The Man in the woods

The Red Night

The blood was flowing fast. I knew I would die. I looked up at the sky, for my last glance of the moon and stars. He came up, held the knife so close, and the last days of my life flashed before my eyes...

*****************

After Drake had rescued me from the hole, he took me back to the cabin and told me to rest.

I was probably tired from the shock and then the long night.

He tucked me into his bed despite my protest.

"I really am fine!" I said as he pulled the blanket up to my chin.

"Hush. You've had a long night. Just go to sleep." He then kissed me, and I was floating on a cloud.

"Just go to sleep, OK?" I nodded my head in response, but I was to happy to sleep for long.

I finally got up because I was to restless from the kiss. I saw him chopping wood. I walked over, and he saw me.

"Didn't sleep?" he said. "No," I said. "Well not for long."

He leaned in and kissed me again. He then wrapped me in his arms, holding me against his chest.

"I wish I could live like this forever," I said, my voice slightly muffled by him.

He mumbled something, but I didn't need to know what he said, I already knew. He finally let me go, and I went back into the cabin.

I was so happy I could have given some of it to the entire earth with some to spare.

******************

The next day, he went to get berries, saying he didn't want another accident like the last time.

He kissed me goodbye and walked into the woods. I stopped him before he could go to deep. "Can I come?" I asked. He sighed very heavily.

"Okay, I guess. Just stay away from deep holes," he joked. I just rolled my eyes.

When we got to the bushes, I knew they weren't the same ones I had gone to. They were clearly two separate bushes.

We were having so much fun, chasing each other through the bushes, feeding each other berries.

"Today was so much fun!" I said, as we were getting ready to leave.

"Yeah," he said having a sudden shift in attitude. It was funny, he almost looked hostile.

"I will continue in the fun, it's just too bad you won't." I looked at him quizzically.

What did he mean, I won't continue in the fun? It took me a little bit to figure out what he meant. It didn't hit me till the knife entered my thigh.

I screamed, thinking that the man that kidnapped me had stabbed me, but when I saw Drake's face, I knew it was him.

I did the first thing I thought of. I kicked him where it hurts, and ran.

I didn't hear him behind me for a good 10 minuets. In that time, I thought I had almost processed what had happened to me. Drake had acted as if he was in love with me, even though he really wasn't. He had only let me come, because he knew he could kill me easily in the woods. I had been a fool, and fallen right into his trap.

Out of nowhere, he tackled me from behind. I fell, and he didn't have a good grip on me, but his knife blade did. I got cut right up the back of my leg, deep and long. I got up and ran. Apparently, he had fallen onto a prickly bush, and while he was tangling with those, I made it back to the cabin.

I ran inside, right to the kitchen, and found a small, but sharp, paring knife.

He burst open the back door, and I ran down to the front, burst open the door, and waited on the outside of the doorway, right where he couldn't see me.

I was loosing lots of blood.

I waited for him to show his face, and I swung with the knife.

I got in a couple of small but deep cuts.

As I looked at him as I turned to run, I saw he was bleeding immensely too.

He must have cut himself on the bush, and a little bit with the knife too, because a bush couldn't make that deep if scratches.

I ran and ran, and that's how I ended up where I am now, on the ground, with his knife to my throat.

It only took a split second to show that small portion of life.

Right before he killed me, he stopped, let me go, and started to talk. "Do you want to know why I'm doing this?" he demanded.

I nodded my head, so he would know I was listening to him, when I was actually planing my escape.

"I've been working for Jim for years. Jim is the man who kidnapped you. Whenever one of his girls makes a plan to escape, I find them, make them fall for me, and then bring them back to him. If they struggle, he lets me kill them, sometimes with a good show attached. You, my darling, were so easy. You were hatted by your mother, the only man who had ever loved you was 6-feet under, you weren't even pretty. So desperate to be loved, you were easy bait. So now I kill you. Just one last kiss, for love."

As he leaned in to kiss me, a saw my chance. I shoved the knife all the way up to the handle into his stomach, twisted, and pulled it out.

"HOW DARE YOU?" he roared. He grabbed my head by my hair, exposed my neck, and pushed the knife up to it. I closed my eyes, felt the cold steel kiss my throat, felt sticky, red liquid, and then nothing...