Prologue
As I walk through the forest, my every sense awakens. Never could I smell such a sweet thing, the aroma being almost celestial.
The forest, as it cries out in desperation, fills the air with a moist atmosphere, covering the burned, ruined parts of its core where forest fires had seemed to take place.
My lungs, almost tasting the heavens as it's spread about the forest, collapse, being the air not only is toxic but incriminatingly fatal.
Yet my body doesn’t seem to want to flee, and I continue on as if the pain in my chest wasn’t ever increasing.
I pick out sweet, innocent little flowers, and can't help but to feed into my curiosity. Taking a closer look at the vibrantly coloured daisies.
I draw closer to the chaplet,and in the far distance I hear a whisper followed by the rustling of the shrubbery surrounding me.
As intrigued as I am, I quickly hasten out of the woods.
Nearing the footpath I so foolishly abandoned, I feel a tug at my shirt.
As fear strikes my heart, I freeze.
“Please don’t be a serial killer” I whisper to myself, eyes pressed closed, as if that would protect me.
Mustering up the courage I finally turn and open my eyes, just to see a young girl, maybe 10 years old.
A mahogany, hazel hair color, thick long locks, almost glowy skin with rosy cheeks and an olive complexion.
Her body is frail, but not ghostly.
She smiles at me, and in a flash every fear, every doubt that could arise in my mind, disappears.
The little girl bats her eyes at me, tilting her head.
I smile back at the girl, a little unnerved by how silent the woods have become.
I try to mouth a hello but my dumbfounded mind doesn’t cooperate.
She giggles and extends her hand out to me, “Please come with me, we don’t have much time before the poison kicks in”
As if my body only now realises it has been tainted, I plunge at the girl, guttering, choking, suffocating on my own blood.
The forest dimming with every cough of blood I spew.
The girl jumps back, widens her eyes and observes as I gasp for air.
Feeling for the pocket knife I hid in the back pocket of my shorts, I fall back, movement now a gruelling task.
Everything slows, time, my breaths, everything but the poison.
The moss I find myself settling into, becoming increasingly comforting, consumes me.
Eyelids heavy, I take a deep breath, slowly drifting off.
