Legs pumped harder and harder, each foot fall slamming into the soft, muddy ground with enough force to send the mud up her legs in streaks. Twigs snagged and broke off into tight curls of fiery red, stuck into her hair like broken pieces of a crown. She needed to keep going; the creature's own heavy footfalls were getting closer and closer.
A growl echoed behind her and she felt a huff of hot breath fan itself on the back of her neck. She shivered, the motion rippling unpleasantly up her spine. Still she pushed, willing her aching legs to pump harder, for her blistered feet to move faster than ever before. Each shuddering gasp of breath burned painfully in her lungs.
But then she made a horrible, horrible mistake.
She stumbled.
She stumbled, her foot having got caught under an uplifted root and sending her sprawling onto the forest floor. She tried to scramble back up on her feet, tried to keep running but it was too late.
Teeth sunk and sawed viciously into her shoulder. Someone screamed, a piercing, bone chilling scream. An ear piercing howl overlapped it an a macabre harmony straight before both faded away into a deafening silence.
Hours later, just as the sun was beginning to rise anew, a different voice echoed through the woods.
There was fire ants in her shoulder.
That's all she can think of in her thumping, cotton coated brain.
There was fire ants inside her shoulder digging their way through, squirming and wiggling and biting through muscle and bone. They slowly worked away, building their tunnels of hell in her body and all she wanted to do was scream. Scream until her throat was raw and bleeding, until she runs out of air and passes out into cool oblivion. She wished she could get rid of them, wished she could make them leave her alone and build their colony somewhere that wasn't her body, but couldn't. Her limps refused to listen.
Wait, was she screaming?
Oh, no, she wasn't.
The fire ants kept going regardless.
They kept going until her body was weak and brittle, until each bone was left useless and aching, and each attempt to move was met with a sort of pain that left her a sort of breathless that she had only felt few times when she was still able to heal.
Eventually exhaustion pulled through for her and she fell into a restless slumber filled with bared fangs and gleaming eyes.
The next time she woke, she had a visiter.
Her visiter sat on a nearby chair, deep dark eyes concerned and her long black hair pulled into a messy ponytail with a small but kind smile. Her features shifted in an out of focus like smoke, tanned features blurring away until she was staring at a blonde with mischievous blue eyes and a sly, playful grin.
She knows them, she knows she does, their names were at the the tip of her tongue, But no matter how hard she tried she can't seem to truly recall who they are. She must of known and loved then both dearly though, because the sight of them made her breath catch in her throat and her heart to ache painfully in bittersweet memory. Tears stung her eyes and burned her cheeks on the way down. She wanted to say something, anything, but it seemed like words had escaped her.
So, she laid there, head throbbing sickeningly from the light but unwilling to look away from her visitor(s), lest they disappear. Unfortunately, her efforts were a waste because when she went to blink, she found herself unable to open her eyes again.
The next time she finally managed to open her eyes, it was to the view of her father sleeping hunched over in chair next to her, a grimace carving deep lines into his face. She stared at him in dazed confusion, eyeing him through hazey eyes until he stirred awake.
Her heart stopped at the sight of his eyes, malicious and gleaming. Eyes that had tormented her in her sleep and made getting rest a literal nightmare. She tried to force herself to move away, to get away from the reaching monster getting closer, her father's face tearing away to reveal a scarred lupin face, teeth bared in a snarl-
Dimly, in the back of her brain, Emily heard someone scream shrilly. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was people in white coats rushing in.
She wished she hadn't woke up during this visitor's time.
They sat hunched in a shadowed corner, lupin eyes eyeing her hungrily. She couldn't see anything else but the eyes, but that didn't matter.
With each slow, groggy blink of her eyes they got steadily closer.
Blink. They watched her from below her feet, their eyes still the only thing visible. A deep primal fear stirred in her and her breath hitched. She wanted to escape, to run far,far away from this creature creeping steadily closer and closer still.
Blink. They were crouched beside her, watching with those yellow eyes. She can make out their face, gaunt with their jutting jaw and rows and rows of jagged teeth bared in a snarl. A brownish- crimson was smeared over its mouth and down its front. Grey, pasty skin stretched over their skeleton and their legs looked more animal than human.
She didn't want to blink again-
please, please don't blink-
Blink. She choked on the scream building in her throat, hazel green eyes locked with the sickly yellows inches in front of her face. She didn't move, didn't dare to even breath with this creature so close to her face. She can smell the acrid stench of sickness and death on their breath and her stomach rolled in protest as a response.
Blink. The creature lunged with a familiar inhuman howl and she woke up to the feeling of its teeth ripping into her throat and the scream she had choked on finally breaking free. She pulled her hands away from her neck and looked around blearily, her foggy, thumping brain seeming to finally be able to process her surroundings.
Where...was she?
She was in a dark purple room, it's only light being a candle on a dresser near her right and from the cracks of door. A shaggy grey carpet decorated the hardwood floor. Strange, from what she recalled she could have sworn she had been in a hospital room, not, from what it looks like, someones bedroom room.
She tried to think of how she got here, tried to recall where she was
She remembered hiking with her father--
Something was watching her, stalking her--
She tried to run, she tried so,so hard--
But not fast enough--
Her hands flew to her shoulder, tenderly tracing where she felt fangs rip into the bone and muscle. It had her whole shoulder in its mouth, its grip stopping just over her heart. It had shook its head frantically--and she remembered screaming when she felt the muscle tear and shoulder dislocate before blacking out-- but the pain had been too much, and the next thing she knew she was retching from the echoing pain, hands clasped over her mouth desperately to stop it. A thought had occured to her then.
If it had waited just a bit longer, if it had waited until she got up properly-
Her head would have been crushed between its jaws.
That did it.
Emily Fletcher, now seventeen years old, the former healer and tour guide of Ravenswood Preserve, fell to her knees and threw up before finally passing out.
Funny, she didn't remember getting up.
Emily snapped awake with a gasp, sitting bolt right in bed and heart pounding painfully.
She glanced down at her hands, expecting claws or fur or, God forbid, blood. But to her great relief she only saw her own tanned hands, as freckled and as scarred as she remembered them to be. No blood.
Not even dirt under her fingernails either…
Huh. She didn't know how to feel about that.
She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, clutching onto the chair when the room threatened to move out from under her feet. She moved slowly, bracing herself against the walls and furniture alike when her knees threatened to buckle.
Emily couldn't help the small triumphant smile that flashed across her face when she finally made to the door. She opened it and stepped through, faltering only when what seemed to be a memory broke through the fog. She glanced back to the chair next to the bed, eyebrows furrowing.
Had they really…?
No. Of course they hadn't, she hadn't seen them for years. She was being ridiculous.
Emily set her shoulders and stepped forward, ignoring the hurt feeling deep inside her chest.
If they had wanted to talk to her, they could have either emailed or called.
But they didn't.
Emily stumbled through the house, hoping to either find the owner or the exit. The owner to possibly thank them for helping her and to hopefully get information on how long she's been here. The exit in case the owner is actually a cree-
Humming. She could hear someone humming softly, pretty and light. She followed it instinctively, tripping down the stairs and finding herself in kitchen that had two walls replaced with massive glass panels with a small round table tucked in the corner of it. She blinked hard and rubbed her eyes, surprised by the sudden influx of light hitting her eyes.
Something touched her shoulder and she flinched violently as visions flashed behind her eyelids, visions of gleaming teeth and snarls and agony--
When she opened her eyes again she was thankfully still in the kitchen, sitting at the small round table with a steaming cup of tea in front of her. She stared down at her folded hands, watching the trembles gradually slowed until she couldn't tell if they were still shaking or not.
She sighed in soft relief.
"I haven't seen anyone react this badly in a while," Emily's head shot in surprise, finally noticing the figure leaning against the glass paneled wall in front of her. She was pretty, with long, dark brunette hair in a low, messy ponytail and her eyes a light grey. She had a friendly face, lined with laughter and a small concerned smile. "though I can't really blame you, you did almost lose an arm."
Her arm? Tha-that hadn't been a dream? She had remembered that moment, but had hoped in was just her imagination, that it wasn't true--
But it was. She was staring down at her shoulder, or more accurately at her entire body covered in white bandages wrapped firmly around her entire torso, shoulders, and even her arms. Further inspection had her discovering patches covering parts of her legs and even a few stitches on her face. Emily's eyebrows furrowed as she reached down, gently tracing her fingers on a small bandage covering her calf-
-a flash of a scarred muzzle crinkling back to show yellowed fangs, a deep echoing growl vibrating lowly in its matted chest, claws digging in painfully-
She flinched back violently as if burned, nearly crashing in the table behind.
Her hands began to tremble again, clumsy in their movements as she settled them back down on the table. She was distantly aware of the soft, soothing murmurs of offered comfort coming from the woman, of reaching hands pulling her closer and of arms wrapping around her gently. Then all Emily could focus on in her muddled state was her father, who was hiking with her, and how blue the woman's dress was. A vivid, royal blue.
Emily silently began to cry.