The Loudest Silence

CHAPTER 2

I burst up from my reverie sitting up straight with my good posture that our mother taught us only thinking about my sister. I scrambled for my father's wool jacket and my boots, grabbed the matches, and lit our lantern, then put them in the pocket of the jacket. Luckily I have seen father light it an increasingly amount of times.

My feet now allowed me to run with my muscles back in order. I would not be able to accept the fact if I lost my father and my best friend! the memories of my condition after I heard the news would not be tolerated in the deep forest night.

I swiftly ran to the edge of the forest. I crept around the thick trees around me making my way to the creek. A loud gasp exited my throat and into the cold air when I just barely missed a fallen tree. As a loud clump thumped against my ears and leaves were being flown everywhere I picked up my speed when suddenly the light was gone.

The flame had been blown out from the wind. I clutched the lantern hard and slowly pulled out the matches. I felt a tear stream down my cheek as dead leaves hit my face and the old trees creeked in the pitch blackness. The animal noises I heard that I thought were just the ordinary sounds that didn't bother me, now, with all of my surroundings and events callopsing over my life, those animals sound like they are giving me a death wish.

I lit the match. The flame vanished. I lit it again. No flame at all. I lit it once more this time with a deep breath. I closed my eyes, made my last attempt with the very last match and... nothing. absolutley nothing except pitch blackness. Everywhere.

I felt endless tears overlapping others as I kept walking towards my destinataion. I put one foot out infront of me as I walked to be sure I would not walk right into a tree. I slid my left foot out. All clear. I took a step and then my face was hurtling towards the cold ground. I had tripped on a fallen tree.

My left foot was still awkwardly laying and twisted on top of the trunk. I coughed after I choked on some dirt when I heard another cough. A louder, sick sounding one. The hairs on my arm stood straight up and tall. Was that just an echo? Then I heard it again and it continued. That was not an echo of my own cough... Rosy!

I scrambled to my feet in an instant and felt around for her. "Rosy! I am here, Rosy. Where are you?" The answer from her a had recieved was another limp cough. This time I knew from the sound where her body location was. I bent down next to her, pulled her arms up over the backs of my shoulders, and helped her up onto my back.

I stood up and started to walk back leaving the lantern behind. Luckily Rosy had a bit of a lighter weight than me. I held onto her fragile body with all my might and I could feel the little cuts that developed on my hands as she coughed flimsy puffs when I started to jog back to the light again by our small wooden cottage.

Then the tears came again.