Oups ! Cette image n'est pas conforme à nos directives de contenu. Afin de continuer la publication, veuillez la retirer ou télécharger une autre image.
CHAPTER ONE ( the girl with no name )
SHE AWOKE TO THE THUNDERING OF HOOVES. The clear, unmistakable noise of some large creature galloping as fast and as fervently as it could.
A distinct feeling of fear came with it.
Shooting up from where she laid, body and face tarnished in the dirt she had been sprawled unconscious against, her cerulean eyes widened in immediate alertness. The unfamiliar forest was enshrouded in darkness. Not even the steady glow of the moonlight trickling through the sea of pines illuminated much of her ominous surroundings. Nocturnal animals called out in the near distance; their cries and melodies echoing through the pitch black woods.
Quickly, her befuddled gaze snapped downward, holding her hands before her face and turning them over with furrowed brows. They were filthied by the raw earth, fingernails lined with crusted mud. She looked down to her outstretched legs, her tattered white dress just as defiled by Mother Nature. Stained forever with clay and sod, it was torn ruthlessly; the now uneven shreds of fabric that remained tickling at her skin. Clearly it had once been a long dress, likely a pretty one, and now it only reached the very top of her bare thighs. The only thing that remained partially intact were the long, tightly-fitted lace sleeves; only mildly cut up and still reaching all the way to her wrists.
Though the night was chilly, her skin was glistening with a thick layer of sweat, and there was no breeze present to soothe her. Her ragged blonde locks clung to her dampened forehead and the back of her neck, loose tendrils framing her face.
Her head snapped back up at a resounding thump; there the hooves were again.
With narrowed eyes, she sat still and listened closely; an unsettling, sinister feeling hanging low in the air. It crept unforgivingly into her mind, her skin crawling. Before she could scrutinize her surroundings any further, a mighty buck was leaping out from behind a tree, revealing the source of the hoofbeats at once.
It's eyes were wild and afraid, it's spastic movements governed by franticness. It almost appeared as if it were under some sort of spell, and kept charging berserkly through the forest. And as if led by the same spell, the young girl sprung urgently to her bare feet. She did not pause to question the magnetic pull the animal seemed to have on her, but wholeheartedly chased after the disturbed deer instead.
Desperately, she raced after the much faster creature; foolish to believe she'd ever catch up. She quickly lost eyes on it, but never slowed down. Her heart hammered against her ribcage as twigs and twisting tree roots protruding from the ground scratched up her uncovered feet. But she didn't stop. For some reason, unbeknownst to her, she couldn't. She needed to find the deer and leave the feeling of danger lurking in the shadowy corners of these woods.
