Stranger

Stranger [Part VI]

The cool air swirled around me, and I was glad that I'd chosen to wear my deep green pull on sweater with the same pair of dark wash skinnies that I had the day before. I walked down the steps and placed my hands inside my jean's pockets as my fuzzy chocolate Ugg boots pushed aside the few leaves that had fallen by the pool.

When I'd reached the opening to the trail, I hesitated, remembering the sight I'd thought I'd seen two days earlier. I pushed those thoughts aside, deciding my mind had been playing tricks on me that day. Refusing to let anything get in my way, I walked into the path, and was soon engulfed amid towering trees and the comfort nature always brought. I walked on and on, enjoying the sights around me. Everything here was new, something fresh. Back at my old house, though the yards were big and me and Matt had our special playground to enjoy as kids, nothing compared to the beauty that surrounded me here, on this little dirt trail.

In the beginning of my hike, the birds were chirping and the rush of wind soothed my mind, letting my thoughts flow aimlessly and quietly in my mind. But as the minutes quickly turned to hours walking in the forest, I began to notice that the birds no longer sang, and that the wind rushing through the no longer living tree branches threatened a more sinister secret, hiding behind everything in view.

My heartbeat sped up as I turned around to head back, when I noticed that the trail I had been walking on had joined into another, and I found myself hesitating before a fork in the path ahead. Which was the correct to take? I knew one led to safety, to somewhere I was starting to call home, but what about the other? Where did that trail lead me? Somewhere close enough to where I was heading, or somewhere so completely different to the destination I had been meaning to go?

I heard an unnatural sound behind me, such as the sound of a dead twig makes as it snaps in two, bearing too much weight from above. I froze, rooted to the ground as an unbearable cold breeze caressed the back of my neck and slid towards my cheeks. Without thinking I flung myself forwards, running into one of the paths that I wished brought me to where I needed to go.

But as I ran, terrified from whatever presence I had felt behind me, adrenaline pumped through my system. I realized with dread that no matter how fast I ran, it would still take me another half hour, at the very least, to reach home, if I was even heading towards it to begin with. A string of profanities left my mouth as I felt myself tumbling forward, having tripped over a branch I had overlooked while running. My hands fell forward instinctively to break the fall, and I heard a sickening crunch as they made contact with the hard dirt below.

Having briefly forgotten the fear previously instilled within my system, sharp, searing pain took it's place. My breath was taken in short, ragged breaths, and I fought against the tears that fought to escape. I realized in dread that my left wrist was broken, and was swelling at an incredible rate. I cursed over and over, never having felt the pain of a broken bone before.

I stopped suddenly, sensing someone nearby hidden behind the shadows of the mountainous trees at all sides. I held my left wrist gingerly with my right hand as my head flicked from one side to the next, terrified yet searching to find the source of the presence I knew was somewhere around me. As I craned my neck to the left, as if directly behind me, I heard someone taking a long, deep breath near my right ear. Shivers erupted everywhere on my body as I froze perfectly still. The presence breathed even deeper, as if they were taking in the scent of the blood boiling within the vein in my neck.

The presence remained, and felt so close that I believed that if I turned my head to the right I'd find myself face to face with the devil himself. Just as the presence miraculously lift did I spin my head to the right, feeling cold to the core. My heart thumped loudly and slowly within my chest, unable to escape. I searched within the surrounding trees for a person, something, anything, but to no avail. No one was in sight.