Thorns

A cold breeze sent a shiver down her spine as she bravely stepped forward into the darkness of the forest ahead of her. A frightening silence filled the atmosphere as she focused on the crunching of the dry leaves beneath her feet. Eleanor’s heart began to race and bit her lip in agony when she saw the trail of blood that looked so familiar to her. She considered turning back but she knew she had to continue on. As she picked up one foot and put it down she drew closer to the object of this blood. She could tell because the width grew steadily. Finally she reached the source. A gasp and a wail escaped from her mouth sounding like the scream of a wounded animal.

Eleanor struggled to draw a breath, but her knees gave out and she tumbled to the ground holding onto the chest of the victim. The overcoming emotion she felt was rage as it coursed through her veins bringing up tears in her eyes. She released these emotions by slamming her fist into the ground and letting out a scream so terrible that birds took flight away from her.

"How could you?!", she screamed into the forest, calling out to the monster that had taken away her whole world. She was unaware of who could do this to her but again screamed ignoring the slicing feeling in her throat. The silence of the night reassured her that the monster was long gone having gotten what he wanted. She leaned on the figure beneath her lying on the ground and gripped at his shirt. "You were my only hope. You were the only other person of our family left...", she whispered to her brother as he stared into the sky with no signs of life. She pulled his torso up onto her lap and cradled his head in her arms. She could almost imagine that he was just sleeping but knew it was not true. If it weren’t for the large trail of scarlet blood that trickled down his throat, and the fresh wound underneath the blood, she could almost feel him breathing and hear his heart beating. All that remained of him and her family was their memories and their lifeless bodies. Her life was like a rose, it was beautiful for a time but painful to touch or play with.

Just like her brother’s lifeless body, Eleanor felt her soul seemed to slip away from her own body just as his had, but she had aspirations of a future. Eleanor, succumbing to her rage and felt an immediate desire to bring an end to her misery and to get revenge her brother and her whole family’s deaths.

She laid her brother back down on the ground and reached for his hands to cross them across his chest but as she touched his left hand she noticed a crumpled piece of paper. It was on the verge of tearing with the edges burnt. She carefully pulled the note it from his cold hand and opened it. A smile came upon on her lips.

You're next, Eleanor.

This made her laugh. She was the target but she thought, it’s time to switch roles. Time to be the predator.

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