The Dream Catcher

Violet

If you see a violet-haired girl, with a backpack strapped to her belt, a tattoo on her shoulder sprinting through the forest. She's also wearing a black tank top, black ripped jeans, and white converse with mud on them. Even though you are not actually there, you have pretty excellent eyesight, I must say, and a great imagination too.

Until now, Violet didn't realize that she was this athletic. Now you see Violet has never done any sports or anything outside, for that matter. She's more of an introverted bookworm. But she still surprisingly is in great shape. She doesn't know it, but Violet has been running for four hours, deep inside the thickest forest in the country. That Great Wood Forest is the largest in the United States. Violet was hot and sweaty, and her vision was blurry.

At first, she didn't realize that she was in the greatest forest in the country. Violet didn't care where she was running. She didn't hear the birds chirping up above, or the squirrels scampering up the trees as she ran by. Just the sound of her footsteps running away from the inevitable. She didn't even see something big in the distance trying to get some honey from a very tall tree. At the time, Violet's surroundings didn't matter to her, just running away. Getting as far away as possible. From her friends, family, and most importantly, the government.

As Violet ran, she tripped over a few tree stumps, some small animals, and some other things that I shouldn't name, but that didn't stop her. She was determined. She was a very clumsy person, as you can probably tell. When she did fall, Violet got up, brushed the leaves and bark (or small animals) off herself and kept running. She didn't take any breaks, for this was extremely important to her. If they caught her, clearly bad things would happen to her. She wasn't supposed to run away but it was a matter of life or death, and she wasn't ready to die.

Violet didn't want to go to the place where they put people to sleep on their assigned day. They do so willingly and she didn't know how they do it. She didn't know how her father could do it. Violet hadn't even lived her life yet. Seventeen years old isn't much of a life, I would say, but that's just my opinion.

All Violet knew is that it's worse than the day you are assigned to die when you are born, the day that is tattooed on your collarbone. Or that's at least what she'd overheard from the others in her small town. Violet couldn't help thinking that as she was literally running for her life. She knew that she couldn't run forever, but she had to try, she had to get as far away as possible.

Suddenly and most unfortunately, Violet's legs gave out from under her, and she collapsed and started rolling on the mossy ground of the forest floor. The reason she stopped rolling is that she ran head first into a tree. She probably had a concussion but who can tell? It was surprising that she didn't pass out, as she hit the tree rather forcefully. She looked down to see that her backpack wasn't strapped onto her belt anymore. She cursed in frustration. Honestly, I don't know when she lost her backpack. All I know is that there were some very important contents in there.

Violet's breathing was hard and uneven, and she was sweating like a sinner in church. Her heart was beating a million times a second, but she was still determined to keep going even though she lost her backpack. Violet tried to stand but ended up falling over, quite a few times actually. She groaned in frustration every time she tried. She tried ten whole times to stand up before she finally gave up. It was vastly amusing.

By the time she finally gave up, it was nightfall. The sun was completely gone, beautiful stars took its place. Violet heard the sound of grasshoppers and owls in the distance. She decided to awkwardly scoot up next to a tree and sleep for the time being. She would rather sleep in a cave, but there was none (because it was a forest). It was a good thing Violet was a light sleeper--she hated it, but in this case, I think it has saved her life on more than one occasion honestly. Violet would have been caught if she didn't wake up the way she did.