The Resilient

Chapter 1: 1/1/2100

She was running.

Her hair stuck to every inch of her skin available, her chest heaving for breath. Her porcelain skin was slick with sweat as she ran through the forest.

Her muscles screamed for release as she ducked under hanging branches, hopped over  hollow logs and dodged and skidded between towering tree trunks. The ground was hard under her bare feet.

Her eyes looked around wildly as she ran, searching and scanning for something unknown. She knew something was following her, she felt it on her conscious. Dipping in and out of the edges of her mind. The dark shadow of a fierce beast, its claws sharp and its eyes murderous.

Dawn had broken over the horizon, the sky shattering  into a million shades of vermillion and cerulean.  The sunlight shone through the canopy of trees, lighting up the floor beneath her. The musty air stank of blood.

She felt the shadow advance on her. Though she couldn't see it, she felt it's eyes pierce her back and she felt the claws slice open her skin when it swiped at her lower back.

She ran faster.

And faster.

And faster.

Her foot caught on a stray log that was lay in the shadows of the path, bringing her down with a thump. There was a 'pop' as her knee came in contact with the floor. Blinding hot pain shot up her leg.

She knew she was a goner.

She felt the shadow creep up on her, standing 3 finger lengths away from her back. Its eyes bore into the back of her skull, it's breath tickling the back of her neck. The unknown figure began to chuckle.

"You thought you could run." It began, its the voice the sound of a crackling fire. "You thought you could hide."

She started. "No, no- no please don't-" she pleaded with the shadow, but it was a lost cause.

With a sickening crunch, its gothic black jaws clenched around her. Her head swam and her mind blistered, it felt as if her body was splitting into to. Every vessel and every ligament popped, her heart thudding loudly in her ears. Every bone crunched and every organ squished, and all the blood ran out of her every pore and orifice. Her dying screams were drowned out by the sound of wings and wind as the beast fully approached, and when it did - there was blackness.

30/04/2100