The Whispers

Running

The girl ran through the forest, panting until she thought her lungs would explode. Tears dripped from her eyes as she ran like a scared deer through the undergrowth of the forest, which seemed to close in around her. She skidded to a halt as she noticed a tall oak tree. The perfect place to hide from THE WHISPER.

She didn't exactly know what THE WHISPER was, but it was tall and horrible and, for some reason, only had eyes for her. The girl could remember that fateful day like it was yesterday: How she had screamed to her parents, "Can't you see it!?", as they had tried to console her with hugs and affection, her running out of the house like the devil himself was at her heels, and her parents calling her name over and over again as she scrambled into the forest.

What was her name, anyway? How long had she been running? It felt like she had been running for her whole life, and yet she wasn't, at least not yet, tired. She looked down at her ratty, threadbare clothes and shivered. She couldn't remember when she'd last had new clothes, let alone clean ones.

She wiped her teary eyes and crawled and clawed her way into a tight hole in the tree's trunk. The rough bark felt like a warm bed against her. As she started to close her eyes, she heard a sound. Her eyes shot open, and she whimpered as THE WHISPER passed by like a smoky cloud of sadness and hate and grief.

As THE WHISPER left the tree far behind, the girl peered out from the trunk. In an instant, THE WHISPER had seen her face and rushed for the tree. As soon as she knew it had seen her, the girl had abandoned the tree and ran for her life. Just as the girl had raced around the corner of a tree, she heard it let out an agonizing screech that chilled the marrow in her very bones. She turned around and saw THE WHI-