Lost Anne

Chapter Two

The first thing I saw were the branches arching over me like veins against a pale sky, twisting and pulsing as though they were alive.

Pain exploded through my body, sharp and unforgiving, as if every nerve had been set on fire. The world felt too vivid-each crack of bark, every flicker of leaves in the wind-yet none of it made sense. I tried to move, but my limbs felt like they were shattered, bones grinding beneath my skin.

The smell of damp earth and crushed leaves filled my nostrils, mingling with the metallic tang of blood. I blinked, struggling to piece together what had happened. There had been... something. A force. It had pulled me, dragged me, as though the very air had turned hostile, folding around me and yanking me out of reality.

Now, everything felt too still. But the wind-yes, there was wind. Hot and dry, blowing against my ear like a whisper.

Wind? I thought, my mind stumbling over the word, disoriented. There hadn't been wind before. Just a heavy stillness, the sensation of being torn apart and scattered.

I swallowed hard, tasting dirt and iron. My head swam, trying to reconcile the memory of that force with this moment. But nothing seemed real.Nothing except the pain, and the leaves shifting in the wind that shouldn't be here at all.

My limbs felt impossibly heavy, as if I was waking from a long coma, every muscle unresponsive and stiff.

I turned my head slowly, my neck protesting the movement, and realized I was lying on the freezing ground. The cold seeped through my skin, sharp and biting. A thick gust of breath, warm and humid, tickled my cheek.

A horse? I blinked in confusion. Through the haze, I saw its dark, muscular form looming above me, pawing the ground impatiently, its breath fogging in the chill air.

Its snorts were low and frustrated, but there was something else in the sound-something familiar, tugging at the edge of my memory. Yet my thoughts were a tangled mess, slipping away from me like sand.

There was another noise, faint but persistent, just beyond my hearing. What was it? My head throbbed, woozy from whatever had just happened, and the pain made it hard to think clearly.Why am I on the ground?

I blinked again, trying to piece it together.

I was in my car... wasn't I? Yes, I also had a book on me. Then the world spun, everything blurred-and then nothing. Just pain. Pain and darkness. Like a void had opened beneath me, pulling me down, ripping me apart piece by piece and dragging me into some kind of abyss.

I squinted against the low light, my vision fuzzy, a heavy fabric laying on top of me, weighing down my already unresponsive body and realized it was a coat-a chestnut-colored tailcoat, draped haphazardly over me.

My breath caught as my gaze shifted to a dingy shape lying next to me. My heart raced as I struggled to make it out. A bucket? No. It was a hat. Old and worn, its brim dented and caked with mud.

I tried to lift my head, but pain shot through my skull, radiating like electric shocks down my spine. I winced, gasping, and let my head drop back onto the cold earth.

Closing my eyes for a moment, I felt an overwhelming pull to just drift off, to escape the pain. But instinct kicked in, and my eyes snapped open again.

No. I shouldn't sleep. Not now. I might have a concussion.

Fuck. What is happening?

My heart pounded harder in my chest, and the air felt too thin, too suffocating. My mind raced, but none of it made sense. I was lying on the ground, in the middle of the woods, with a horse standing over me, but there was something else, something deeply wrong that I couldn't put my finger on.