RATED T FOR BLOOD AND STUFF.
BURGESS
EARLY EVENING
1700-1800's
It was like a bundle of data.
Pictures flew into Jada's fevered mind as she remembered.
A sunny day on the sandy shore. Golden wheat covering vast fields. Laughing children dancing around green-leaved trees.
In shock, she saw a girl that looked like her, hanging upside down from a nearby tree branch.
In fact, it WAS her. But a different version. This version of Jada had dark brown hair, light hazel eyes and tanned skin.
She was dressed in the same clothes Jada had had when she had woken that night near the ice pond.
She had a few freckles dotting her nose. This Jada laughed wildly, swinging about. "Jada, be careful!" called a small girl who looked exactly like this version of her.
"Yeah, Jade, you don't want to fall!" added one of the taller boys, who looked very familiar, with brown hair and light brown-amber eyes.
And lastly, a full moon shining over the now snow-covered forest, seeming to radiate peace.
Then the scene changed.
Now she saw a small brown cottage with a crackling, glowing fire inside.
Jada had a word for it. Home.
The scene changed again.
"Jade-Anna Sedarcott!"
Jade-Anna looked up at her mother's stern face and cringed.
"Sorry, Mother?" "You know perfectly well what I mean, young lady. You were supposed to take your sister out to pick berries an hour ago!
"So you'd better hurry before it gets too dark!" "Yes, ma'am. I'll go and get her now."
She gave her mother a quick hug before picking up the straw basket and going to find her sister.
9, turning 10 year-old Mellie Sedarcott was right where Jada knew she would be. Waiting on the porch, eager to go out.
"You're late, Jade!" She pouted, crossing her arms.
Mellie looked like a smaller copy of Jada, with her long brown hair and brown-green eyes and freckles, but dressed in a lighter brown dress.
"I know, Mellie. So we got to go now, before the wolves come out."
Mellie immediately started full-out sprinting towards the woods. Jada soon caught up with her, though.
"Hey, Mellie, slow down. Why are you running?" "Because," Mellie panted out. "We got to pick berries real fast before the wolves come!"
Jada laughed and stopped, and Mellie slowed too. She put a hand on her shoulder. "Aw, don't worry, Mel. If we're careful, they won't catch us."
"But we're going into the GREENWOOD FOREST," Mellie exclaimed, bright eyes huge. "They say that no light except on a full moon night ever pierces through the trees, and that the wolves in there always want human flesh!"
Jada laughed again. "Let me worry about that, alright?"
And they set off into the dark woods.
15 MINUTES LATER
The sun had set much quicker than Jada would have thought.
Now she was kind of panicking, already imagining the glowing eyes in the darkness, and hungry jaws, dripping with saliva...
She shook her head hard. Stop it, Jada.
On the bright side, they now had two basket-fulls of berries.
On the un-bright side, Mellie was so nervous, she was clutching onto Jada's sleeve so tight that Jada would probably get bruises.
And just as they were near the edge of Greenwood forest, they heard the howl. Then another. Then another. Right behind them, surrounding them.
And worst of all, it wasn't just Jada's imagination this time.
Mellie gave a soft cry, starting to shake with fear.
Jada turned, slowly, ever so slowly, and picked a large branch off the ground.
The first wolf jumped.
SMACK! The branch flew and hit the wolf so hard, it tumbled to the ground and let out a blood-curling howl.
Its fellow pack members padded up to them, eyes gleaming in unconcealed rage.
Jada readied her branch. "Go, Mellie. Run!"
But Mellie didn't move. Jada looked down at her little sister, head buried into her dress, little figure shaking.
She lifted her fearful face up to Jada. "I can't," She said, trembling. "It's too dark!"
Jada bent down and gave her a hug, handing her the basket and placing a hand on her shoulder, as the wolves crept slowly towards them.
They would have enough time, but just enough.
Jada looked deep into her sister's eyes.
"Mellie, you can do it. Be brave. Be brave for me. Run and don't look back, no matter what. GO!"
She gave her a little shove, and Mellie ran away as fast as a stallion.
She turned back to the wolves. There was no choice.
She had to give her sister a chance to run for it, or they wouldn't have made it back to the cottage in time.
Now to lead them off.
Jada raised the branch and started running in the opposite direction than Mellie had.
"Hey, dumb wolves!" She taunted, feeling incredibly stupid. "Over here!"
She danced further and further back, as the night passed on.
ABOUT 25 MINUTES LATER
Jada was tired.
Almost all of the wolves had departed except for their leader, who was stalking Jada like a piece of prey.
They were so deep in the forest that Jada was sure they'd be near the ice pond now.
She swung the branch at the wolf, as he charged.
But as fate would have it, that one little swing cost Jada dearly.
The wolf's claws tore across her throat, leaving a gaping, gushing wound.
Then he pounced on her, making the branch fly out of her hands and away.
She fumbled at the bloody mess at her throat, trying desperately to stop the bleeding.
The wolf snarled, his fangs in her face that would be the last thing she would ever see.
Jada shut her eyes.
CRUNCH.
The footstep in the snow nearby made the wolf sit up in alarm, then dash away.
Jada never saw who made the footstep.
She let out a little gasp as she felt the life drain out of her. The last sight she saw was the moon, shining kindly down.
Jada sighed and closed her eyes.
The last scene she saw was the dappled shadows of the sunless forest grove that her body was sleeping in transforming her.
They were turning her hair as black as night and her eyes turned dark brown with the bright green flecks of the haunting pine trees .
That was the last thing before the end of the memories and Jade-Anna Sedarcott was gone.