No More Sky

Hannah blinked, struggling to comprehend her surroundings. Her head was full of searing pain and she was certainly not in her car. She remembered leaving work early that afternoon but, between there and here, everything was blank. The dim evening light was not helping matter as Hannah tried to make sense of the wall of trees around her. As far as she could see, the woods stretched onward in every direction, every possible pathway looking identical to the last.

'Where the hell?' she mumbled, reaching up to rub at her aching scalp, panic rising in her chest as her hand found a mass of matted hair and an oozing wound. Upon examination, her hand was coated in drying blood. A million possibilities raced through her mind but only one made sense - someone had left her for dead out here in the fading light. But who? Hannah scrambled to her feet, hastily checking herself for more injuries before rummaging through her pockets for her phone.

'Of course it's not there.' Hannah scolded herself for being silly enough to assume her attacker would have left her phone behind. Thankfully, her head was her only injury and the pain, though still strong, was beginning to recede, leaving a throbbing headache in its wake. Everything of value was gone, her phone and purse, all her jewelry. Little pieces of memory flitted through her thoughts as she tried to form a plan - stopping for fuel and a coffee, pulling into her driveway. If she'd made it home, it meant whoever had left her in the woods knew her, knew where she lived and what car she drove. Hannah looked up, trying to judge the time from the varied shades of orange and pink that greeted her, high above the trees. By her reckoning, she had maybe an hour or two to find a road or house before it became too dark to see.

She shivered at the thought, being out here in the evening light was bad enough. She was unarmed and the chances of becoming supper for a resident bear or wolf would be high at this time of year. Maybe that was what her assailant had hoped for, that the local fauna would find her body and dispose of the evidence. Hannah grimaced, pushing the thought from her mind. She steadied herself against the nearest tree and looked at them a little closer. She noticed how all the branches seemed to be growing better along the further side of the trunks, Growing with the wind as her father always called it. Assuming she was still in her home county, the branches were growing southward, forced that way by years of strong North winds battering the woods.

If she followed the growth pattern and headed South, Hannah figured she should eventually reach a road. All the major highways ran East to West and, from where she stood, the ground seemed to head downhill which would make covering the distance easier. With this vague semblance of a plan, Hannah set off, determined that she would find help. One thought kept chewing at the edge of her mind however, what if whoever attacked her was still nearby? Surely they must have realized she wasn't dead or had they been in too much of a rush to get rid of her to notice? Her legs felt shaky as she started walking, a sensation she assumed to be an effect of being knocked out for who knows how long but she refused to stop, letting the natural slope pull her onwards down the hill.

Hannah kept returning to the fragments of memory, trying to piece together everything that swam back into her head, desperate to find some clue as to who may have done this to her. She remembered hearing someone breathing behind her as she turned the key to her front door, and a male grunt just before everything went black. It didn't exactly narrow her list of suspects, anyone from her creepy ex to her neighbor could fit that description. She sighed and shook the thoughts from her mind, they weren't going to get her out of here and they weren't pleasant. A quick glance upwards confirmed she was still heading South and, by her guess, she had been walking for a good half an hour. The sky above was a thankful sight, Hannah had hope as long as she had light. Whoever he was, he hadn't even left her lighter in her pocket, so Hannah knew that once the sun disappeared below the horizon, she would be plunged into complete darkness.

'Please let there be something down here,' she muttered to herself, picking her way between the endless parade of trees. The further she walked, and the dimmer the light became, the more doubts clawed away at her. She began to second-guess herself, questioning her decision to head South, wondering if she should have headed North instead. Her only guiding hope was the way the trees were slowly thinning out, signaling that she was reaching the outer edges of the woods, but without knowing where exactly she was, Hannah had no way of judging how far the true edge of the woodland was or if anything would be there when she reached it.

Hannah felt another wave of panic beginning to build as, although the trees were becoming increasingly spaced out, the light was fading fast now and there was still no sign of civilization. Her head was still pounding and her legs were burning, begging her to sit down and rest. She stopped briefly, catching her breath and stretching her legs to avoid cramp when a branch cracked somewhere behind her. Hannah spun around but saw nothing. Fear took hold of her and forced her into a run. It could have been nothing more than a harmless animal back up the hill but, to Hannah, the crack may well have been her attacker tracking her down or one of the more vicious locals following her scent. She wasn't about the hang around to find out, sprinting down the hill, praying to whoever would listen that she would find something before the light disappeared or whatever was behind her could catch up.

Pain grabbed her, cramping her sides with the exertion, but fear and a desperate want to survive pushed her on. Hannah could have cried as, in the lingering remnants of the daylight, she glimpsed car headlights through the trees, maybe a mile or two further ahead of her. Another crack sounded, still close enough to cause another sudden rush of adrenaline. She had to reach the road, it was her only lifeline now and she no longer dared to look behind her, that would mean slowing down and giving whatever was behind her chance to gain ground. Another set of headlights, closer and gleaming like beacons of hope. The sky was a deep blue now, the top of the trees losing their shape and becoming one with the darkening sky. She knew she didn't have long now before there would be no more sky, no light save for those distant headlights.

She knew she could reach them, reach people who would help her, and then she would find out who have left her there to die...