Love by Spring

Chapter 1

Susanna walked through the quiet park. 

The warm yellow streetlights buzzed above gently, joining the symphony of white noise that blanketed the path. 

Her day could not get any worse and yet here she was, walking alone contemplating the difference in comfort between choosing to sleep on the grass instead of a crumbling bench. She couldn't believe her bad luck.

Not only had she caught Chad cheating on her but with a rat no less. She started to sob quietly. Why had she decided to move in with him? She knew he was losing interest. I mean he's the classic badger to a T. 

How could she have deluded herself into thinking she could change him?

She let out a dejected sigh as she reached the small arch of willow that framed the entrance to the small colony of trees towering above the rest of the world. If only she could just be a tree and drift in the wind. No worries or cares, or cheating scumbag badgers or worrying about where to sleep tonight, Susanna's stomach growled, or where her next meal would come from.

Suddenly, she whipped around as angry loud shouting could be heard in the distance. Thinking quickly, she ducked quickly into a nearby bush as a bright beam of light swept the ground she was walking on not seconds before.

"Please, I didn't steal from you!" screamed a small weasel as he was shoved to the ground. "I promise i'll get your money back, give me another cha-"

The weasel was cut off as one of the shadowy figures that had previously shoved him to the ground kicked him in the stomach.

"Shut it. This is the consequence for theives." the shadowy figure said before turning and nodding to his accomplice.

*BANG*

A single shot rang out and the sniveling weasel fell silent, a small stream of cherry red blood dribbling from the new hole decorating his forehead. 

Seeing this, Susanna lurched back in horror, snapping a twig as she went. The shadowy men spun around. 

Oh no, they had heard her. 

She lied earlier, her luck could get worse. A large hand locked around her leg as she began to escape. The hand squeezed tighter the more she struggled until another set of hands wrapped around her waist, pinning her in place.

"Let me go! I haven't done anything, please I won't tell anyone."

A hand clamped across her cheeks.

"Stop struggling or we'll put a bullet straight through your brain." the gruff voice from earlier whispered.

Susanna was pulled to her feet by the second man as the first shone the torch around the clearing. As the light brushed across her captors she could tell that the talkative one was a coyote and the one holding her still was a hyena. 

"Oh my god, what if they're part of the cannibal mafia gang!?" She was going to be skinned alive then eaten! "Oh holy fuck this is so bad!" she continued her thought. 

As the men dragged her and the lifeless body away, Susanna began to lose hope. Why did she waste her life? She's so young and now she's going to die. "What a waste of a life" she thought as she was shoved violently into the back of a van and the doors were slammed behind her.