Sorry this took so long but I haven't had a lot of time because of exams, but they're over now. *victory dance*

I hope you enjoy.

The Fall

The trees were only blurs in my peripheral vision as I ran. I didn't have time to admire the beautiful landscape. I didn't have time to do much at all, except for making sure I didn't trip over anything. Any lost second could be my last. I knew that for sure.

I flew over the forest floor in my attempt to escape. I was running fast, faster then I had ever run before. My eyes were wide and wet. The fiery tears just kept coming, blurring my vision. I gasped in an attempt to stop them falling, but it was useless. The pain of loss still ran freshly through my vanes. I coughed as my lungs begged for rest that I could not give.

The wrap-around skirt that flapped furiously around my legs was torn and covered in mud. A darker, redder, substance was mixed in with the dirt. There had been so much of it and not all of it was mine. I felt the sting of the cuts that ran up and down my arms and legs as I forced the skin around them to stretch when my limbs moved. There was a deep gash behind my right ear where someone had tried to cut it off. The blood ran freely down my neck, hardening and cracking as the flesh moved.

I jumped over a fallen tree that was blocking my path. The trees were getting further and further away from each other. I was almost there, almost. Something whizzed past my left ear, forcing me to turn abruptly, heading in a new direction. The arrow had come from the direction I was running in. They were waiting for me. That way was no longer an option.

My right shoulder smacked into a tree, almost sending me flying. The pain was excruciating and I heard the crack of bones breaking, but still I kept running. I had to. I made a promise. A promise. New tears sprung to my eyes.

The wind was picking up and I had lost track of where I was going. I was not familiar with this part of the woods. In other words, I was lost, but that couldn't stop me. I wouldn't allow it to. Nothing was going to slow me down or get in my way. Not this time.

Then I tripped. The root seemed to have come out of nowhere. How had I missed it? Stupid Joone. I heard the whistle of another arrow flying through the air so I quickly rolled to the side, but not far enough. The stone arrowhead ripped through the sleeve of, what used to be, my white blouse, just nicking the skin. The blouse was stained with mud, blood, and grass. I wore a small red jacket over top of it with short sleeves so the long sleeves of my white blouse could be seen underneath. The jacket went down to just above my bellybutton, and was open with no buttons to close it with.

Before they could loose another arrow, I was on my feet and running again. My feet slammed against the ground silently. They were bear and scratched, like my arms and legs. There was no scarf wrapped around my head so my hair flew along behind me. Free. It was long and a sort of bronze colour.

My pursuers were getting closer. I could hear their yells and taunts now. Most of them were difficult to make out over the sound of the wind beating against my ears.

"Come back here!" One of them yelled.

"You can't run forever filth!" Another called after me. Filth. The insult was so familiar, like I had heard it a hundred times before.

"We'll catch you rat and then you'll be sorry." That voice was louder then the others. They were gaining on me.

My heart beat furiously in my chest. I couldn't let them catch me. Never let them catch me. The feeling of running was so normal to me now, but this time I was alone. I felt the pain of the absence of someone running beside me. Someone important. There had been others too once. Not anymore. I was the only one left.

I wanted to throw back some curses and insults of my own, but I was wheezing so hard that I doubt they would even hear them. They deserved to be chased down, not me. They were the ones who needed to be hunted.

A knife planted itself firmly in the tree I had been running towards. I managed to swerve out of the way just in time. My ears had been trained to pick out the noises of weapons flying through the air when my eyes failed to see them. All that hard work was finally paying off. I hoped.

Then the trees disappeared and I stumbled out of the forest and into a rocky clearing. I heard the crashing of waves. I spun to find that the rocky clearing came to an abrupt end. It ended at a cliff that looked over the viscous waves of the sea, a shear drop. I looked around for a place to run but it was too late. The sound of my pursuers feet hitting the rock sounded behind me. I turned around, slowly, hoping that I would not find them there, but there they were, standing tall and cloaked. They were all dressed in black, shadows cast over their faces so I could not make them out, but I didn't need the light to recognize them. Each of their names came back to me as I scanned each one in turn.

I had once known them to be kind and friendly, but those people were no more. The monsters standing in front of me had lost all memory of whom they once were. They were so deformed that I was surprised I could recognize them at all. Why? Why did it have to be them? Why couldn't they have sent someone else to kill me?

The ones who had sent them were cruel and knew our pasts together. This was their way of punishing me, for what I did. It would have been all right if I had been cut down by one of their monsters I had no connection to. It wouldn't have hurt as much.

They advanced in a straight line towards me, all five of them, forcing me to back away until I was standing right at the edge of the cliff. I dislodged a small rock with my foot and it plummeted to where it broke in two on a jagged rock below. It was swept out of sight when the waves crashed into the rocks. This was it.

"Where is it?" One of them screeched at me. Their voice was so distorted that it no longer resembled in any way to the singsong voice I had once known.

"Give it to us!" Another one shrieked.

"There is nowhere to run." The one on the far right cackled.

"Give up little girl." The tallest of them stepped forward out of the line. His voice was gravelly and horse.

"Never!" I yelled back, steadying myself on the edge.

"Don't make this harder for yourself." The tallest one spoke again and took another step.

I was trapped, with no escape. He was right, there was nowhere to run. But who said I was running.

"You'll never get it from me!" I tried to sound confident.

"Traitor!" The first one who had spoken hissed.

That's when I heard it. Cracking. The ground around me broke open and broke away from the cliff, falling to meet the freezing waters below. The edge of the cliff crumbled, falling, and taking me with it. I had planned to jump all dramatically but this worked just as well.

The one who hadn't spoken yet broke away from the rest of the group. She was the smallest out of the five. She ran towards me, hand outstretched. Without thinking, I lifted my hand to meet hers. I was already over the edge. She reached down to me. For a moment I really thought it was her. When I saw her grey eyes, full of fear, I thought it was the real her, the girl she had been, the one who smiled and laughed alongside me.

My fingertips brushed her soft ones as she grabbed for me, but I was too far. She missed. I fell and she watched me fall, hand still reaching for mine.

"No!" She screamed. It was full of fear and loss. Did she remember me? No, I reminded myself. She forgot my name long ago. A shadow of who we used to be to each other might still be somewhere in her mind, but it was fading. Even now she was forgetting me and who she had been.

I couldn't look anymore so I closed my eyes to her cries. "I'm sorry." I breathed. The words were meant for not only her. They were also meant for the promises I could not keep, the lives I could not save. Maybe I really was the traitor. The backstabber. The villain. The liar.

Then I hit the water and remembered nothing more.

That's when I opened my eyes. I jerked violently under my blanket and fell from my low bed onto the hard ground. I had woken in a cold sweat, gasping for air. The side of my face was now pressed against the cold floor. I lay there for a few moments, trembling. It had all been so real. I sat up slowly, rubbing my head. I still felt the coldness of the water against my skin. My heart still beat uncontrollably under my shirt. I breathed deeply, trying to slow it.

"It was just a dream." I told myself.

Or had it been a memory, lost in time?

Thank you for reading and please REVIEW!

Should I continue writing this story or is no one interested in seeing how it ends?

Was the dream just a dream or was it a memory? One that she is hiding from herself?