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IT: lost in the forest
The air is cold, it burns her chest with every wild and frantic inhale she takes. Its too dark to see, with the dense clouds covering the moons light. Amelia trips over a large fallen branch, and quickly gets back up and keeps going as fast as she can, which is no more than a fast walk now. She glances back the way she came, but sees nothing but darkness. Her ankle throbbing from her fall, she now has a slight limp to her trot. Tears stream down her face from a combination of fear, despair and the cold biting her eyes. She has been out there in the forrest running from IT for what felt like an eternity now, but was in reality only about an hour. Her sense of time and direction were nonexistent as she told herself she had to keep going or it might catch up with her.
She ran until her lungs felt like they were on fire, until both her sides ached and pinched inside, and she was exhausted. She found a large shrub (found it by almost falling into it unintentionally). The branches scratch her cold arms and legs, but she is so cold she feels nothing. The shrub was next to a pile of large boulders and twigs and in between them was a space just large enough for a person her size to squeeze into. She wedges her way into the pit, and covers the opening with some twigs and leaves from around her.
She briefly thinks about the spiders and other insects that are undoubtedly under the wood and leaves with her, but she quickly dismisses the thought, for as afraid of spiders that she was; she was far more afraid of IT finding her. She was satisfied with being hidden here, confident she would not be found with the cover of the bush the twigs and leaves and the night and she doses off to sleep.
The next morning she wakes more sore than shes ever been in her life. She has slept in the most unusual way and her body is seemingly stuck in this position. She can feel large gashes in her arms and legs and blood drips from a scrape across her belly. And she is STARVING. She breathes shallow and quietly so she can be sure noone or nothing is around before forcing her body to get out of the hole. Grimacing, she looks at her surroundings and tries to determine which way to go, and where she could possibly be. It is useless, for all there is are trees, standing and fallen alike. She can see maybe ¼ of a mile in any direction before the fog swallows up the forrest. She has no clue where she is. And she is alone.
She fights the tears that threaten to fall down her cheeks, and eeny, meeny, miny, moes to get a decision on which direction to go and starts walking. She thinks about home, as the sound of her footsteps echo off the trees. There are a few occasional birds, but other than that the forrest is eerily quiet. Home…. The cliche white picket fence with the freshly painted shed. The flower bed with lilies and birds of paradise filled in with ground covering with tiny white blossoms. The porch where she would sit in her over sized rocking chair and read various books, depending what kick she was on at the time…..Regression Therapy, How to be a Successful Woman in a Mans World, and an occasional romance novel that would tug at her heart strings and make her vow to never read another. She hated being sad. Hated crying. Hated how she felt without him. Sam was perfect, supportive, her right hand, best friend, lover, the whole she-bang. He was irreplaceable. And he was dead.
She shook her head vigorously a few times, as if the thoughts and images she had just let in would be tossed out of her head that way, and continued her mental tour of her home. She opened the big red front door, and walked into her living room. It was an open concept set up. The A frame log cabin had tall ceilings and she looked up to the loft that took up the whole upstairs floor. In her mind she climbed the circular stairway that she just had to have when Sam and herself were in the process of drawing out the plan. He was good at that, architecture. He had a masters degree, but honestly could have stopped at a bachelors as he had had a knack for it right off. “Lets build it TOGETHER! Just me and you! It will mean so much more if we do!” she had said, unable to hide the excitement she had over the idea, and bounced up and down, clinging to his arm, as he lifted his right eyebrow at her, the side of his mouth curling up on one side ever so slightly. “You think me and you can build a whole ass house just the two of us? What do you even know about building a house, Lia? You cant just wing it babe, its tough work.” “I realize that hunny, but I have you. Ill do whatever you say, I promise. Can you imagine how it will feel to look around at the finished product and know we did this wonderful thing thats just ours? Please….” Amelia gave her best set of puppy dog eyes and he agreed, as she knew he would. He would’ve done anything she asked when it came down to it, and it was mutual. She felt so at home with him, and that was now over and she was now alone in so many ways…
The temperature was rising, and mid-day snd Amelia was starting to think to herself how astonishing it was for the night to be as cold as it was, and then for her to be sweating profusely now. It had to be somewhere around noon, judging by the sun that peeked through the much thinner cloud cover directly above her. It was sticky and the air was heavy, making it hard to breathe with her asthma. She had ditched her ripped and dirty t-shirt that had been matted with mud, blood and had more holes than it had covered anymore. She was a sight to see. A sports bra, leggings that went about mid-calf, and her converse tennis shoes that she wished had been her nikes right about now. Her hair was in a messy bun secured by a twig she broke off of a pine a few miles back. Trying to be optimistic, she was at least thankful she was wearing her leggings with pockets. She had brought her backpack that night instead of a purse because they were going to be walking home, since they had been drinking. Amelia was thankful for that as well.
Amelia came across a stream, where she washed her face and arms, and there had been some wild berries nearby where she filled her growling belly. She regained some energy and was feeling quite a bit better, almost forgetting the situation at hand. As she wandered through the woods she started to hum a little tune, Losing My Religion by R.E.M, The hum grew louder and before long she was belting out the lyrics...
She ran until her lungs felt like they were on fire, until both her sides ached and pinched inside, and she was exhausted. She found a large shrub (found it by almost falling into it unintentionally). The branches scratch her cold arms and legs, but she is so cold she feels nothing. The shrub was next to a pile of large boulders and twigs and in between them was a space just large enough for a person her size to squeeze into. She wedges her way into the pit, and covers the opening with some twigs and leaves from around her.
She briefly thinks about the spiders and other insects that are undoubtedly under the wood and leaves with her, but she quickly dismisses the thought, for as afraid of spiders that she was; she was far more afraid of IT finding her. She was satisfied with being hidden here, confident she would not be found with the cover of the bush the twigs and leaves and the night and she doses off to sleep.
The next morning she wakes more sore than shes ever been in her life. She has slept in the most unusual way and her body is seemingly stuck in this position. She can feel large gashes in her arms and legs and blood drips from a scrape across her belly. And she is STARVING. She breathes shallow and quietly so she can be sure noone or nothing is around before forcing her body to get out of the hole. Grimacing, she looks at her surroundings and tries to determine which way to go, and where she could possibly be. It is useless, for all there is are trees, standing and fallen alike. She can see maybe ¼ of a mile in any direction before the fog swallows up the forrest. She has no clue where she is. And she is alone.
She fights the tears that threaten to fall down her cheeks, and eeny, meeny, miny, moes to get a decision on which direction to go and starts walking. She thinks about home, as the sound of her footsteps echo off the trees. There are a few occasional birds, but other than that the forrest is eerily quiet. Home…. The cliche white picket fence with the freshly painted shed. The flower bed with lilies and birds of paradise filled in with ground covering with tiny white blossoms. The porch where she would sit in her over sized rocking chair and read various books, depending what kick she was on at the time…..Regression Therapy, How to be a Successful Woman in a Mans World, and an occasional romance novel that would tug at her heart strings and make her vow to never read another. She hated being sad. Hated crying. Hated how she felt without him. Sam was perfect, supportive, her right hand, best friend, lover, the whole she-bang. He was irreplaceable. And he was dead.
She shook her head vigorously a few times, as if the thoughts and images she had just let in would be tossed out of her head that way, and continued her mental tour of her home. She opened the big red front door, and walked into her living room. It was an open concept set up. The A frame log cabin had tall ceilings and she looked up to the loft that took up the whole upstairs floor. In her mind she climbed the circular stairway that she just had to have when Sam and herself were in the process of drawing out the plan. He was good at that, architecture. He had a masters degree, but honestly could have stopped at a bachelors as he had had a knack for it right off. “Lets build it TOGETHER! Just me and you! It will mean so much more if we do!” she had said, unable to hide the excitement she had over the idea, and bounced up and down, clinging to his arm, as he lifted his right eyebrow at her, the side of his mouth curling up on one side ever so slightly. “You think me and you can build a whole ass house just the two of us? What do you even know about building a house, Lia? You cant just wing it babe, its tough work.” “I realize that hunny, but I have you. Ill do whatever you say, I promise. Can you imagine how it will feel to look around at the finished product and know we did this wonderful thing thats just ours? Please….” Amelia gave her best set of puppy dog eyes and he agreed, as she knew he would. He would’ve done anything she asked when it came down to it, and it was mutual. She felt so at home with him, and that was now over and she was now alone in so many ways…
The temperature was rising, and mid-day snd Amelia was starting to think to herself how astonishing it was for the night to be as cold as it was, and then for her to be sweating profusely now. It had to be somewhere around noon, judging by the sun that peeked through the much thinner cloud cover directly above her. It was sticky and the air was heavy, making it hard to breathe with her asthma. She had ditched her ripped and dirty t-shirt that had been matted with mud, blood and had more holes than it had covered anymore. She was a sight to see. A sports bra, leggings that went about mid-calf, and her converse tennis shoes that she wished had been her nikes right about now. Her hair was in a messy bun secured by a twig she broke off of a pine a few miles back. Trying to be optimistic, she was at least thankful she was wearing her leggings with pockets. She had brought her backpack that night instead of a purse because they were going to be walking home, since they had been drinking. Amelia was thankful for that as well.
Amelia came across a stream, where she washed her face and arms, and there had been some wild berries nearby where she filled her growling belly. She regained some energy and was feeling quite a bit better, almost forgetting the situation at hand. As she wandered through the woods she started to hum a little tune, Losing My Religion by R.E.M, The hum grew louder and before long she was belting out the lyrics...
