Memories of the previous hour danced across her memory like a flurry of snowflakes in a snowstorm. Images of a white and azure colored clinic and a doctor smiling assuredly while she delivered hopeful and terrifying news to her.
Pregnant? Her? She was only nineteen!
She felt as the tears welled in her eyes, threatening to overflow. Her mind raced, remembering her fiance, recently deceased in a car accident, and she bit her tongue. I'm scared...
She remembers half-listening to the instructions provided to her by the doctor and the nurses who congratulated her, and she simply smiled before standing up and giving them a quick, "Thank you."
And she was on her way home in the dark of night, her mind foggy and far away with overwhelming fear. What was she going to do? She stepped off the sidewalk and onto the gravel road where one rarely drove. The young woman gave an exasperated sigh, running a gloved hand through her curly brown locks.
Clop, clop, clop. Crunch, scrape.
She paused, confused. "A horse?" She turned around in surprise, looking into the darkness. She narrowed her eyes in a weak attempt to get her eyes to adjust to the dimly lit street when she heard the whinnies of several horses bounce off of the silent houses of her little town.
"What the...?" She heard the sound again, once again louder.
Clop, clop, clop. Crunch, scrape.
The young woman's eyes widened in surprise as she watched a large ebony carriage carreen from the darkness, pulled by monstrous shadowy horses.
"!" She made a sound of surprise as the carriage barreled toward her small frame. She shut her eyes, frozen to the road as she braced herself for an impact which never came.
.
.
.