Finding Nowhere

Chapter 1

                                                                                  Chapter 1

Alone in the forest as twilight was falling, the girl wept on her knees. She did not care that the damp was slowly soaking through to her bones, chilling her already shivering body. At that moment, the girl could not understand why it had taken her so long to accept what she wanted, why she hadn’t realised sooner, but it was too late. Nothing else could be done, but weep.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed since she had arrived here she could only be sure that it had, because it was dusk. The breeze that rustled through the nearby vegetation turned her body ice cold and she knew she couldn’t stay much longer. Shadows crept into the forest, surrounding her and she tried not to notice. When she thought about it, they didn’t scare her as much as they would have before. The eerie, painful noises of the trees seemed to be sympathising with her pain. The girl lifted her tear-stained face, her eyes searching the sky above. All she found, melting between shades of peach and pink, was a purple hue hinting at the night sky that was to follow.

Pushing herself to her feet on shaking limbs, she stumbled and staggered. She was still sore. The wounds and bruising were still healing, even after one week of care, the wound on her heart may never heal. Fresh tears fell from her eyes, the vice on her heart clenched, those last images of him relentlessly rushed through her mind, they had haunted her.  It had only been a week since she had last seen him. It felt like years.

Had he survived? Oh God.

The other option was too painful to even consider.

Her muscles had become stiff from being motionless for so long on the damp ground and her body now cried out as she began to make it move again. Slowly adjusting to the movement and pain, forcing herself to continue forward; she found the path. On the first lamp post she came across there was still a poster taped haphazardly at eye level. Her stiff cold fingers fumbled with the edges, ripping the poster down she scrunched until hard edges bit into her skin and her lips curled back disdainfully before she flung it at a nearby bin.

GIRL MISSING!

Tori Turner

Age 19

Long brown hair

Blue eyes

Medium build

Missing for two weeks last seen walking her dog near Lockhead Forest

Anyone who has any information, please call.

01452 634 2345

Tears streamed down her face. Everything she loved, the life she could have had was gone.

"Tori ..I…L…" the voice whispered in her head.

She rubbed at her eyelids with cold fingers as her eyes squeezed shut, forcing the voice to be gone.

The desire to crumple against the lamp post and not move was filtering through her, but instead her arm stretched out to lean on it for support, only allowing herself a moment before pushing off the cold metal. She refused to shrivel and die.

Like he may be.

No one might ever find him. They would never know what happened to him, to her. He might be left to rot, in the cave, alone. She chocked back a sob, her throat aching as she shuffled along the street lifeless and empty like a zombie. Her feet eventually found familiar stonework and she shouldered her front door open. A wave of de ja vu over took her as she squeaked across the foyer floor.