The Ravine (Hiatus)

Prologue

Snap.

She stopped, crouching down beneath the forested ground and shaking. The moon glared behind a veil of darkness, clouds hiding and exposing the reflective light to her eyes. All that surrounded her were throngs of leaves, branches, and wildlife, disturbed from their slumber. The wind took some leaves and ripped them from their trees, fragments lifted into the air and sparking out of sight when a stray cloud passed over the moon. She gazed around, ears straining to pick up any sound that wasn't from the forest.

Nothing.

She stood, stumbling further along the path through the chasms of trees. When the moon was hidden, she paused, moving out of sight of the forested path until lit up once again. She shivered, a ravenous wind shuddering underneath her light dress and pressing against her exposed legs, creeping into her heels as she'd lost her heels hours ago.

The party had taken her jacket and her shoes hours ago.

She could feel the bile rising in her throat, but chose to cast that thought aside. All that was on her mind was finding safety. Somewhere nearby had to be safe, right?

The wind picked up again, and the woman halted, blinking in surprise at a sudden fork in the road. She glanced at both, knowing there was little time to spare in her escape. The left road held no hiding places, a large open field directly beside its path, while the right side was hidden further from sight, much larger trees creating an almost claustrophobic atmosphere.

Snap.

In a blind choice, she stumbled, faster, into the right path, glancing in wild hysteria in a vain attempt to find another hiding place. Trees couldn't help her now. They'd more than likely already seen her. She needed somewhere safe to hide.

As a break in the thick canopy of trees caught her attention, the woman saw a desolate path covered in vines. She hurried up the short incline, her breath coming out in ragged throbs of pain. She slipped once, hanging onto a tree's limbs in order to stop the fall. Back up, she hurried at a faster pace, a hobbling jog at most, until, through a series of short inclines and canopied trees thinning, she had climbed to a large opening, all spilling into an old mine.

SNAP.

Stifling a loud scream, the woman mustered her strength and ran, feeling the searing torture that was coming from her right leg. She crashed into the old mine's broken door, falling into an ill-lit cave opening, a long tunnel directly ahead of her.

The sound of feet from outside forced the woman to her knees and she crawled just behind the door, forcing her burning leg into her chest and wrapping her dirt-covered arms around her knees. The feet came closer and closer, and she tried to control her breathing as much as possible, shortening her breaths every time the feet sounded slower and slower, until. . .

Nothing.

The door next to her swung open as though sedated and a figure passed by the opening, the woman included. She watched the robed figure stop, gaze around the cave mouth, and continue into the unlit tunnel in complete silence, their feet resembling the silence almost exactly.

She waited, staring off into the dark, until there was the noise of the wind coming from outside. Carefully, she swung her legs out in front of her, almost crying at the sight. Blood covered her shins, with a mixture of forest residue and mud to look as though she had waded through a swamp. The dress filled to the brim with rhinestones was now tattered, soiled, and covered in more of her blood, and she knew her hair, having fallen from a loose bun hours before, resembled her state. She tried to stand, feeling the sharp, jeering agony emanating from her right leg. A short grunt left her mouth before she had time to stop it, and she snapped her head back to the tunnel.

Nothing.

She stared, the sharp pain contorting into discomfort, and then a numbness like no other. Yet still.

Nothing.

She began to walk backwards, eyes staring ahead into the void of nothingness, until her elbow had met with the door-frame. She whipped her head around, mustering the strength to hobble forward, only to be met with a figure who towered over her, hatchet in one hand, and a rope in another.

She screamed, only for the wind to rip the sound from her, escaping the scene and leaving its host to the doom of oblivion. In that oblivion, the forest cried, and rain began to fall in a light shower, cascading onto the canopy of leaves and dripping back onto the Earth. A bat flashed out of a nearby cave, and the forest became unsettled.

Once again.