Pernicious- True Evil

Chapter 3

She examined the wound on her hip before taking off her jacket and wrapping it around her waist. The gash could have easily used a few stitches, and it needed to be cleaned. Her split skin looked like open lips coated in blood. Would this lead to an infection?

She touched the cut tenderly, watching blood seep out. Pulling off her scarf, she wrapped it around the wound on her leg to at least keep as much dirt out of it as she could.

There was an odd scent that reminded her of decay. It lingered in the air and punched the inside of her curling nose. Her head snapped back and forth. She expected to see something rotting near to her, but there was nothing in sight, only churning dirt. Why was the dirt moving like this and where was that smell coming from? Was she near the food of a dangerous predator? Would it come back to finish its meal only to find its next victim waiting to be crushed within its muscular jaws?

Images of eternal possibilities flashed inside her mind. Her sanity begged for mercy, only to once again receive another reel of images playing mercilessly; taunting her soul.

The ground shook and a large rock the size of her head tumbled from the heavens and crashed only fifteen feet away from her. Upon impact, it split into three pieces. That could have been her skull. She imagined how it would have looked, cracked open like an egg as blood seeped onto the ground below it. Would she have remained alive for a few seconds as shattered pieces of her bone surrounded her, or would she have died with the stone's impact? No, this was not just thunder that she was hearing. The land she was on was angry and waking from its slumber.

She touched her chest and felt her precious heart attempt to burst through, as if it could also run and hide. Just as her heart was trapped within her body, she was trapped within these cliff walls. Where should she go? What should she do?

If she called for help, she could attract the wrong attention. She trusted neither man nor beast. Both were unpredictable and dangerous.

The squirming ground drew her attention. Black and brown speckled dirt reached onto her shoes as though it was trying to crawl on top of her, before tumbling back down onto the ground below. With every burst of lightning, the mud became more active and seemed to emit a foul aroma. What kind of hell is this?

Thinking back to the classes she had taken in school, she tried to remember if they ever covered anything like this. No. She had never heard of moving dirt unless there were bugs involved and it didn't look like that was the case. How is this even possible?

Her eyes absorbed the terrain around her. Slithering up the sides of the cliffs, clear roots pulsated with dark red liquid connected to something that appeared to be a thorned plant. These plants alone were a sight she had never seen before. Like long tentacles extending out of a thick white base, they moved their arm-like vines slowly from side to side as though they were in search of something. Thick, white, crimson tipped thorns seemed to grip onto anything they touched.

She gazed at the red roots before studying the branches of the plant. Questions pounded her mind. What was it in search of? How was it able to move on its own? Why did the thorns look like the ends had been painted by the blood of its victims?

Her eyes traced the side of the cliff wall, following the roots of this flora. The ends of the roots were clear, while the closer to the bulk of the plant they were, the more filled with a bright red substance they seemed to become. Was it blood that she was looking at? Was it a sort of sap or naturally occurring liquid?

Her heart sank. Her eyes begged for the sight she looked at to be nothing more than a lie told by her anxiety ridden mind. Clinging to the side of a cliff, one of the smaller bushes had wrapped its branches around what appeared to be a massive bat, but she wasn't sure since she could only see the tip of one of its wings. The plant tightened its grip even further and as it did so, more of the roots filled with liquid. Like a spider to its prey, these living plants drained their victims of their life source, slowly drinking away at a substance more precious than gold.