Broken Souls

Chapter Four

I listened to the silence linger in the air around me. Silence. I couldn’t hear the hush that was calling me anymore…just the sound of nothingness. There was also nobody in sight. Of course, the thought I had dreamt all this now crossed my mind. Had I imagined this person? Was I…going mad?! No…I refused to admit that. I wasn’t losing my marbles yet. Above me the trees were still and unmoving. Just then, I realised something…I’d left my torch. Dammit…what if it got darker?! Just then my hand brushed against my pocket, and I sighed in relief as I pulled out my lighter. Thank goodness I still had it. I flicked it a few times before a small light flicked on, and I watched as the small flame blazed before my eyes. Just then I jumped. I felt something touch my shoulder. Turning around fast, I gripped my knife tight. Holding the lighter up higher, I saw a woman standing before me. She was tall, unlike me who was quite small. Her hair, from what I could see in the glow of the fire, was a dark brown, and her eyes were a deep emerald green. Her tanned skin looked soft, smooth and un creased. Something about her made me lower my guard, and I soon found that my arm with the knife in was slowly lowered. To be honest, I didn’t know why I was doing that. I knew it was a bad idea to lower my guard. It was something about her eyes…staring into them, a strange feeling came over me. It was like she controlled my very heart. “Hello there…” she spoke to me in her slow voice “are you lost, little girl?”
“N-No…was it you who called me here?”
“Yes child” Now this I thought was just weird…why would she ask me if I was lost and then say it was her that called me over? Surely she must have seen I was perfectly safe with Standle…unless…
“Stay back!” But instead of raising my knife…I dropped it. I had no control over my hand at all. My heart began to race…this was bad. In a flash, my lighter went out, and I dropped it next to my knife. The woman had a grin on her face…and she took a step closer…and her hand gripped my arm tightly as she pushed me against a tree. I gulped as she placed her other hand on my chest and pressed harder against it. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. Now what was I to do?! I couldn’t talk or fight back…all I could do was watch as her face slowly got closer to mine.  My breath became shaky and ever so heavy as she moved closer and closer. By now, I could feel her icy cold breath against my neck, a freezing tingle surging through my body. “Hmmmmm….” The woman opened her mouth and licked my neck. I felt my whole body shake as I looked inside her mouth and saw two sharp fangs. My eyes widened and I let out a whine of fear. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to get out of this one…

Suddenly, she spoke. She sniffed my neck...and spoke. “Hmm…you smell familiar…”. I…smell familiar?! What the hell did she mean by that?! Now I was starting to get really hot under the collar, to the point I could feel the sweat pouring from my head and the burning sensation inside my heart. “Oh wait…I know who you are…” she said with a grin painted onto her face.

“Let her go!” My head turned, suddenly turned getting my sense of feeling back as I heard the familiar shout. Standle. He’d come…and was running towards us with my other knife in his hand. I watched as midnight hair bobbed up and down quickly as he dashed over, standing before us. I felt somewhat relieved as he pointed the knife at the woman. “Let her go” he spoke with a sharp edge to his tone, more calm yet forceful this time. His eyes were staring directly towards us, and they were hard…like he wasn’t going to let me go. Even though they his eyes were cold, they were still comforting…and I started to think maybe I would get outta this ok. My eyes reverted back towards the woman, and she looked directly towards Standle. Standle looked directly at her. The tension in the air was striking. The something started to sink in…it was I that had been reckless enough to leave our spot. This was my fault. I thought of Clover…and how I had been reckless enough to lead her to her death. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake with Standle. My eyes narrowed, and quickly I moved my foot booting her in the shins. Her high pitched squeal echoed throughout the forest, in agony and pain it erupted from the bottom of her stomach and out through her mouth. Now I felt my movement return as I kicked her and kicked her until she was whimpering on the ground. I watched Standle race forward. He knelt beside her. He raised his arm up high with the knife…and in one swift movement…the sight of blood flashed before my eyes…

I remember feeling nothingness…no emotion…no thoughts…no feelings…only the scent of blood wafting towards my nose. Looking back, I can’t even remember what it smelt like. But it was there, nonetheless. Blood. It was…red. At that moment, the colour red no longer gave me a sense of warm…red was now a cold, bitter colour that marked the end. And at that moment, time itself seemed to freeze. At that moment, the innocent life I had lead came to an end. At that moment, my dreams became reality. At that moment, I had seen death.

Standle slowly stood, and the red liquid that was on my knife that he held dripped to the floor…one by one, drip by drip. It was slow, and I watched as each individual drop fall…until he turned to look at me. His eyes were mellow, almost sad, yet disappointed in me. His black hair started to ripple softly as a gentle breeze passed us by. We just stared at each other, our eyes locked in place. The body next to him was still and dead. Completely and utterly…dead. For as long as I live, I will never ever forget the short conversation we had then… “I…I never expected to see death so soon in my life…first my sister…now…a murder…” Standle shook his head and knelt down slowly, picking up the knife I had dropped. Then, he came towards me, standing in front of me. He had a small smile on his face as he handed the knives towards me. I cautiously took them and held them close to my chest. He looked into my eyes. He placed a hand on my shoulder. And he said the words I will always live by… “You are never fully whole until you have seen death. For life is a beautiful lie, and death is a painful truth”.

The death I had seen was…I…I still to this day do not know how to describe it. Screaming came from the back of a throat…entwining itself with the fragments of the wind, and merging itself back into the earth, where I knew one day we would all return.