter school laid about the school campus as students shuffle to their next class while they conversate with their fellow peers. There amongst the crowded sea of high schoolers was a black kid with glasses; she had a black 4C short fro, stood at 5′4, wore baggy pants that barely fit her, and donned a black shirt with a wolf howling at the moon imprinted on it. This kid may not seem all that important to the untrained eye, but she is very different from the rest of the kids that attend here. Not in the stereotypical ‘not like other girls’ fashion, but more in the typical ‘wanting to fit in, but doesn’t know how’ way. This kid is named Liana. Now let’s begin to explore what isolates this kid from all the rest.

Don’t get it wrong, every kid is different in their own way, but this Liana person has a difficult time seeing where she’s fully accepted. In her case, it’s not so much about being popular and loved by everyone. She just wants to find someone, anyone, who can match her energy and won’t tire from her so easily that they wanna avoid her forever, but doesn’t know how to start or maintain that. You see, Liana has this neurological disorder called autism, therefore it’s difficult for her to socialize with other people. It didn’t prevent Liana from trying all together, but the complexity of her disorder was very discouraging. Especially when not many students or staff for that matter are willing to be understanding or patient with her.

Because of this and self-isolation, Liana doesn’t have any close friends to bond with. Sure, a few peers might say hi and occasionally relate to her, but that’s about it. They don’t go through the extra efforts to get to know Liana on a personal level because it’s mostly because of the social communication issues she has. There are a lot of times where Liana comes off as rude when she’s just being curious or sarcastic when she’s actually being genuine. 90% of the time, people don’t realize Liana didn’t do it out of ill intent and mostly by accident because they tend to forget that because she’s autistic, she misses a lot of social cues. It’s just the way her brain is wired and she can’t help it even if she wants to, but as stated previously, not everyone is patient enough to be understanding of her mental condition.

It gets way worse when a particular group of students in the same grade as her will gleefully take advantage KNOWING she has this neurological difference, which made her much more to vulnerable to bullying than any neurotypical kid in the school. They would often encourage or challenge Liana to preform a certain task, unbeknownst to her, will make her look like an unserious oaf in front of everyone. When she does follow through without asking questions or thinking what consequences will ensue afterwards, the group of boys will erupt in a series of loud laughter because not only was it hilarious to them, but Liana would be the one to get scolded for it because she was the one who pulled it off.

It didn’t click to Liana until near the end of the year prior that they weren’t laughing with her, she was the joke. Liana cursed herself for allowing herself to be manipulated into being someone’s personal circus dog for their own amusement. Liana swore to herself that she will never let someone use her like that again and learn to pick up certain cues when someone is using her like a tool rather than a person that’s worthy of the least bit of respect. Thankfully, she’s a senior that’s about to graduate and will never have to return next year.

After getting her high school diploma, Liana figured she could go to college to study for animation. She got accepted into an Alamo College that has the appropriate program for that, but the problem came with money. Her parents who vowed to pay for the tuition were tight on their budget and needed to prioritize other things before paying for it, so Liana had to hang in there.

Now that you got a little insight of Liana’s life, we can now focus on the present. She still doesn’t have a job because people aren’t very accepting for autistic people. Liana feels like life isn’t treating her very fairly and got burnt out quickly on job hunting. “Geez, it’s like society hates me for existing. With every opportunity presented to me, the door gets slammed in my face.” She complained as she leans back in her rolling chair. Liana decided to take a break, put on some pants and walked straight out of her house without telling anyone where she’s going. Because she’s 18, Liana figured she doesn’t need permission to go on a walk or let alone say something about her whereabouts. It wasn’t a very good idea, but she didn’t care. She just wanted a break from the stress of it.

Besides, Liana figured it wouldn’t be much of a problem since she wasn’t planning on going too far from her home to the point she gets lost. As she traveled 5 blocks from her house, she heard strange noises coming from the heavily wooded area in between two neighboring backyards. It sounded like a person trying to mimic the sound of an angry dog. Whoever is making those odd sounds is doing a great job at replicating them, but Liana wonders why they need to be making such sound. She decided to investigate the situation by following where the growling was coming from, which was a poor decision on her part.

Liana saw a glimpse of a person stumbling around in the shrubbery, it looked like they were having a hard time walking straight like a heavily intoxicated person leaving the bar at night. They were hunched over muttering to themselves that Liana couldn’t make out, assumingly gibberish. “Hello? You in the shrubs, are you doing okay?” She called out in concern. The person snapped their head towards Liana’s direction and she immediately felt a dreadful feeling nagging at her gut that something isn’t right.

His eyes seemed primal like a hungry predator searching for prey, his mouth was bloodied like he bit into the flesh of another organism, his fingernails seemed more like claws that belonged to a clawed animal, his clothes were dirtied and torn like he was wrestling a bear and just barely escaped, his hair was a complete ragged mess like he hasn’t been grooming it at all, his skin seemed a sickly pale like he hasn’t been out in the sun for a year or two, and he seemed a little malnourished from not being fed in a while.

“Woah, dude. What in the bejesus happened to you? No offense, but you look worse for wear. Do you want me to call for an ambulance?” The ‘man’ standing in the shrubbery didn’t really respond to her question, instead he just growled like an angry dog. The fact he actually sounded like one kind of creeped Liana out. At first, she thought he was under the influence of a heavy drug or had too much alcohol, but with the way his appearance was so fucked up and the bizarre way he’s acting, it couldn’t have been either of that. As soon as Liana took two steps backwards, the man suddenly lunged at her at an alarming speed. Liana tripped backwards out of surprise and fell onto her back, giving the primal man an advantage.

She didn’t have any time to react before they were both on the ground, he was on top of her snarling like a rabid wolf that finally had its prey in its grip. Liana let out a series of cries for help while she struggled in his strong grasp, but it didn’t seem like anyone was around to witness this event of a man trying to bite her. For the first time in years, Liana truly felt afraid for her life. She felt like her story ends here at the fresh age of 18, death by a person acting like a wild animal, but by instinct, she fought back in self-defense. It was hard to get the man off her because his grip on her was so strong for someone who seemed like he hasn’t eaten in a week or two, but Liana continued to scratch and punch at the weak spots for a human, which would be the neck or eyes. Those are the only spots she could reach, anyways.

The primal man finally loosened his grip because Liana managed to toss dirt into his eyes. She tempted to scramble to her feet to run, but the man who swiftly recovered pinned her back down to the ground once more. This time, Liana isn’t able to wiggle herself free easily because he was much stronger than her and she was on her stomach. She slightly suffocated from the weight being applied to her back and she heard loud ringing noise in her ears. Is this it? Is this how I’m going to die? Liana’s eyes begun to swell up with tears of fear as she panics both mentally and emotionally.

Just then, she felt a sharp set of teeth go through her t-shirt and sink into her upper back near her neck. Liana let out an agonized scream when she felt the sharp pain of teeth piercing her flesh. Tears streamed down her cheeks as the pain intensified when the man pulled off a chunk of skin off her back, revealing her bloodied flesh. A neighbor must’ve heard Liana’s pained cries because a sound of a gunshot followed by an agonized bellow from the man attacking her rang in her ears. Soon after eating a bullet, he speedily fled into the thicket whimpering like an injured dog.

Liana trembled as she slowly stood up on her feet, shaken by the event that just took place. She was still crying from the painful bite he gave her. The man who shot the primal person had a single barreled shotgun in his hands. He was a Caucasian male with white hair and a full grown circle beard. “Are you doing alright there, man? I heard you screaming.” He asked as he approached to his gated metal fence. Liana turned to him with a shell-shocked expression, it was obvious she wasn’t doing very well. Who would after just having a big chunk of their flesh bitten off from a vicious animalistic person?

What was that vile man’s problem? Was he affected by rabies or something? Then, the wife of the man who saved Liana came out from the same back door and approached her as well. “Are you alright?” She asked the same question as her husband did. Why do they keep asking me that? Do I look okay to y’all? Liana wanted to tell the married couple that, but it was near impossible to form the words to describe the pain she’s in. Each time she tries to speak, it all comes out as a shrieking sob.

30 minutes of consoling Liana passed by and the ambulance accompanied by police officers finally arrived after Marianne, the wife of the man named Edward, called. The officers questioned the couple what happened as the paramedics checked Liana’s ghastly wound at the back of the emergency vehicle. She tried to muffle the sound of her sobs and screams as they poured alcohol onto the wound to prevent infection. A quick call from one of the officers was enough to make Liana’s parents to rush to her location since the house wasn’t far from where she stood.

Liana’s parents were bombarding her with questions wondering why she didn’t tell anyone that she left the house and what exactly just transpired here. They could hardly understand her because she’s violently sobbing. Because the wound was so dire and largely prone to infections, they rushed her to the emergency room and preformed surgery to close it up. Liana’s entire family was worried sick for her because this is not some minor inconvenience that could be shrugged off, but she fortunately survived without issue. Thankfully by a miracle, it wasn’t so bad to the point where she has to be put down to eternal sleep.

It was great news that the primal man who attacked Liana didn’t have rabies, but nobody is sure why he bit her the way he did. Her parents tried asking their daughter once again of the events that happened, but she’s just as lost as they are on this strange situation. “Can we not talk about this anymore? I don’t have the answers, and to be frank, I don’t want to be reminded of this situation. Okay? I’ve had enough stress for today.” Liana’s parents wanted to keep inquiring about it, but they decided to leave it because it was no use trying to push something that nobody has the answer to.

The family went home so that Liana can rest, she didn’t speak the entire time. She didn’t want to utter a single word to anyone, she didn’t want to eat dinner, and she didn’t want to be checked upon. The wound will heal in a month or two, so Liana will be fine.

It’s not like the bite will alter her appearance or behavior. Right?