Blood Secrets

CHAPTER 1

I'm running faster, faster. I'm not sure why I'm running. I'm being chased. I can hear the things' claws scratching into the earth of the forest floor, their revolting warm breath making misty clouds in the cold air. They're getting closer. I don't know why they're chasing me but I just feel like I have to run or get caught. The thought of their claws on my body, grabbing me and pulling me back elevates my fear. I may not know why they're chasing me anymore, I just need to get away. Where am I running to? Who are they? The snow is freezing and getting deeper and deeper while it's getting harder to run. My shoes are filling with cold ice and my feet are numb. All I'm wearing is my Guns & Roses t-shirt, denim shorts and my tatty converses. The ice is getting to my bones and my lips are turning blue. I see a light ahead. It's warm and, I don't know why, I feel like I have to get to that light. "Emma! Come here!" The voice was radiating from the light. "Mum?" What was I saying? I've never met my mother; Andy said she had died in a car crash when I was 2. But, somehow, I knew it was her. A sudden eerie hissing came from behind me. They were millimetres away. I was centimetres away from the light. It was too far. I'd never make it. They grabbed me by my t-shirt and started pulling me from the heavenly warmth.

I woke up confused and disorientated. I was covered in sweat and panting heavily. Was that real? It had felt so real. It was always the same, repetitive dream every night that disturbed my sleep and one thing never changed: I was always captured in the end.

I rolled out of my bed and landed onto the floor. I heard a clank and rattling. What's going on? I lifted my groggy head and took in my surroundings. I instantly panicked. I was chained to the wall of a small box-shaped room. I yelled for help but received no answer. I suddenly heard the clip-clop of heels. It was obviously a woman. I was afraid of who she was and what she'd do to me; a tiny part of me intrigued.

I expected her to come through the door into the room, but the clip-clopping noise stopped and she seemed to swivel on the spot and turn to the room next to me. I was relieved yet unsure. Who was she? Minutes after entering the other room, I heard the most blood curdling scream. It was a man. Oh, God, it was Andy. Goosebumps shot up my body and made it hard to breathe. I don't know why but I started sobbing uncontrollably. I cried and cried for Andy and the pain he must be going through but more than anything, I cried for fear of receiving the same fate. It made me feel sick to be thinking of myself.

After what seemed like hours of nonstop screams, it was silent. Almost simultaneously, my fear left me and was replaced with growing anger. She entered my room and I felt my airway being constricted. "Hello, sweetie", I looked up. It was my mother.