lost & found || Joel Miller

Anna.

The crimson leaves of autumn rustled in the breeze, forming a carpet that whispered secrets beneath the old, gnarled trees. Waning sunlight pierced through the branches, casting long, haunting shadows in the forest. It was an eerie, ethereal beauty that could have been serene if not for the dread that hung heavy in the air.

Amidst these woods, a pregnant woman sprinted for her life. Her heart pounded, her breath came out in ragged gasps. She was being pursued, and not by anything ordinary. The Clicker's grotesque form, twisted and disfigured, moved silently but with a predatory grace. Its throaty gurgles echoed like a morose symphony, a warning of impending doom.

The once serene woods were now a labyrinth of fear. Her footsteps crushed brittle leaves and snapped twigs, the sounds reverberating in the silence of the forest. She could hear the Clicker's snarls, moving along with the wind.

She risked a glance over her shoulder, to see just where the Clicker was. But it was nowhere to be seen, but its guttural snarls grew louder, closer. Its rotting breath clawed at her senses.

With a burst of adrenaline, she sprinted forward, her chest tightening in terror. The autumn woods loomed around her, the trees like ancient sentinels watching her desperate flight. Leaves swirled in the wind, creating ghostly specters that danced in her peripheral vision.

Her destination was an abandoned house, right ahead where her friends said they'd be to find her.

Gripping her stomach, the woman headed toward the house, toward safety.

Once she was inside, she closed the door and barricaded it with a table nearby.

"It's me!" She breathes, limping around in the entrance, looking around for a sign of any presence.

A sharp pain stops her from calling for help and once she hears a bang on the door, she knows the Clicker was here.

The woman rushes upstairs, hand on her stomach and once she reaches the last three steps, a stream of water runs down her leg...

No, no, no, no...

The sound of banging on the barricaded door push the woman to run up the stairs and straight into the first room she sees, shutting the door behind her and barricading it with the first thing she sees—A lonesome chair on the side of the room.

She runs straight to the wall in front of her and drops to the floor, with her back pressed against the wall.

The groans of pain that left her mouth led the Clicker straight to her and soon enough, it was banging on the door trying to force its way in.

The woman pulled a pocket knife from the pocket of the green jacket she was wearing and prepared herself, prepared herself for the second the door broke opened and the Clicker comes straight in.

And when it did, it came running to her and the woman screams as she begins to fight it, stabbing it and pushing its face away from her skin so it wouldn't bite—

But, what she didn't know, that with one last scream. She'd given birth.

The Clicker was dead and she pushed it aside as she heard the crying of her baby.

Her baby...

The woman quickly takes the knife and cuts the umbilical cord and lifts her baby in her arms—Her baby girl.

"Hi..." She coos, a sad smile on her face...This little girl was too pure to be born in a world like this. As her tiny hands reached out to her Mother's face, that's when she knew. She would do anything for this baby girl.