The Books that Never made it

Mercy

I could hear voices. My eyes scanned the dark perimeter but I couldn’t see anything. The suffocating darkness swallowed up everything. I couldn’t even see my hands in front of my face.

It was quiet now. I rose from my hiding place, tucked away in a dark fox’s den in front of some tall weeds. The soft dirt under me was damp and crawling with grubs and spiders that scuttled over my palm.

          “I heard something, from over there.” The men’s voices were closer now. I closed my eyes and wished myself invisible. I could see their flashlights wander over me behind my closed eyelids, but they could not see me. I was a part of the earth now. Invisible.

          “He couldn’t have gone far,” one of the men said. He was the one with the crowbar that had made a nice gash above my eyebrow. I could feel it sting as the blood leaked down the side of my face.

Mosquitoes hovered over me, attracted by the blood. Their little wings blew soft gusts of air over my face. It made my skin crawl as they landed on me, dipping their needle noses into my flesh. I grimaced and calmly shooed them away.

          “Bring Ariea!” One of the guards barked. The other two of the three men went off into the bush, and a fourth set of footsteps came into the clearing. I ducked down further into the brush, my breath coming in quiet little gasps.

Ariea came forward. She looked like the warrior she was, so proud and strong with her lean structure and a face of an angel, but behind her sweetness was a sting of danger.

 Ariea scoured the forest, her face unreadable. Her white hair flew around her face in the wind and danced over her shoulders. She looked over in my direction and my whole body tensed up.

Run flee, she sees you! My whole body cried, but she didn’t make a motion to alert the guards she saw me. Her gaze was locked on me and mine on hers. None of us moved or blinked. The blood drummed through my ears, drowning out the sound of the crickets and the nearing footsteps that came around me, but never to me.

“Do you see him? Is he here?” The sergeant asked, following her line of vision. I ducked down deeper into the bush, my eyes watering from the lack of blinking.

She slowly shook her head, her eyes posed on me. “He’s fled from this area. Move your men further. He couldn’t have made it far with that gash on his head, before long he’ll attract predators.”

The guard nodded and barked at his men to move out.

          Ariea still watched me, disapproval in her icy blue eyes and on her pale as snow face. Her stare sent chills down my spine. Finally with a curt nod, she followed the guards down the path that they had chased me down. She’d seen me, but I’d made it too easy for her. I could see it in her eyes. She was no pleased I had made it unchallenging, but I knew, if we crossed paths again, she wouldn’t grant any mercy.