TELL ME A SECRET

STEALTH

I lie on the floor and my leg feels like a 100 kilogram weight dragging me down. My head is pounding. My thoughts are drowning me and no one can throw me a life saver. I keep getting these flashbacks of my parents. I see their eyes, I feel their pain, I hear their screams. I feel faint not knowing what to do. Tears prickle at my eyelids as they leak. I know I can't stay out here. There is too much on the line. Family.

I attempt to get up using a bench as aid. Thick red liquid dribbles from my leg and stains the ground. I have a look around and see the outlines of buildings. My nimble body tries to find warmth from a dying fire but it can't absorb it, not after what has happened. I know I must go. Somewhere out of this place.

I start running. Back into the forest. Thick red liquid trickles from my leg and the pain is so severe it penetrates my thoughts and that is a good thing. I feel faint but I can't stop running. They just keep going and going. My feet are pounding on the uneven path; kicking up piles of dust that chokes me. I stumble over roots and fallen sticks, which have a hunger for scratching my ankles. The trees lacerate and claw at me. It is pitch black. Apart from a small glimmer of the lazy moon peeking from behind the clouds.

All of a sudden crisp voices cut the air. They echo through the hollow woods rebounding off every whispering tree. They are the gang. The voices are getting louder and louder and it is as though they are breathing there harch cold breath down my neck. hide among a thorny bush. I can see there figures standing there in front of my hiding place. A shiver runs down my spine.