Trapped 3#: The Hollow Creek Murders (bxb)

Prologue

The scenery around me was strangely peaceful.

It was almost sunrise, I noticed at first while looking up at the now bright orange skies. They seemed much more alive than sunsets, and showed it by shining through the somewhat dark forest. It was beautiful to see each ray as I passed by slowly.

The scenery helped me breath more easily, and was more motivational as I struggled to take even the smallest steps. Blood oozed out from my leg and left a large trail of it behind me, but I didn't care at all.

I knew that it was almost time. It had to be. I was able to feel myself drifting in and out of consciousness, meaning that it was possible that I could pass out at any moment.

But even so, I pressed on.

Each step made another sharp pain, and it quickly dulled into a deeper pain that mixed in with the wounds all over. My arms, legs, stomach. Even my throat had a deep bruise from strangulation, but that didn't matter anymore.

What did matter, however, was the sunrise.

I took a few more step until I was on top of the hill before plopping myself down, leaning on the tree trunk that I had shared many memories with, and sighed. Settling in, the pain became much more intense, and wrapped around my body tightly, as if it was squeezing the remaining life out of me and, in a strange way, it was.

Despite myself, tears began seeping from my eyes as I looked over to the sunset, which rose up and shined a dazzling light upon Hollow Creek. It all seemed so familiar...

No, it was familiar.

I laughed weakly before it turned into a wet cough. Blood spurted onto my chest and pooled in my stomach, but I didn't care.

I did not care at all.

Another tear slipped down, causing the warm colors of the sky to turn blurry. I couldn't even wipe my face to see it, and instead leaned my head back.

You are going to die alone.

The words were never clearer than now in my head, and it forced me to come into terms with it. I wanted so badly to defy it. To scream into the heavens and rip up everything that I saw. I wanted to beg anyone to let me have just one more day.

To see him one more time...

But I knew that it was already too late. I couldn't even move so much as a finger, and was glad for the simple fact that it was a sunrise rather than a sunset. But I still felt cold nonetheless.

"Tan...aka..." I whispered to myself, and that in itself caused a new round of tears to fall down my face as memories bubbled up in my head, each one as fleeting as the last, but was still the most important thing to me in this world.

It was.

And I briefly wondered if Tanaka would ever feel the same way.

Perhaps in another time.

Perhaps in another life.

But for now, I simply ignored everything else. The pain, the fear, the anxiety, the dreadful loneliness. I ignored it all and chose to stare at the sunrise. 

And before he knew it, there wasn't even that.