Cold. Wet. Dark. That was all there was. She was disoriented, confused. Where was she? Who was she? She felt as if she’d just been born here in this dark, cold, wet place. This must have been what newborn babies felt like that first hour out of the womb, only babies had warm blankets and comforting, reassuring hands and voices. She had nothing. Shiver. An overwhelming fear clutched at her soul as her breathing sped faster and faster, lungs pounding frantically against her chest. Panic. Rain. One by one, the drops seemed to bring back some sense of her surroundings. It was too dark and her vision was still too blurry to see anything, but she felt the rain drops dashing against her face, pouring from an angry sky. The thunder sounded loud, as if right over head and her heart almost flew out of her chest. She saw the lightening strike and it lit the darkness with a sinister blue-white glow, illuminating the trees briefly as they swayed and flung their leaves and branches chaotically all around her.
Everything was hazy. She rubbed her eyes hoping to clear her vision and wake up from her nightmare, but it was no dream and after she could see properly, she almost wished she hadn’t bothered to try. It was even more frightening once proven to be real. She did the only thing that she could think to do in that moment and yelled loud and long for help. Over and over again, she bellowed, but no one ever came. Every time the lightening would flash across the sky, she would see her foggy breath escaping with her pleas for help. With every scream, she could feel a tiny bit of her soul breaking away and leaking out of her body, rising like steam to greet the cold and hollow air around her. She finally realized that no one would be out there during such a horrendous storm on such a cold night and her cries dwindled down to a weak, broken whisper as the rain trailed down her face in ribbons, mixing with her tears.
Panic began to creep back up and take hold of her and she shivered violently and cried even harder, until she could scarcely breathe. It lasted far too long before her panic finally gave way to hopelessness as she sat coiled up on the dirty ground. She let the hopeless feeling have her for an immeasurable amount of time as she rested her aching body on the leaves, trembling all over and cried until she ran her insides hollow. Empty. She felt as if a vital part of her had torn away and died, leaving nothing but black emptiness behind. Nothing. Nothing except the sound of the storm that was still raging, loud and strong around her.
When that time came, that she could cry no more, she filled the empty void with anger and that anger gave her determination. Why was she still sitting here in the cold, in the dark, in the rain? She must get up and try to do...something. Anything. It was painfully clear that no one else would be dashing to her rescue. How did she come to be here anyway? The thunder and the lightening kept up a constant ruckus while the wind howled and thrashed the trees wildly against one another. The storm was steadily getting worse and the girl knew she had to find shelter before a tree fell on her or she froze to death. She gathered what meager strength she had left to attempt to stand. Using her hands to brace herself, she felt something-some thick, coarse fabric-under her palm. She felt around hastily trying to see what it was and found a strap….two straps. Curling her cold, aching fingers around them, she dragged the bag up off the ground with her. It was very light, but her body felt heavy; weighed down. Her legs were shaking, both with the numb coldness and the strain of standing after so long a time of sitting. Her whole body felt bruised and battered, even though she couldn’t see any of it to find out if that was the case. She staggered on her first few steps and almost slipped back down into the muck, but she managed to find her balance again and kept pushing forward. With each movement her body made, she could feel the aching soreness all over. It felt like every inch of her body had been beaten to a pulp and her head was pounding. She didn’t know if it was from all her sobbing or if it had hurt all the time and she’d just now begun to register the pain.
On and on she walked, going nowhere in particular- only walking. Only breathing. Emptiness clouding every other sensation in the world and only vaguely feeling the pain. Concentrating on each and every step, trying hard not to think or feel; just wanting to get away. Away from what? There was nothing but the storm to get away from because nothing else existed. Hours she walked-dragging her feet-through muddy leaves, sloshing puddles, up steep slippery banks and through a rushing stream never stopping even when she felt as if she might die were she to take another step. She held the bag down at her side and slowly, silently kept trudging forward blankly, until at last she saw a sign of civilization. A single, lonely house. There were no lights on, but then again it must have been very late at night or very early in the morning. Maybe the storm had blown the lights out. Forcing herself to move ahead, she dragged her heavy limbs the next several feet until she reached the bottom of the rickety house, wearily climbed the steps to the porch and collapsed heavily as soon she no longer felt the rain beating down on her. Her breathing was rough and ragged, her lids droopy with exhaustion, her body ached even worse than it had when she‘d first started out. She was soaking wet and freezing-trembling right down to her bones. She couldn’t muster the strength to knock so she splayed out limply, not caring what would happen when the people inside woke up and found her in the morning.
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CONTINUE TO CHAPTER ONE- CLICK HERE
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