Predator and Prey
Her breath comes in short pants producing small clouds, as her feet pound against the cold forest floor. They begin to sting as mud and debris enter cuts from the twigs snapping underneath them. Her legs ache begging for a break in her pace, but she has waited so long for this moment. This is her only chance and she can’t get caught.
The rain pitters against the leaves above her. She has never been able to hear that sound with such clarity before. She wonders for a second “Has the Forrest always sounded so beautiful? Has it always smelled this good?”
A loud bang and a sharp stinging in her right shoulder bring her back to reality and the situation at hand. She can hear him gaining on her. She can almost feel his hot breath against her neck. Pushing herself, she forces her tired limbs to go faster. “Faster, faster, faster” she whispers to herself as she hurtles over a fallen tree.
The girl views the world in slow motion as she notices the lack of solid ground on the other side. Pain radiates through her body as it tumbles down a steep embankment. She hears a crack as she reaches the bottom. Red hot fire courses through her leg. She quickly pushes herself to her feet, only to come face to face with ground when her leg gives beneath her weight.
Desperately she crawls forward underneath the guard rail and onto the road just beyond it. A blinding light fills her vision. She is frozen in place. Tires screech against the pavement, metal scrapes against metal and a horn blares in the distance. She lays back with a sigh relishing her brief moment of freedom before her eyes flutter shut and her world goes black.
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A man stands atop the embankment looking down on the broken girl laying in the road below him. Her fiery curls are framing her porcelain face, now covered in scratches and stained with blood. The head lights of the oncoming truck are a spotlight to the show. He watches her as she accepts her fate, as her mossy eyes flutter shut and darkness takes hold of her.
Anger ignites with in him. He clutches the locket in his hand. Memories of a better time flood his mind as tears flood his eyes. The man opens the locket, and studies his wifes face longingly.He had been so close, so close to making it right. He was so close to fulfilling her dream. But the little bitch had to run. So ungrateful. Why couldn’t the girl understand that he was giving her a gift.
With one last glance toward the scene he turns making his way back into the darkness of the Forrest.
It will work next time. It has to.
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I walk slowly through the forrest. The crunch of leaves and the snapping of twigs beneath my feet echos in the twilight. The cold air is nipping at my nose. My thumb glides over the cold metal of the silver locket in my palm. The weight of the necklace, though not much, brings me comfort as a memory of that day fills my head.
Her raven hair flutters in the breeze. A sweet melody rings in the tree tops as she sings. The smile on her faces shines as bright as the full moon above us. Her outstretched hand extends toward me. I chuckle and deny her pleas for me to join her. She runs her hands over her stomach, caressing their unborn child. “Michael would you really refuse to dance with your daughter?”
I stumble over a fallen branch my vision is blurry and my cheeks damp. God I miss that mischievous grin she’d get when she got her way. And of course the inevitable pout that adorned her lips when she didn’t. And how I wish I had danced with her that day. If I had I would have been close enough to stop the beast before it took her.
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