What if...? || Markhyuck

-60-

[april 2021]

[donghyuck]

Moss in the rain has specific scent.

Everything is different when it rains.

Soil absorbs every drop of water that falls from the sky. It drinks gallons of fluids until is finally full and fed up.

This is how puddles are formed.

But moss can never get enough. For moss, moisture means survival. It absorbs everything like a sponge, contributing to the formation of humus, which is important for plant development and soil-forming processes.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

I was lying hidden in the bushes with face pressed against forest cover and listening. Noise of downpour hitting the woods was almost so great that it seemed to drown out single sounds of gunshots that disturbed peaceful existence of the forest animals and dogs that were just trying to survive here. 

It resonated every few hours.

Sound of a twig breaking came to me from a distance, forcing to open eyes. Relying on hearing alone was, in some cases, very unwise. My fingers tightened on the knife haft. I avoided gun if I could. It was making unnecessary noise, only attracting attention.

And here - no reasonable person wanted to be heard.

I was surrounded by green, densely grown moss. Its advantage was that in similar weather, when someone approached, his soles scrunched and legs subsided deeper. Moss kept intruder's trail for a while, then returned to its original shape.

As if nothing had happened.

As if there was no corpse underneath it.

Shot.

Birds flew out of the treetops above me, flapping their wings loudly. In the distance, I saw legs in scuffed sneakers facing where I was lying. Slow step by slow step they were going forward and I was getting ready to defend or attack. When legs came close enough that leaving the hiding place wouldn't be that risky, my attention was distracted by the loud crack of broken branches. After a while, limp, lifeless body of a young girl rained on the moss right in front of my nose.

Hole in the center of her head looked at me like a third eye. Wide open, still incredulous, not completely reconciled with its fate. Blood slowly flooded her face, dirty from being in the woods for a long time.

We stared at each other until legs in worn sneakers walked away, leaving another death behind.

We looked at each other even long after gunshots in the woods died down.

Night turned to dawn in the sky.

We looked at each other until I decided to go deeper into the woods myself.

I opened eyes, inhaling sharply through nose.

Damn flashbacks...

I hid face deep in the pillow, fingers gripping sheets with all my might. I started to count down every three from fifty to calm myself down and take mind off those damn demons of the past.