Spoiler! :
A cool breeze whipped around my rain wet shoulders, lifting away the heat of my exhausted body. I had been running all day, despite the light drizzle of rain, following the well known trails of my families extensive property. I loved the exercise and the scenery, it had never failed to lift my spirits... except for today that is. I looked up into the gray sky and sighed outwardly, it was just as wild and churned up as my emotions. I shivered and walked against the wind, savoring the refreshing bite of it on my skin. It was the first moment of that whole day where I had felt a little clear headed. It was normal for me to feel restless but today was just crazy. My legs started pumping, carrying me down the lonely backwoods trail. I had no real destination in mind as I dodged and leaped over the various mud puddles that dotted the path, it was the need to escape from my own emotions that pushed me on past the normal markers and down twisting trails I had never taken before.
The farther I went the more disused the trails became. Long creepers and thorns stretched out in front of me, sometimes raking painfully across my arms and ankles. The tree’s around me became bigger and older, their branches heavier and twisted, reaching out above me and blocking out the small bit of gray light from the sky. Before I knew it I could barely see in front of me, too late I realized I had gone too far. I skidded to a stop, my heart pounding in my chest, my muscles screaming at me, steam rising off my body. I could no longer feel the cool of a breeze, only the hot mugginess of the late summer twilight.
I turned around and tried to go back the way I had come but the over grown trail had all but disappeared in the gloomy light. I tried forcing it, retracing my steps and praying the trail would reappear. The light continued to fade, I could barely make out my hands in front of my face, and I saw no end to the forest around me. The farther I went the more lost I felt. Slowly the electric sensation of fear filled me, pumping its vile venom through my veins. Already I could feel my worn out muscles beginning to shake uncontrollably.
Panicked, I tried to think of someway out of this nightmare but my brain just wouldn’t work right, so caught up in the fear of spending the night in unknown forest. I started running again, guessing at where the trail turned and weaved through the trees. Things finally started looking less thick, the tree’s farther apart. Relief flooded through me when I saw a rotten log I thought I recognized. I ran faster, so sure that I could see a definite trail threading along the forest floor.
I had to put on the brakes suddenly, sliding to my butt in the mud. I let out a wail of helplessness, for there, right in the center of what I had moments ago sworn was the right way, was a small pond, black and murky in the dim light.
I didn’t even bother to stand up, my body was spent, my heart was racing. Discouraged, I allowed myself to fall the rest of the way into the mud, letting the earthy smell of it sting my nose. I felt worn out and angry. I had been so sure I was on the right track! Where had this stupid pond come from? There weren’t even supposed to be ponds out here.
A mosquito buzzed somewhere near my head and I swatted out, batting my own ear painfully. That was the last straw, I felt something break way within me. A sob escaped my throat, echoing into the now pitch black air. All of the frustration and fear poured out of me in waves of big wet tears that streaked across my cheeks and down my neck. It seemed like everything that had happened to me in the last few weeks was pouring out. It was not just the fear of being lost, it was all of the anger, frustration, and betrayal, all the fears of what the future held. Everything I had been holding in was suddenly bubbling out, and I was just too exhausted to stop it. I turned and curled up on myself, grasping my arms to my body, not caring that my hair was muddy. I cried and cried for I don’t know how long, feeling like a big helpless baby but unable to stop the overflow of emotion. I cried myself to sleep, laying in a bed of mud and leaves.
I woke up later that night, my eyes dry and my face sticky. I felt empty but somehow better, like a weight had fallen off my shoulders. I prayed a silent prayer for deliverance and uncurled myself, making my tired body sit up out of the mud. I looked up at the moon shinning down from a clear and starry sky. It dappled the world around me in pale blue light, reflecting off the dark little pond, making it glow and dance like something strange and beautiful. I starred long and hard at it, letting the surreal scene imprint itself into memory. I took a deep breath, and tried to stand up, but my legs felt like jello beneath me, all I could manage to do was crawl a little ways out of the mud to an old log I could lean against. It took a moment to get comfortable and even after a ton of rearranging I still had a few sticks sticking me in my back, but at least it was better than laying in the mud.
I tried falling back asleep but I suddenly felt very uneasy. Every time I started to doze off something would spur me right back up. My eyes rested upon the opposite bank of the little pool, admiring the dreamy beauty of it, but the longer I stared the more nervous I felt.
I just could not shake the feeling that something, somewhere was watching me…
I heard a branch brake, the small echo it made trailed through the suddenly quiet forest. I was tempted to call out, to demand if anyone or anything was there. I opened my mouth and nearly choked on my own words as two big yellow eyes blinked at me from the moon struck shadows. I froze, the very blood within me suddenly ice in cold veins. The grim reaper himself could not have inspired the pure horror that that those two little points of yellow light created. I felt, in one word, hopeless, and as I watched, inch by inch, my eyes began to reveal to me, the secret of that little pond. Detail by detail, I began to pick out the curves and contours of the monster that crouched, not a stones throw away. I knew without being told, the name of my demise, for there, in the shadows, the body of a mountain lion crouched and watched.
I almost felt betrayed by life, by the very scene before me, once so beautiful, now so horrifying. I noted how the lines of its body, the color of its coat, blended so well in the pale light of the moon, in the stark shadows it created. I wanted to run, to leave that cruel harbinger of death in the dust of memory, but with renewed helplessness I knew that I could never out run her. The horror stories of young women, joggers like me, eaten alive by that savage carnivore filled my minds eye with pictures of my own bloody death, of the headlines my parents would read in the morning paper. I wanted to scream, to strike out at the injustice of it all, but the most I could managed was to stare back, to look deeper and deeper into those piercing eyes, as pale and consuming as death itself.
Like a wraith, I saw her creep with the passage of the moon, following the sweeping shadows as they crawled ever so slowly across the forest floor. Time molded it self around her, hours felt like eternity, till all I could remember was the beating of my shivering heart and the burning yellow of those eyes on my throat. Before I new it, she was right there, crouched at my feet, so close I could have reached out and touched her. I felt hot breath sweep across my thorn scratched ankles and I knew she was savoring the smell of my now dried blood.
I couldn't breath, I couldn't blink, I prayed another prayer, this one for forgiveness, for understanding, and for a quick death. Then, I remembered something, something my fear muddled brain had over looked...
To be continued...
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