In Another Life

IX o'Clock: You're late! You're late! For a very important date!

God damn it, I have been walking for ages, I thought. It was around noon and I still hadn't encountered any path. How can these woods be so big? Have I been walking in circles the whole time?

It was true that Jonathan lived in the middle of the woods where nobody else lived, but I had never thought it was gonna be this dead. I'd expected there to be at least some sign of human life. 

By now I wasn't walking anymore, I was faltering. With every step I took, I felt the pain of my abrading feet through my entire body. Wavering I took my black ballerina's off and liberated my toes in the cold but refrigerant soil. Never had I felt more relieved than in this moment. Haley would've screamed if she saw me do this. She would've had compassion. With the shoes. Not me. Oh god she would've torn my hair out if she knew what had happened to her dress.  She would never trust me again with one of her clothing. I couldn't help smirking. Maybe it's good she isn't here to see me, I thought. And then my mind flashed back to her staring eyes. So big. So scared. So dead. And I knew I had to be out of these woods as fast as I could, to find out what had happened to her.

I had to find that guy.

And when I found him, I'd get answers on all of my questions. Such as why he stalked me, why he murdered my friends, and what happened when I blacked out last night. I'd get the answers, at least if he didn't kill me first.

I dragged myself through the leaves and the tree trunks. The peace that fulfilled me this morning had been replaced by irritation and desperation. If I didn't get any sign of escape soon, I told myself I'd climb up the highest tree to see where I was from the top. The only problem was that the trees were forty feet tall and barely had branches at the bottom. 

I didn't get it. If last night were such a disaster, there must have been police or researchers near the woods. I didn't see or hear anything except for birds and rustling leaves under my bare feet. It was calm. Too calm.

I began to notice the leaves were decreasing and turning into grass. Something about it told me I had to keep going where I was heading. Little, black, singing birds flew past me, vanishing into the sunlight beyond the forest. They seemed to lead me the way, singing "follow me, follow me". I scraped my energy together that was left over and began to jog, with my bare feet shouting out from pain. I was so hungry I could collapse any second.

Abruptly I stopped. I almost fell again, because I had to shut myself down with all the force that was left in my body. 

My pupils widened and my heart raised from two beats per second to four beats because a white rabbit was sitting right in front of me. Just sitting. Nothing else. Not eating, not moving, not even breathing. All he did was staring at me. Sideways, so I could only see one eye. One creepy red eye, pricking through my soul.

He's here, I thought. He must be.

The scary rabbit was his sign. I knew he would appear any second now. Paranoid I spon around and around to see if he was to be seen.

And then the rabbit moved...

He hopped straightway to the right. He kept hopping without a pauze. I wondered why. Why was he hopping that way? Should I follow him? No. It's the rabbit, Allie. It's the creep. Do you wanna get yourself killed? Brains???

Wait... exactly!

I immediately turned to my right and ran after the rabbit. He was already way ahead of me and I couldn't lose him out of sight. The rabbit kept running without looking behind him. As if he didn't care I was chasing him. What if this was just a rabbit and there wasn't any connection to the murderer? After a while I got out of breath but the rabbit still hadn't stopped running. I couldn't get any further so I slowed down, flipping my hair out of my face and gasping for air. Shit that's a fast rabbit, I thought. Or I'm just really not in shape. Probably the first one.

As I slowly jogged further, keeping my eyes on the rabbit, I suddenly noticed the grass under my feet. The woods were overgrown with bushes under which the rabbit made his way. Damn it, stupid rabbit. You can't get rid of this girl. I'm a professional stalker. I pierced myself through the branches and plants while I got stung and scratched by thorns and whatsoever. "For God's sake, what am I doing," I mumbled while I was ripping my dress off of a tenacious branch.

As I turned around to run on, something immediately caught my eye. The point of a tower was sticking out of the woods in the distance. "Ah finally," I sighed as if I had been walking for days and starved. With a jump I ran towards the tower, neglecting the rabbit whom I had already lost eye of.

The closer I got, the faster my heart pumped, knowing my saving was right in front of me. My fear got replaced by joy and curiosity.

Finally the tower revealed itself...