Learning To Live

Chapter 12

I drifted in and out of sleep for a while. Sometime, the wandering had left me all alone I did not know where the wandering soul might have went but i did not particularly care about where it went. I did not feel the time passing. All i felt were the rocks that were digging into my side and the way that my wrists ached whenever i thought about it. My mouth felt dry and i was beginning to feel as if i were a bomb just waiting to go off. A person that would blow up at one single unexpected bump in the road. I did not even feel like a person anymore. I felt like a shell that was experiencing everything that a person would experience but not really experiencing them. It was like i was just observing and watching myself from a distance. I saw myself lying on the ground with dirt streaked across my face and my hair in tangles that would take ages to get out. If i ever was able to brush my hair again.

This time, my captor had taken my shoes away from me. It was as if he was expecting me to be able to escape. As if he knew exactly what would happen and when since he had not taken my shoes away from me the first time. The only part about my situation at the moment was that i did not feel the cold. If i had felt the cold, i probably would have been freezing right now but since i was unable to feel temperature, i was not cold. Although, my other senses sure made up for that one advantage. Sure i could live in snow covered mountains but i still felt pain and right now, my wrists and ankles stung from rope burn.

There was nothing to do except stare out into the forest where almost all of the trees had bare branches. It was colder here than in Colorado and winter set in earlier than it did compared to what i was used to. I shifted and tried to stretch my feet out because they were starting to make my legs hurt since it was an awkward position for my legs to be in for a long amount of time. I felt a tug on the rope that was around my ankles and felt my feet slip out of the rope. I looked down at my ankles to see what had happened. The rope had broken. It was miracle.

I scrambled to my feet, not wanting to waste any time on escaping this terrible place. I started to pick up speed as i left the space where i had been lying for a while. I felt the dirt slide off of my face a little bit as my pace increased to a jog. I pulled and tore at the rope that was around my hands, praying that it would break just like the rope that had been around my ankles. The rope soon loosened up and i was then able to slip my hands through it without hurting my wrists too much. It was not long after that i had picked up my pace to the point where i was running very fast.

The ground passed beneath me in a blur. I stepped on every single sharp rock and hard material that could possibly be on the ground but that did not slow me down. I stumbled probably close to a million times but that did not slow me down either. I had to keep moving no matter how tired i was or how much pain i felt at the moment. It would all be over soon and then i could rest. When i was able to rest, i would sleep for days. I stumbled on another rock just thinking about sleeping in a bed. I almost fell but was blindly able to catch my balance at the last moment. It was dark out and i could not see anything through the trees whose leaves were almost gone. Most of the leaves were left on the ground, forever forgotten. I felt as i were one of the leaves that had been abandoned on the ground. A leaf that had been forgotten and was never going to be useful ever again. That was how i felt at that moment.

But i had no time for thinking. I had to run. I had to keep moving. There was no time for me to stop moving. As long as i kept running, no matter how bad the pain in my foot got, i needed to escape. I needed to be free again. I would not go back to being a captured ghost. I refused to go back. Never again. My heartbeat pounded in my chest like a drum, never giving up its striking rhythmic beat inside of me. My breath harshly went in and out, making my throat feel so dry that i thought it would shrivel up. Every step made my breath take another leap. I felt as if i were going to faint but i knew that i could not stop to catch my breath. I could not look back. I would not look back.