Forsaken

Vines were tangled about her ankles. She lifted her body from the ground with caution. Her elbows were too weak to elevate her. She reached out to rip the vines from her tired feet. She struggled to sit on all fours like an old hound. A line of blood flowed down her cheek. The massive gash in her head was excruciating but only a minor pain to the racing of her heart. It felt like it had been cut almost to the bone, maybe not as severe. She hadn't decided if she wished it had or not.

She examined the bark no longer laid perfectly on the tree she ran into. It was too dark to tell how much had been mangled, but her shoes led her to believe that there was enough on the ground to make her whereabouts known. She examined the trees and animals that scurried by. Knowing that time was running out, she began to walk to find something to clean up the blood that had been spilled across her disgraceful face.

A stream was in the distance. It was rushing by, crashing against rocks and boulders. Her movements were loud and distracting. The leaves around her were dead and made the most hideous crunching noises. She knew he would find her soon.

The water was frigid on her face like an ice pack. Her wound would have to suffer with being open. There was nothing around to wrap it in except those dead leaves. Her eyes welled up with tears. She leaned her head up and looked at the silver moon. She had to keep running.

"Still trying to hide?"

She jolted at the sound and saw the evil that had been following her all this time.

"Answer me, or better yet, answer nothing.”

The figure was cloaked in all black. Its face and any other body parts were unnoticeable. It was as black as the night that surrounded them. The horse it rode had fire in its eyes, red as the anger that haunted her from all of the running.

"Do you think you can run forever?"

Its voice was deep but almost angelic. She stepped back, unaware of who was confronting her. Her legs began to shake. All she could do was run.

She sprinted through the trees and tried to jump over rocks, breathing heavier than a person having an asthma attack. The figure charged behind her with its horse. The clomps echoed through the night. The sound could not be drowned out. The dead leaves sounded like the rush of a hundred elephants.

She didn't know if it was the wind or the horse's breath on her neck. She dared not tum around to find out. Her legs were starting to give, but she couldn't stop. The adrenaline coursing through her body made her faster. She finally lost her balance when her feet started to drag through the sludge. She crashed to the ground, and the dead leaves rustled. She didn't hear the clomp of the horse and its rider anymore. It had disappeared.

He appeared like a ghost in front of her. He wasn't any less evil or terrifying. He was just standing there, like the malicious being it was.

"When are you going to stop running?" His voice bounced off the trees and rang through her ears.

"I don't know what you want." Her voice cracked from her weak state.

"I want you to see what you are doing. I want you to recognize. Realize. I want you to wake up!"

Her ears began to bleed from the thunder of his words. The blood from her ears started to mesh with the blood from her head. She was getting used to bleeding with fear.

"I am awake!" She stood up like she had won a trophy. "This isn't a dream! I've pinched myself a dozen times, and it hurts more every single time! I don't know what you want! Why me!"

The figure stood silent. Nothing could be heard at that moment. He raised his arms to his sides as if he was about to take flight.

"You are not innocent, Annette. You are blind, blind to the world around you. You blame the world for your troubles and your mistakes, your trials and tribulations. You are the one to blame, Annette. You are the real evil."

Salt tears began to stream down her face. It started to moisten some of the blood that was crusted on her cheeks.

"I...I am not evil. I...I am not..."

Cutting her off, the figure started to stomp toward her. Its footsteps made the ground tremble.

"Evil Annette, do not mask what you can see with ease. Only the evil live to see tomorrow."

She didn't move when it came closer but stood still in her panic. She closed her eyes for a brief moment. It vanished before her vision.

Annette dragged her feet while she pondered the figure's words.

"Only the evil live to see tomorrow?" She thought about this long and hard, wondering what it could possibly mean. She tried to set her mind on finding a way out of this wilderness.

As far as she could see, there was nothing but an abundance of trees and shrubs. She tried to pay more attention to the ground, making sure there were no sticks or stones she could possibly trip over. She convinced herself that every time she was at her weakest, the figure appeared. She lifted her head when she heard the grunt of an animal. She saw the horse's red eyes ablaze in the distance. She examined the tree it was tied to. The horse settled down the closer she got to it. She was afraid to lay her hands upon the horse but did so in curiosity. The horse's eyes turned green and began to go out of control. She stepped back, hoping it wouldn't lose its restraint from the tree.

“What did you do to my horse?" Annette had backed up into the figure on accident.

“I...I just touched it...I didn't..."

He cut her off with a booming tone, "TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN THINGS!"

She began to run again. She looked back, watching the figure jump on his horse and storm after her.

“Stop running Annette! Stop!" The figure leaned forward to make the horse go faster.

Annette looked back again to see that the horse's eyes had returned to red. She didn't want to stop running this time. This time, she would end this masquerade.

The figure rode up next to her and grabbed her by her long red hair. Annette lost her footing and was dragged along with the stampeding horse. She shrilled with pain as her ankles were cut up by jagged rocks. She tried to make the figure let go but lost all strength and will. Her arms went limp, and her peripheral vision began to turn black. She looked up with her pathetic eyes and saw the moon. Its silver lining was dying, just like the dead leaves.

Annette was close to passing out by the time the horse had stopped. The figure hurled her forward onto the ground. Her body lay inches away from a cliff that led hundreds of feet down. He dumped the clump of hair in his hand into the grass. He dismounted the horse and walked closer to her. Annette was on her knees, coughing up bIood. A string of saliva hung from her lower lip. The figure knelt down beside her and grabbed her by her hair once again.

“Look at you. You're bleeding everywhere, out of breath, and close to death." Annette's head jerked as he spoke. Even with him inches from her face, all she could see was black.

“And you still don't know why I'm here." The figure lowered his hand to Annette's throat.

"Every moment from the time you are born, you begin to die every single second. Even now...and now...AND NOW!" The booming of his voice terrified her.

He stood up with Annette hanging from his grasp. She kicked her legs as his grip strangled the life out of her. She coughed, hacked, and gasped for air.

"I'm not going to kill you, Annette. I'm trying to help you to see what you have been missing. What you have been blind to all along." He let her go as she crashed to the ground. She coughed and spit up more blood. He turned around and jumped back on his horse.

“I'm as dead as the leaves in this forest," Annette said as she slowly rose to her feet. "They may make noise, but they have no life."

Annette let her body fall from the cliff. She hit a ledge below and slid off to continue her fate. The figure watched atop his horse as Annette's body was sliced through by serrated rocks. Blood poured out of her stomach as her body lay motionless. She was gone.

The figure turned his horse around and began to stroll back through the forest. He had failed at saving her, but his face was cold. The horse began to clomp as it picked up speed. The figure saw something in the distance and dust rose from the ground as he pulled hard on the reigns. He rode the horse at a slow pace up to the figure.

“Only the evil live to see tomorrow." It was Annette. She looked the same as when that rock put a hole through her stomach, except her eyes were shining bright green. She lifted her hand, and the figure flew back off of the horse and hit a tree. He coughed and gasped for breath.

“What has happened to you?" The figure rose to his knees. Annette was in front of him and grabbed him by the throat. As she spoke, her voice was deeper and darker than his.

She tightened her grip as she spoke to the man. "Tomorrow is today."

The figure's body glowed blue and fell to the ground. A green light encompassed Annette's body. She was then dressed as the figure had been before, in complete black attire, but with those glowing green eyes.

“I finally let go when I fell off that cliff,” Annette turned around. "It was my gain, and your loss."

She mounted the horse, whose eyes turned as green as hers with a simple touch. She began to stroll away, but turned back to the figure with that monstrous voice.

"How does it feel to be forsaken?" She was gone in the blink of an eye.