Revenant

Prologue - Goodbye Forever

REVENANT

Prologue

Goodbye Forever

The cold air that was smashing against her face was absolute agony and she cried out from the numbness that overcame her. She wanted to stop but the adrenaline that followed her wouldn't allow it, neither did the sweet child in her arms. The child's glassy, grey eyes with blue flecks, wide open. Her red lips pursed in a straight line, as if she knew all the events that were taking place around her, almost as if she knew what was happening.

Then, she realised, she could never stop, never stop running until this beautiful, unique child was safe. Until her child, her daughter was safe.

She kept running deeper into the hollows of the dark forest, the angry wind whipping the branches of bushes and trees, making them whip against her body and claw across her soft porcelain skin. She couldn't feel them through her numbness but she knew they were leaving terrible marks and bruises all over her.

Despite the dreadful cold, sweat was running down her face. Tears welled under her dreary, tired eyes and her long dark brown hair was tangled as she hadn't such the time to brush it and the wind certainly did not help in the least.

She saw a huge log up ahead that would be almost impossible to jump with her child in her arms, well she might be able to just make the jump but not without tripping and falling and she hadn't the time to get injured, she also did not want to harm her baby girl.

She stopped and looked at the direction she came, thinking maybe she could go back and find some other way around but the sound of loud angry, ear-splitting shrieking that echoed through the forest, just at least a mile behind her, made her change her mind and run forward, towards the huge log. The log looked almost never ending as she tried to spy out the root of it. It seemed to stretch miles wide, going forever but, of course, all things come to an end. Including life, she thought dreadfully.

She ran as fast as she could, trying to get at a good pace on it so she can get a good jump. She edged closer to the log and started to panic. She felt herself start to slow down. She looked at those beautiful eyes of the child in her arms and watched as the sweet toddler rose her hand and gently touched her face, staring into her eyes as if to say 'Everything's going to be alright.' That small touch of the child's hand made her forget all thoughts of falling and the panic dematerialized from her feelings for this moment.

She closed in towards the log and finally reached it, lifting herself up in the air and thrusting upwards, she felt spills of ice touch her numb face and the wind make her long hair blow out of her face and behind her back. She couldn't believe it, she and the girl were soaring through the thick air, as if they had their own pair of wings, as if they were an angel or a large bird.

She smiled when she heard the beautiful, sweet chorus of the child's laughter, like bells ringing a luscious musical in the night and felt herself beginning to fall into a lush of laughter herself, her body vibrating as it echoed through the icy air. But when she felt her body begin to falter through the air, she stopped.

She made the mistake of looking down as she began to fall closer to the ground, suddenly afraid. Afraid that she wouldn't make the landing and hurt the small darling in her arms. But no matter how afraid she was, she didn't close her eyes, did not panic, she just tried her best to survive the fall and...

She did it. She made it.

Her two feet landed flat on the ground and the child giggled. She blew out a big sigh of relief. She heard a loud noise echo through the trees and spun around. A flock of birds were fluttering out of the trees and into the sky, by prediction she counted at least over fifty. They were flying away in a rush, up and over the forest and above her head.