They Found Me(R Rated Version)

Prologue

They Found Me, Prologue

I never questioned what happened—I simply went along with it. At the time, I had no choice. Whatever the reason, it happened.

My memories from before are a blur.

A teddy bear dangled from my numb fingers, swaying in the biting wind. My small feet stumbled over the unforgiving ground, a thin red dress my only shield against the freezing air. Exhaustion gripped me, fear and grief numbing everything else. I knew something terrible had happened—I had been forced to run—but the details danced just out of reach, lost in the fog of pain and weariness. The woods around me were a cold, damp labyrinth, the ground beneath me littered with rocks and debris, swallowed by moss-covered trees.

I followed a barely visible path alongside a sluggish creek, the world eerily silent except for the wind howling through the trees, stealing warmth as it went. The sun had long since abandoned the sky, leaving only darkness in its place. My little body was battered, covered in cuts and bruises from countless encounters with branches, exposed roots and jagged stones.

The woods were a wet, cold prison, the towering trees like sentinels guarding a forgotten world. Mossy greens and tall ferns smothered the forest floor, turning every step into an exhausting battle.

I wanted to cry, but even that had been stolen from me by the relentless cold. My body shook uncontrollably, my teeth chattering with a violence I couldn't stop. I took a few more stumbling steps before tripping over a root, a small cry escaping as I fell, my teddy bear cushioning my fall onto the rough, dirty ground. I lay there, sprawled out and trembling, the cold digging deeper into my bones as the icy grip of the forest tightened, draining the last of my strength. I tried to summon the warmth of a memory—the sun on my face, the swing under the big oak tree by my house. I clung to the thought of freshly cut grass, and the sweet fragrance of flowers from the garden as the nothing enveloped my everything.

4o