The Sky Never Ends

Saving Grace

  As Selah was losing consciousness and the black cloud of her impending doom claimed her, the world around her sounded like everything was underwater, the man that was assaulting her was shouting profanities at her as he strangled her, it sounded like the blurred warbles of someone talking beneath a lake's surface. Like she'd done so many summers in her life with her siblings growing up. She felt no pain, her body felt chilled and numb, she was nearly at peace.

   Just seconds before she fully succumbed to her asphyxiation, two powerful loud gun shots rang clearly through the air. The man's grip around her neck loosened significantly as he gasped loudly staggering backwards a few steps and dropping Selah to the ground. He gagged, blood spilling out of his mouth and grabbed at his chest. With one last heaving breath he tumbled forward, landing on top of Selah's outstretched legs.

  Selah was on the groud slowly regaining consciousness. Her throat was on fire, and felt as if her esophagus had been crushed. She could hardly take a breath in. She used what little strength she had left in her body to roll herself off her back to her front, hopefully opening her passageways better and freeing her from the man's massive weight. 

  She gasped and huffed reaching for her throat to somehow stop the fierce burning encompassing her windpipe. She was a pitiful mess writhing about on the mossy forrest floor. She tried to pull herself into a crawl, kneeling on all fours, then swiftly collapsed, still wheezing for air. Tears were pouring from her blurred eyes, if she was able to breathe correctly she would've been sobbing. 

  She still hadn't fully recognized that she was still alive, seconds ago she'd prepared herself to meet her maker and for now at least, she lived to breathe a few more breaths of the Lord's sweet air. For some reason, it wasn't her time to go just yet. 

Or was it?

  The discernible pounding of hooves progressed towards Selah who still clutching at her throat and rasping on the damped ground. 

  Her mysterious savior whoa'ed  his horse to a halt, skillfully and quickly dismounting. The familiar heavy pounding footfall of boots indicated to Selah just who her savior was.

  He stood over her, watching her roll about on the ground attempting to draw in large gasps of air.  Her and Noah's loud breathing joined together in a symphony piercing through the still air, his breaths were not nearly as loud or laborious as hers. Though he was attempting to manage his boiling temper threatening to explode, and failing miserably. His hands were clenched in fists tight at his sides,  his nostrils flared, two veins protruded in strain from his thick neck, he was breathing the dry air in and out of his nose like an angry bull.

   When he felt Selah had adequately adjusted her breathing to a somewhat normal level he yanked her up from where she was lying on the floor balled up in a heap weeping. He leaned her so her back was leaning against the wide trunk of a tree, her head bobbed around lazily and she avoided his gaze. He had no time for the foolishness, he grabbed her face with one hand, fingers and thumb pressed into her cheeks, forcing her to look at him. His sweaty unkempt hair had fallen into his eyes, he had a savage look in his eyes, it wasn't hidden well.

  Selah's petrified hazel eyes reluctantly peered in to Noah's infuriated grey ones, the ferocity in his gaze struck fear in her heart, even more so than the strange man who attempted to kill her.

    Selah actually cared about Noah and she had a history with him, as distorted as it was. She hated to have to do this to either of them, to hurt them in any way, but felt it was necessary for her to get home. She knew how large of a loss the horse would be to them so she was sure to take as little as possible of anything else. She wasn't a greedy person, just a girl attempting to make it back to her family after a horrible misunderstanding. She hoped Noah would have mercy on her, she was already devastated seeing how catastrophically her plan had failed so early on, and knowing that she narrowly missed being raped and dying a few hours after being on her own. She was disgusted by her own absurdity, and was not looking forward to the punishment she was sure Noah would soon bestow on her.