Love

Chapter One

Fog was rolling over the hills and through the trees, it was like a flood of white as it began to engulf the land. It was sweeping through the trees, nothing standing in its path. And he just stood there–soaking it all in, the darkness, the peace–the quiet.He stood on top of a low cresting hill, eyes shut, breathing steady; he was enjoying the silent tranquility around him. 

Suddenly his eyes burst open, his head darting left to right as he scanned his surroundings. He heard something; a rustle in the bush behind him, or the wind whistling in the trees that surrounded him. A subtle noise, but enough beg him caution.

He heard the noise a second time. Coming from his right side, he moved toward the disturbance to further investigate. The teen put his hand on a bush he presumed the noise originate and gave it a shake.

Nothing.

Hhhmm, maybe I'm just paranoid, he thought. 

As soon as the thought entered his mind, something darted out of the bush in a hurry and certainly without warning. In that moment of panic a high-pitched yelp escaped his lips as he hoisted one leg in the air, and wrapping his arms around his head and ribs. As his sense of reason edged back into his consciousness, he lowered his leg back to the ground and uncrossed his arms. 

With a light chuckle, it must have been a rabbit or something, he concluded.

He took another scan at his surroundings before strolling away, but was paused. Midway through his scan, looking at him, through the thicket of trees and brush was a pair of eyes. Red eyes. Eyes unlike any he had ever seen before. They were about two feet off the ground, but they slowly began to rise. He had no idea what IT was, but IT was towering over seven feet tall and looking straight at him.

The eyes regained a crouched position and took off toward the boy. The youth chose not to wait for any other sign to take off running, and he bolted as fast as he could. After running at a full sprint for nearly 800 meters he was beginning to tire, but found his motivation to stride on when he glanced over his left shoulder and saw the glistening red eyes of the beast in pursuit.

Looking off into the distance, along a concrete path, he saw a streetlamp that stood beside an iron bench. It was the only man made light he'd seen since he ventured out here. The light gave the dull bench a slight yellow hue; it was a soft comforting light, a warm yellow. 

He could hear the beast closing in on him, the sound of its strides had echoed less and less- it was closing in on its prey. He heard its breathing, its deep and steady breathing– *huff...huff...huff* ­–and he could feel the warmth that accompanied each heavy exhale.

With each stride he could hear the crunch of leaves and the breaking of twigs beneath the beast's hairy paws. As the beast and the boy thundered through the thicket; leaves found themselves caught in the thick black pelt of the animal that was eating up the distance between what it so desired. 

The boy turned his head, knowing the beast would be all but on him­—and it was. It was. He turned back around to face the direction he was running, knowing that looking back would do no good in the long run. He was about to push his body into an even harder sprint when the beast suddenly leapt onto him. 

It was inevitable really, he knew he couldn't keep that pace up forever, especially against a beast that was as fast and had as much endurance as the one he faced. He felt the heavy weight of the beast as it rested its paws on his shoulders, pinning him to the ground. Its snout was shiny and wet, its eyes were glistening red, and its mouth was open and drooling; then the beast lunged its mouth towards its prey's head.