Thea
Growing up in foster care should have made me immune to terrible things but I guess life doesn't line up so neatly because here I was, panic creeping up my spine and clogging my throat.
I had officially turned 18 and aged out of the system leaving me jobless, homeless, and more than anything broke. The only thing to my name being a handful of clothes, a frayed backpack and one crumpled twenty dollar bill.
I couldn't survive on my own, I had used my abandonment as an excuse to hide from the world and now I didn't know how to function in it. Wiping away the tears that escape my eyes I gather my things off the bleak sidewalk, I would have to find shelter.
The New Orleans women's shelter is a shabby building that sits in a sketchy part of town. Swinging open the door, I'm led to a lobby that screams more detention center than shelter. I can feel the eyes of other women and kids assessing me it makes my skin crawl to have so many eyes on me. Ducking my head down I run up to the older woman at the front desk and swallow my anxiety.
"Excuse me is there anything available tonight?" I tried to sound assertive but it comes out like a whisper.
She barely looks at me before dismissing me with a frown.
"I'm sorry sweetie you have to be here a lot earlier to get a room most nights."
"B-but I"
She cut me off abruptly "I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do."
Tucking my head down I mumble out a thank you and stumble out of the building in a fog. It was nearing one in the morning and I had no place go, the last of my money wouldn't even get me a room for the night.
Couturie Forest, a nature preserve I'd always loved, was nearby it was well lit and comforting so, I let my feet take me there.
~~~~~~
This forest was always peaceful.
Being able to see the green of the trees and a star dotted sky made me feel like I was experience the world without mans interruption.
With no direction in mind I wander the paths and let nature calm my racing heart. When my eyes start to feel heavy I start dragging my feet and smacking my cheeks. There was no way I could sleep outside, anyone could grab me. If I stayed awake at least I could see someone coming.
Snap, I turn my head towards the sound of breaking twigs, listening carefully, snap, snap, something was out here with me.
Walking faster I turn around heading back to the streets when a high pitch voice cackles behind me,
"MINE, MINE, MINE!"
Then softer the voice calls,
"Come back pretty girl come back, so pretty so young don't be afraid."
I felt the tears streaming down my face as my thoughts raced faster than my legs. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did I come to the park at night. I was stupid to think anything would go right for me, I was stupid for wandering off alone and now all my stupidity was going to get me killed.
I could hear the man laughing somewhere behind me as I tried to see past my tears and keep running. suddenly, I was suddenly ripped back my scalp screams in pain as the man grips my hair and slams me into the dirt.
The smell of musty leaves and dank Earth fill my nostrils but all this is secondary to the fear pulsing through me.
Scrambling, I'm desperate to break his hold but the cold press of a sharp knife stops my struggles.
"Be a good girl okay?"
The blade is caressed against my throat just hard enough to make struggling dangerous.
Who was he?
Why was he after me....would he rape me? My breath starts coming out in panicked gasps and I bite my tongue to hold back the vomit rising in my throat before trying to speak.
"P-please let me go, I won't tell a-anyone you hurt me I s-swear. I don't have a-anything of value."
He doesn't respond instead I feel a sharp smack on my chee, my head flys the side and whimper escapes my mouth.
"I'm going to tie your hands and then you'll start walking or be cut into pieces right here beauty."
He wastes no time yanking my arms behind me and knotting them so tightly the skin on my wrists breaks.
"Up, up, up now my dear."
His voice is dry and cracked, brittle.
Yanking me to my feet he drags me deeper into the forest.
"You h-have to let me go, my family will come looking for me!"
Complete lie but what else can I do? He turns around quickly pulling my hair so hard my head is thrown back.
His words are spat at me with such hatred it terrifies me.
"Shut the fuck up before I cut out your tongue you bitch."
I can feel my eyes widen as tears stream down my face. He's going to kill me, I can feel it I just don't know why he's totally unfamiliar to me.
I can tell he's tall but being 5"2 everyone seems tall to me. His sagging skin and liver spoted hands make him seem ancient. Even his hair is patchy and white barley clinging to his head. He's disgusting. My weeping seems to come out full force now. Hiccups and tears making it hard to breath but he pays no attention to me.
We just keep walking.
I don't know how much time passes but we eventually enter a small clearing.
Brightly lit torches outline a small circle in the center of the clearing. Roughly, he throws me into the circle.
With his hands finally off of me I take my chance to run. Crawling to my feet I start running as fast as my legs can manage. He lets out a yowl like some kind of animal and rips me back, kicking me in the stomach as I try to crawl away. I heave on the grass, my fingers knotting into each other as I try to breath but his foot keeps hitting me again and again and again. This time I can't stop the vomit from spilling out of my mouth, I choke on bile and blood mercifully, making him stop.
I want to fight, to run but my body seems to give up on me. As always I'm scared and alone so I chose to revert into myself instead of fighting. He's going to kill me, I will die in these woods I love so much and no one will care, no one will look.
I'll disappear from the world and it will affect no one, change nothing. I bury my head into my chest and close my eyes imagining a different world, a palace where I'm loved. I don't want him to be the last thing I see I'd rather drowned in make believe.
He begins chanting nonsense
"effundet sanguinem...neque finem vitae...sponte creat ex cavea"
Maybe he would sacrifice me to whatever sick thing he believed in? His chanting suddenly ends, rapidly my head is pulled back I can't stop the scream that rips past my lips but he can, with press of his blade my throat is sliced open.
Blinding pain I've never experienced before hits me. Warm sticky blood runs down my throat and chest.
I try to break my hands free, instinct telling me to grab my throat, stop the bleeding, but it's useless. I collapse on my side choking on my own blood.
The monster man crotches down next to me and starts rubbing his hands on my neck stretching open the already pulsing wound and coating his hands with my blood.
I can feel my skin ripping open a little more. His dry, cracked lips kiss my forehead,
"Thank you sweet child thank you."
Squealing manically he starts painting symbols on the ground with my blood. Then he steps back and yells in a violent scream,
"APERIR PORTAS!" Before collapsing on the grass.
Did he just die? Maybe it was all too much for his heart? Or some godly being struck him down as instant karma. It doesn't matter, I'm bleeding out and consciousness is leaving I'll be dead soon.
Before I die the ground suddenly and without warning disappears from under me, and I'm falling.