Red Glass

.14

Fighting against the winds, Daniella manoeuvres as swiftly as she can away from vicious growls and vile curses. The pouring blood from her fingers continues to wet her hand, splashing a crimson trail. Shaking and gasping, each cold breath cuts through her lungs. Naked trees, thorny bushes and frozen blades encompass her like a dirty damp blanket.

Danielle's heart pounds against her ribs like a blacksmiths hammer. Tears and earth particles obscure sight as the blood loss draws life out, causing Daniella to fall far paler than natural. Against nature's hard cold force each step becomes harder to push through. Tripping over a thick surfaced root, smacking shock through her skull on a tree trunk she falls into a ringing emptiness.

The sounds of terror close in through the wind whistling between wooden bones and bushes. Daniella lays still, losing blood from her hand and head. Blackness and dredd, barking and shouting, soaked and shivering.

"There!!!" Harron yells, letting go of his dog's chain with a malicious grin.

The hound runs barking viciously ready to tear the soul out of it's target. Blue eyes open slowly, hearing the cue to run. She climbs up stumbling and out of breath but must keep going. Pushing forward up the steep terrain, the trees ware thin and hard winds drown her. Almost falling, she locks around a tree for balance and spews white bile, hitting the bottom of her muddy torn skirt on way to the ground.

Reaching as high as she can, she begins to ascend the weathered branches, just raising her foot high enough for the hound's bite to miss, slipping on account of her missing fingers. Climbing the thin fray as fast and high as she can, trying best to not use her blood covered hand. Standing close to the top, the swaying tree almost throws out the violently shaking girl, barely able to hold herself for dear life.

A figure approaches the trunk of the tree where the hound is foaming and barking. "Oi! Down here get!"

"Leave me alone!" She begs, desperate without any means to escape.

The dog viciously barks loud and heavy, scratching the trunk as it attempts to climb.

"Help me." She cries with a voice lost in the climb.

Harron attempts to climb the tree but the skinny branch collapses under his weight, causing him to fall on his back, landing in the white spew.
"You maggot infested meal of the crows! May your insides be burned and your eyes plucked by the birds!"

The relentless barking rises. Daniella takes hold of the torn part of her skirt, ripping a bandage to wrap around her left hand.

"You will have to come down sooner or later, when you do I'll be ready."

-

Mayor Baldwin stands by his window across an empty world, gold ring set with a black jet stone ring in one hand, over-filled glass in the other. Motionless, red eyed and a weighted sick to the stomach in hopelessness. The still world moves unbearably fast, each moment without his daughter is a heartbeat lost. Tears fall in the pot of a plant that died so long ago.

"I never understood why she loved this plant, even after it died. I never asked. I never asked."

The maid of the house quietly listens, ridden with guilt for being the last person to see her.

Mayor Baldwin shakes his head, wipes his face and finishes another glass.
"I just want her back, that's all I want..."

He pours the last of the brandy and tosses the bottle into the pile in the corner.

"Let me get that for you sir."

Mayor Baldwin continues to stare out the window barely moving. "No. Just go."

"Yes sir."

He turns and throws his full glass against the wall. "I said go! Get outta here!" He yells angrily.

His knees weaken and he falls into a ball, crying harder than any man had. Lying on the floor with palms on his eyes, the maid had never imagined the mayor in this state. He smelled bad, his hair looked like a stack of hay, his eyes were red and looked weaker than a frail beggar.

"Alright sir, that's enough of that! Let's get you washed and fed. The whole city depends on you. Now stand up!" The maid says, trying to help him stand.

"I still feel her here, every doorway I see her. I see every memory of her in every turn, but it's looking out this bedroom window that I remember her most." He chokes, unable to muster the motivation to stand. "It's been eight days Victoria. Eight days." He stands with a frown and expression of emptiness.

"I'm sure lady Daniella will be fine sir." Victoria replies, having had a teenage daughter of her own, she was well aware of the drama they generate.

"What do you know? It's me, I'm the reason she left and she never knew how much I loved her. I was busy, a fool unable to show my daughter the love she deserved. Everyday is an opportunity missed, a day lost. I, I have no idea where my little girl is. She could be caught in a bear trap, laughing on a ship. I have no idea, I just know I'll never see her again.
I have no friends in this world, nothing means anything to me and God has abandoned me. It (the world) has trampled my heart into dust and I am alienated from what I thought I knew, with nothing but misfortune for my sins. She was all I ever had and I lost her long before she ever left. This pain is all I deserve till I have her back, if, if it is written."