Girl

As the last vestiges of daylight fade from the sky, it takes me only a few seconds to realise that I'm hopelessly lost. Trees, tall and imposing, crowd me on all sides. The sound of the vast woods surrounding me are like a sinister breath in my ears. And the burning pain in my lungs has me doubled over, hands gripping my thighs as I fight to catch my breath. A continuous buzz of panic is vibrating through my body, more powerfully than I have ever known before. Which is saying something, as I'm not exactly a stranger to the onslaught of terror and absolute dread...

Overhead, the cry of an owl rings out - a long, loud screech as it set out for a night of hunting. The sound makes me flinch on instinct, my body cowering low to the ground. It brings back memories of the sounds I heard not long ago, just before I fled the only home I've ever known. The screams that are so familiar to me by now, and yet are never any less dreadful than they were the first time. The haunting screams are the worst thing about the whole thing. Well, that and the blood. I'm always the one who is forced to do the clearing up, after my parents have finished having their fun.

'Get down there,' one of them will tell me, accompanying their words with a rough shove toward the door which leads down to the basement. Once, I had even gone toppling right down those stairs. Broken a wrist, and still had to clean up. 'See to it that you give the room a good scrub, girl.'

Girl. That's what they always call me, both of them. Always have done, for as long as I can recall. I even wonder, occasionally, in a dull sort of a way, whether they even remember my actual name.

The darkness quickens around me more with each passing second, each ragged and strained breath that enters my lungs before being wheezed out. The blackness swooping low only adds to my fear and dread. There are no lights out here to guide my way. Soon, it will be pitch-black. I should have grabbed a torch before making my escape, but too late now. I only had one chance back there, and I took it, with no real thought in that moment for the consequences. Am I regretting, now, my decision to run? In truth, I don't dare even ask myself the question. Instead, I force my bent body to straighten and begin to move once more - dashing through the trees, knowing not in what direction I'm heading. The thud of my footfalls, the crunch of dead leaves beneath my feet are loud in my ears - being only partially drowned out by the clamour of my own thunderous heartbeats from within.

Branches claw at my face as I continue to race onward, blinded both by my own panic and the gathering gloom. Before long, the metallic taste of blood fills my mouth. I think of it, trickling down my face - vivid red against the white of my skin...

That same vivid red as the blood in the basement, laying in puddles on the floor and splattered across the concrete walls. I suppose I got used to the sight of it after a while, though it still turned my stomach every time. The rancid smell would always cause bile to rush up my throat. And it wasn't just the blood. Often, there were other things, too. Severed fingers, or toes. Once, it was an ear.

I knew my father buried the bodies when he and my mother were done. He would dig a fresh hole for each victim, just out beyond the garden of our lonely cabin, right by the very edge of these woods. I'd seen him at it, though I always tried my hardest not to look. I hated seeing those blank faces, rigid in death. Mouths still agape from their final screams, mutilated forms on display. Worst still, those staring eyes - looking back at me, accusing, wondering why I hadn't made any effort to save them. Was my fear really an excuse?

And now, at long last, here I am. Alone, for the first time in my fifteen years. Away from my deranged parents. I continue to run, on and on. My thoughts the only things racing faster than my pumping legs. I wonder what my parents would do to me should I go back, give up this silly notion of escape and turn around to try and find my way back to the cabin. They'd be very angry with me, I know that. Both of them have filthy tempers. Hardly a day of my life ever goes by without the force of their wrath being unleashed upon me at some point or another. Slaps, kicks, punches. I've endured them all, a hundred times over. And yet, still, I'm aware that I'm the lucky one. Because at least I'm still alive.

For now, anyway.

Cold rain begins to fall, pattering between the trees as I run on. My breaths grow even shallower, sharpening along with the pain in my chest - which is now spreading down through my abdomen and making the muscles clench tight. My aching legs piston forward, terror for my life spurring me on as my frantic thoughts continue to dwell on my mum and dad. I imagine them pursuing me through these dense woods, feral and desperate to keep their dark deeds from being revealed. Willing - eager, even - to silence me in order to keep their grisly secrets for a while longer.

There's something else that keeps me moving, too - another life that I want to save, apart from just my own. My parents' latest victim, trapped at the cabin right now. This time, it's a young woman. Barely any older than I am myself, by the look of her. Ragged looking, most likely homeless. That's where my parents usually pick up their victims - amongst the very fringes of society. People who are at best forgotten and ignored. At worst, resented and despised. In short, people who nobody will miss if one day they suddenly vanish, never to be seen or heard from ever again. Many of them are so doped up on whatever substances they can lay their hands on that they don't even realise until it's too late that they're being lured into a trap. A deadly one.

Tears fall down my face, mingling with the rain. My vision is virtually non-existent, between the blur of liquid in my eyes and the black of nightfall which is accelerated beneath the canopy of trees. I can only carry on running, my very soul awash with terror. I try to focus on the girl back at the cabin - would it be too late, now, to save her? In my mind's eye, an image of her springs forth, as clear as though she's hovering in mid-air right in front of me, urging me on. I see her matted, dirty blonde hair hanging low past thin shoulders. Blue eyes full of terror, as she realises what's happening to her...

In another life, she would have been pretty. Young and charming, with the world at her feet. But instead, harshness and cruelty are all she knows. And now, fate has played the cruellest trick of all on her, by putting her in the path of my depraved mother and father.

Just maybe, this time I can do something. Maybe I can save her from them. Give her - and myself - another chance. Maybe I can -

My thoughts cut off in an instant, severed by the freezing cold rush of shock that floods through me as I hear a sound. Something louder than the patter of rain all around, or the rustle of wind through the trees.

'I know you're out here! You stupid, ungrateful little bitch! You won't get away with this, you know! YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH IT!'

The voice is my father's, screaming in pure rage. I can almost see the spittle flying from his lips, his eyes flashing with pure aggression. They've realised that I'm gone. And they're out here, hunting for me...

The blood grows cold in my veins, my legs almost seize up beneath me until I'm no longer running at all - but barely stumbling clumsily along the forest floor.

'Get back here, now - or I'll kill you! You hear me? I WILL KILL YOU!'

I'm panting, hard. Quite unable to tell which direction the threatening words are coming from. They simply echo all around. I really am hopelessly lost, and yet I know I must keep moving...

Staggering forth, I try to pick up the pace again, but succeed only in colliding with a tree root that rips my foot out from beneath me and sends me sprawling down onto the ground. Panic spikes afresh within me, instinctively now that I'm in an even more vulnerable state. I gasp and look around, trying to make out any movement within the darkness around me. I'm certain that at any moment, my father will come bursting out from behind one of the nearby trees and grab me. In his and my mother's eyes, I have betrayed them - and I know their revenge will be savage. Deadly. I heard as much in his voice. In those animalistic screams as he called to me.

On the ground, I scramble frantically as a series of panicked whimpers escape from between my cracked and parted lips. My already damp skin has been splattered with mud which mingles with the sweat and rain coating it. Legs and arms shake, adrenaline surging as I heave myself along the ground in a crawl. I can't even attempt to stand, I know my shaking legs won't hold me up any longer. I proceed as swiftly as I can, palms and shins scraping painfully against fallen twigs and sharp little rocks that jut out from the earth.

Time becomes almost an illusion. I no longer know how long I've been here, crawling my way along. All I know is that despair is pressing down upon me more and more heavily, my very soul screaming. I almost - almost - want to give up. To collapse here, on the wet, muddy ground and accept the inevitable fate which surely awaits me. To curl up into a ball, tiny and insignificant. If my parents don't manage to get me, then the elements will do it for them.

What was I thinking, doing this? I can't save myself. Or that poor girl back at the cabin, either. I'm too weak. Feeble - just as my mum and dad have always told me I am -

A glimmer of light appears, through the trees just as I'm about to collapse one final time. I squint as I peer forth, my immediate fear that it's one of my parents holding a torch as they seek me out abates as I also hear the unmistakeable sound of a car engine. And I realise too that the trees are thinning out. I've almost reached a road.

I heave myself towards it, panting and gasping harder than ever. I get to my feet, make it out onto the road just as the car stops in front of me and I fall down right beside it. This time, I'm laying on my back, paralysed with exertion and the overwhelming emotions swirling through me. I hear a car door slam. Footsteps approaching. Still, I can hardly see anything, with the cold drops of rain falling directly into my face now. But I feel the footsteps as well as hear them - the gritty ground beneath me vibrates with the movement.

'Are you alright, love?' It's a soft male voice that speaks. 'Do you need help?'

Fresh tears trickle from my eyes, pooling in my ears and hair as I lay there. For the very first time in my life, I'm able to find my voice.

'Yes,' I croak. 'Yes, I do.'