Just One More Breath

This is it

The blurred shadows swayed slowly in the wind. The moon was full tonight. Its fierce beams cast dim highlights on the forest canopy and lit up the path. The sky was a murky grey-black painting the mud licked floor a dark brown. I trod carefully, trying to avoid the puddles. I hated the feeling of thick mud forcing its way in between my toes.

I could hear the trees hissing as the leaves rustled in the breeze. My tattered torn up oversized shirt flapped helplessly against my almost numb legs. Goosebumps blanketed my ghostly white arms. My hairs stood up tall, like a proud father watching his son score the winning goal.

My pale green eyes were encased by dark rings and drained of all moisture. They tried to focus on the path ahead but dehydration and malnutrition made it too hard. I felt dizzy, as dizzy as the day I went on the teacup ride at Disney Land. Shivers crawled up my spine, caressing my neck and shoulders as if they were seducing me.

I gazed up at the sky and inhaled a large breath of fresh air. The moon looked like a giant torch, one that would never run out of battery. I bet the moon didn't realise that every time it appeared it enabled the forest to morph into a place plagued by nightmares.

I had counted 88 days. I can't remember how I got here. I woke up in a dilapidated and dark wooden den. My arms and legs were chained together tightly. I was lying helplessly on the rotting ground that had been ravaged by mold. The wooden floor felt soft against my body. The air was musky and forced my chest to tighten every time I took a breath. It smelt like a latrine. I almost choked. I was kept in that den every single day. As soon as the sun disappeared I was dragged to the center of the forest. Dark and dirty creatures from every disgusting part of this place gathered there nightly. They walked around browsing which one of us they liked the look of. The creatures then paid the relevant captor. They were allowed to keep us until the sun reappeared.

Hopelessness and fear washed over me like an incurable disease. I wanted to run but I was too dizzy. The nausea was hard to ignore and made my brain feel as though it was on a merry-go-round. My wrists burned in the icy breeze. My skin had been ripped off exposing a deep red fleshy tissue which didn't take kindly to the cold air.

I had been dragged along this floor countless times and each time I tried to map out every tree and pathway so that when this moment finally came, I could navigate my way out.

On this night, however, my mind had taken my map and ripped it up, like picking up a completed jigsaw puzzle and destroying it. Waves of anxiety washed over me.

Something appeared in the distance, it was a blur of edges that didn't join together and was doused in a white light. It shuffled towards me. My stomach began somersaulting as if it was taking part in the gymnastics Olympics.

I felt something hard slam against my face. It was cold and damp. My breathing quickened and I began choking on small dirt particles. I must have fallen on the floor. I tried to get up but I couldn't move. It was as if I was magnetically attracted to this patch of forest floor.

The white light was looming toward me. As it got closer the disconnected edges began to multiply. My eyes still could not focus properly. Please don't let them find me. My mind went blank. All I could do was wait.

I took one more breath and prayed that it would not be my last.