Endless

Dreaming of Blood and Monsters | Aleria

I was a little girl running from monsters. The worst sort of monsters, who spoke and looked like me, but older. They ran like me, but faster.

They wanted to kill me.

Yellow light bathed the coarse tree trunks surrounding us and showed me the way I should run. Crashing footsteps crumbled leaves and snapped twigs, growing louder with each passing moment. I wasn't running fast enough. I was too small. My long dress tangled around my legs. Would it hurt to die?

Again and again, their baying voices told me how close they were.

"We have her!" one shouted in French, but with a strange accent. They whooped like dogs snapping at my ankles. I hiked my dress up higher, cursing my mother for insisting I wear it in the first place.

A crash to my left drew my attention. A man broke through the undergrowth to catch me. His torch doused me in yellow light before I veered to the right. I could only hope they'd lose me. I needed to find somewhere to hide, but how would I keep them out? They'd definitely find me. These monsters never failed.

My sides ached. My feet throbbed from stumbling over roots. I couldn't stop. I pushed my body harder, driving myself through branches and foliage. They were coming in from my right. It would only be a matter of time before they hemmed me in. Flickering shadows danced to my left. My own shadow shivered among them, moving with the wind caused by the monsters' motions.

The shadows suddenly tore on a bramble bush. I skidded to a halt. Someone released a victorious laugh behind me, but the sight gave me a flicker of hope. I knew these vines. Luc and I often crawled into them to pick the sweetest berries.

Heart thudding, I dove into the thorns, crying out when they bit into my flesh. They tangled with my hair, tore at my dress. My mother took weeks to make it and now it'd be ruined beyond repair. Each tear to the skirt freed my movements a little more, giving me a chance at survival. The monsters didn't want to kill me here. If they did, they could have done it ages ago.

I kept crawling deeper into the brambles, stopping only briefly to free my hair. A few feet later I fell into a hollow. The monsters cursed behind me. I whimpered and collected my tattered skirt about me as I pressed back against the hollow's wall. Blood trickled over my skin in too many places to count. I was alive, but I was still as good as dead. They could wait me out. I'd starve or die of cold before surrendering.

One of the monsters dropped to his knees and held his torch to the brambles' edge. I was doused with blinding light. I couldn't even make out a face.

"I can see her," the one with the strange accent said. His hand shot through the brambles and grasped my ankle.

I screamed and grabbed the branches behind me, heedless of the thorns tearing into my palms. He yanked me so hard I lost my hold and dragged me farther and farther from safety. Out of desperation, I bent over and bit his hand as hard as I could. His bitter blood flooded into my mouth.

The monster cried out in pained surprise, jerking his hand away from me. "The brat bit me!"

I was about to spit out his blood when another asked, voice tensed, "Did she swallow any of it?"

Swallow? Disgusting! Yet the panic in the monster's voice made me think twice. The one with the odd accent knelt close again, just in time to see me take a big breath and gulp the blood down.

"Shit! She did." Strange accent dove in after me, screaming as the brambles caught him mere inches away. With a frustrated roar, he bore down towards me, but his larger size slowed him down.

I carefully crawled deeper into the brambles. I heard laughter behind me.

"Oh look. Ryan—outwitted by a child."

Ryan cursed and continued to struggle, making the branches about me shiver. I crawled deeper in. Sweat sheened my body. My stomach roiled. Trembles wracked me.

I kept going, even though I felt weaker with every passing moment. I lost awareness of their voices, focusing in on one thing. Dad. I had to get to my dad. He was safety. I kept crawling as stealthily as I could until I found the tunnel Luc and I had made to pick the berries. I crawled out and kept crawling until everything but the sound of my thundering heart died away.

What do you all think is up with Aleria's dream? 

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