She ran.
Jumping over fallen branches, narrowly
avoiding small craters in the dark forest floor, she ran.
She couldn’t stop. To stop could
mean death. Or worse.
Fire blazed in her ankle, searing up her leg. As she fell, the black duffel bag flew off her
arm. Her back crashed against the damp
ground, and her teeth came down on her bottom lip to keep herself from crying out. She rolled to her side, and her elbow raked a rock
as she grabbed for her ankle.
It’s
just a sprain, she told herself. She had
to keep going no matter how much her ankle hurt. She
moved onto her stomach and forced herself to her knees.
She gave a half-hearted attempt to stand up before falling forward onto her hands. Tears streamed down her face and she lifted one
hand to wipe them away, smudging dirt across her cheek.
A voice stirred in her mind, one that had plagued her
since the beginning of her journey. The
disjointed voice whispered to her, trying to seduce her actions. Go back,
it tempted. You can go back right now and everything will be okay. You’ll never get away with this.
But she had to get away with
it, despite what the voice told her. No sane
person would willingly return to hell.
She pushed herself to her knees. She extracted a penlight from her pocket and
illuminated her watch. Too late to go back. She had been gone for almost an hour. They were already searching for her.
Reaching back into her pocket, she pulled
out a compass. She was facing east. She flicked off the penlight as she stared into
the vast forest in front of her. Still on
course, she ignored the steady throb in her ankle and the raw, burning pain in her back
and coaxed herself to her feet. She put away
the penlight and compass, and used her sleeves to wipe the remaining tears from her face. She closed her eyes. In the shadows of her mind, fingers gracefully
danced over the ivory keys of a grand piano, creating a beautiful melody that wrenched her
soul. Her eyes flew open, erasing the picture
from her head, but not the song. Looking up
to the sky, she said a silent prayer.
She ran.
