Her Wicked Secret

{1}

MIA

My legs felt numb as I ran through the woods, not daring to look back.

"Run!" My mom's voice echoed in my head. I could still hear her screams and cries.

Tears were running down my face, blurring my vision.

It was pouring and dark, and I could hardly see where I was going, but I pushed my eight-year-old self to keep running because I knew that if I stopped even for a second to catch my breath, I would be a goner. I felt the bottom of my bare feet being cut by the twigs and sharp rocks, but I couldn't feel the pain, not yet, at least.

I reached a muddy hill, and there was no way I could get around it. I ran up the hill as fast as I could, but I slipped and rolled down and hit my head on the hard floor. My head was spinning, and I could barely lift it.

I got up slowly and tried climbing the hill again, but someone grabbed my foot, trying to pull me back down. It was a man wearing a wet hood that covered his face. I screamed and started kicking as hard as I could, hoping it would make him let go, but when that didn't work, I grabbed a large muddy rock and threw it as hard as I could at his head.

The man hissed and let go of my foot to hold his head in pain. I took that as a chance and ran up the hill without slipping this time.

I continued running towards God-knows-where. I still faintly heard that man's footsteps behind me. He was catching up to me.

I was running out of energy, and my head felt heavy. I was starting to see double. I thought I saw a light for a second, but it quickly disappeared. I ran to where the light was and realized trees no longer surrounded me. I made it out of the woods.

I stopped to look at where I was, but when I heard a snap, I turned around to see the man approaching me.

I was about to run again, but a bright light distracted me. It was so bright that it completely blinded me. It was heading towards me quickly, and everything suddenly went black.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. It looked like I was in a hospital room. The room was white, and there were beeping machines next to me. It seemed like I was connected to the machines by needles.

I slowly sat up, but I quickly felt a throbbing pain in my head, and memories of what happened came rushing back to me. I remember how bad people broke into our house and hurt my dad, mom, and sister.

I remember running through the woods and a man chasing me, but I don't remember coming to the hospital.

What happened to the evil man chasing me? Is he here, too?

I flinched when the door opened, and a nurse walked in. She looked down at her clipboard but quickly ran out of the room when she saw me.

A few seconds later, she came back with two other people. One seemed to be a doctor because he wore a long white coat, and the other was a police officer.

The doctor slowly approached me and gently placed his hand on my shoulder. "How do you feel?" he asked me softly.

"My head hurts." My throat felt parched, and it hurt to talk.

"That's because of your head injury, dear. We will give you some medicine for it." He pulled out a chair and sat next to my bed.

"Now, this nice officer here wants to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?" He asked, gesturing towards the police officer standing by the door.

He wants to talk to me? About what? Maybe they caught those evil people and wanted to ask me about them. Or perhaps he wants to tell me that my parents are okay.