In the dew wet grasses, she laid still, motionless. Her skin was a faint pale blue, her messy brown hair served as a temporary home for blades of grass snatched off from their roots and scavenging insects, seeking warmth. Her dress brutally torn apart, leaving her almost bare to the night's cold.
Her feet were exposed, covered in dried up blood and battered with dangerous and deep cuts and so was her whole body. Dirt enveloped her being with inflammation of different bites and stings of insects, a particular noticeable one bulging from her neck. Her stretched out arm showed off her beautiful phalanges, but with different strides of thorns residing in them. Her face lay still in the cold ground and she showed no sign of life.
An ant crawled by, it must have been excited at the sight of this giant mighty slab of food. It's about time it had its own share of this provision. It dug its mandibles into her face as far as it could go. She flinched, but it would not give up so easily, it also had wards to feed.
She flinched again, this time harder, like she is jerking back into her flesh, her shoulders rubbing against her face — the bite of life. The ant gave up and scribbled away, but its tiny legs could only take it so far because the lady shuddered — as her consciousness slipped slowly back into her — making her slam her hand against the ground, ending its life.
She slowly opened her eyes, but it wasn't any different from when they were closed, surrounded by thick blackness and nothing. She mustered all of her strength as she pushed to lay on her back, her hand slammed hard on a huge log of wood laying beside her, and like a trigger, her body came to know the pain it was in and a wave of it ran through her body making her groan loudly.
Her loose eyes weakly scanned her environment as she struggled between slipping off again and staying awake. She groped blindly through the dark trying to figure out where she was. Her hands skimmed the top of weeds, her nails catching onto damped tangled roots.
She scanned further and her fingertips made contact with paper thin ridges that felt like the pages of an old damp book.
The ground where she was, she could immediately tell that she was somewhere dark, moist, and dreadful. A forest! Her eyes widened now with a sense of awareness.
She held on to the huge log from earlier and lifted herself to sit up, but was pushed back down by a huge web of entwined leaves and branches wounded over her.
How long have I laid here for?
She was confused as to what was happening, she summoned the strength and tore off the leaves not caring what became of her hands, because fear has started to creep into her at this point.
"Where am I?" she questioned.
She dragged herself, going through hell to stand on her feet. Everywhere was dark, she couldn't see as much as a glimmer of light, but it was a little better than when she first opened her eyes, they were adjusting better now.
She scribbled around in the dark, trying to get away from where she laid. She looked up, and all she could see were tall trees cowered angrily over her casting an eerie gloom, their leaves swayed by the soft and cold wind, hindering her from seeing the sky itself.
"What is this place? How did I get here?" She spoke to herself confused and terrified. She cannot wrap her head around however she got here, nor this situation. She tried thinking back, but nothing came to her mind.
Different plans started to form in her head, but she is not fit to go with any one of them. Whichever way she came up with, she would need the help of another person to make it out alive, heavily considering the fact that she can barely move on her own.
"Help!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Nothing came.
"Help!!" she screamed again as loud as she could, all that followed was more silence.
"Help!!!" her voice cracked, but all she could hear were her own echoes, a reverb of her helplessness.
Suddenly in the corner of her eyes she saw something move swiftly past her.
Her head turned toward the direction.
What is that? she thought, her pulse racing, but nothing was there, nothing moved or so she saw.
She brushed it off with a nervous snicker as she turned back to where she was previously heading, but this time steadfastly and subtly, not trying to get herself eaten by whatever just passed by her.
Moments passed and she didn't hear anything anymore, causing her to slow her pace, but she didn't stop moving. Maybe she was overthinking and hearing things, but that was totally not out of place, she would scare herself if she did not take things over the edge. It was as dark as a sunless sea in this place.
She navigates the forest, her eyes taking in every corner, trying to make out any place she could take refuge in, just until daybreak. She hoped and prayed she would at least find someone or somewhere, but who in their sane mind would be out here in this dark, by this time? And yes, it was driving her insane that she was in such a dangerous place at this time. It was not like she had a death wish, but even if she did, she could not remember it and now, she just wanted to survive.
Interrupting her thoughts was the snapping of a dried branch, she definitely had not made that sound, so where did it come from? Her ears slowly traced the sound, her eyes vigilant. She was not overthinking anything, something had really passed by her.
Her vision reached far enough and the sight of two menacing glimmering eyes staring straight back into her soul, made her blood run cold.