Agape - J.Grace + P.Jackson

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Hellhounds (a.k.a big dogs that use arms as chew toys)

She had been walking for weeks and her little legs were exhausted. Covered in cuts and bruises, 7 year old Joy was ready for a break. All she wanted was to sleep, but after her run in with those creatures the last time she slept she knew it was better to keep going.

She just had to find the strawberry fields.

That's what the man had said a week ago. It had been night and Joy had never liked night time. She'd always felt like something was watching her at night, ready to whisk her away from her dad.

Only that hadn't happened.

He'd been the one to disappear. She was the one left alone and he was gone.

She'd found an alley behind a diner, but for some reason she had felt too scared to look for food that night. Too scared to move. Too scared to do anything and wait.

She'd spent the week and a half before that thinking about her dad. Thinking about what he would say, how he would wrap her up in her arms and smile and everything would just be ok.

But the day before she had forgotten how her father looked when he smiled. And as she had curled in the alley she couldn't remember what her father sounded like. And for the first time since she'd found her father missing, Joy had been really really scared. And he could no longer chase those fears away.

SHe hadn't been sure when the man had appeared in the alley. But he had sat with her, even wrapping her in a hug while she cried, and she forgot for a moment that she couldn't remember the way her father hugged, because the man made her forget.

Just for a moment.

She wasn't sure how long they had sat like that. But eventually, as the stars began to descend, the man stood up.

SHe remembered thinking how different he was from her father. He was all blond hair and sun kissed skin and ethereal beauty. WHere her dad had been rugged edges and his lilting accented voice, this man was clean and perfect. Yet when he smiled down at her, a smile that lit up the small alley and chased away the monsters of the night, he looked identical to her father.

SHe'd begged him not to go. He'd only responded with some cryptic answer about the day needing him. That morning wasn't too far off.

But he had told her to find the strawberry fields. Find the camp with the orange shirts and the strawberry fields on the Long Island and she would be safe.

She hadn't seen any strawberries or camps.

She'd discovered after the man left that night wasn't the only scary time of day. That daytime was still filled with its own horrors: creatures that wanted to kill her, eat her, hurt her.

Nothing had felt safe since the man had left.

Somewhere behind her, a twig broke, the crack echoeing through the silent forest. Immediately Joy froze, her body seizing in fear.

It was just an animal. It was just an animal. It was just an animal.

"Oh look what we have here," a voice hissed from behind her, cackles following the taunt.

Joy had also discovered that when in doubt, run.

Darting in and out of trees she ran, ignoring every branch that broke her skin. The sound of feet behind her, heavy and clumsy, spurred her on. She didn't know where she was let alone where she was going, she just knew that if she stayed things would go wrong and she would be even less safe.