Burnt

Chapter One

"You can never escape, Maura." she can hear a voice whispering to her ears, carried by the howling winds that whirled around her.

She tried to open her eyes, but she cannot. She moaned softly. Then she tried to relax her big brown eyes with her fingers but whenever she attempts to open it again, it shuts abruptly and she can see just few things around her.

Horror dawned her as she have realized, nothing surrounds her but tall grasses. And yes, she was lying on a thick mud with her untidy, tattered white dress. It was smeared with blood stains.

Her skin was as pale and as smooth as a boiled egg.

It was a dark, stormy night. The cold breeze of wind swings her body back and forth just like something was stopping her to reach farther.

Lightning freckled unceasingly, as the thunder struck like heavy blows to the chest. The roar of the storm was almost deafening.

Her skin was prickling on her arms, legs and neck. She even felt the hair on her head standing on its end. Her long black hair was badly unbrushed.

Raindrops and hot blood steamed down her face, that have almost reached her eye, which blurred her vision. And not a minute later, it was completely distorted.

She tried to stand up, with her knees shuddering of weakness, fear and of some matter, starvation. She crouched, but forced herself to stand once again.

She walked like a weakling, with her knees still bent and her right hand on her stomach while the other swinging unintendedly.

She felt like dying, but she kept walking though without anywhere to go.

"You can never escape." a voice uttering same words repeatedly plays on her ears.

It was dark. Around 2AM. Her heart pounded.

With great gumption, she then sprinted much faster, and with great hope she flashed a smile on her face and almost jumped out of her skin when she partly saw city lights in the middle of the darkness.

As she come closer and closer to the city, she screamed for help, though she's almost out of breath.

And when she have finally reached it, she was completely exhausted. She's running out of blood and water inside her. She staggered down to her knees, fell off to the ground and loss her consciousness.

. . .

"Are you okay?" A voice murmured when she have opened her left eye slowly.

She was somewhere she never knew. She took a deep breath and blinked her eyes slowly.

"W..who are you?" she slammered. Maura looks better than she was when she found herself lying on the grass. She have noticed her clothes have changed to loose sleepwear and her hair was neatly combed. She was in good hands, she can assure.

"You were lying unconscious on the roadside when I found you." his blue as an ocean eyes held Maura's. She took a shuddering breath then beamed. "Oh thank you!" She was safe, at last. She hugged the stranger tightly with teardrops falling from both her eyes.

"Would you mind telling me the last things you can recall?" the man asked.

He was of mid-20's. He has a blonde, slightly curled hair and blue eyes. He has this powder-white complexion.

Maura bit her lips and remained in silence not half-a-minute. "I was..." she paused for a while and rolled her eyes. "I was walking in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but tall grasses. It was dark and it was raining hard."

"Then?"

"I have reached the city. That's all I can recall." She said in a low voice with her eyes teary. The man nodded. Maura started playing with her fingers.

"What brought you to that place?" he asked.

"I'm sorry I cannot remember." she frowned and answered. Steve then nodded vigorously. Maura began roving her eyes around the room. Then she have noticed a picture hanging on the wall beside the bed where she was lying.

"You are a cop?" Maura asked.

"Yes. I am PO2 Steven Barge. Well you can call me Steve." he introduced, showing Maura his clearance. "May I know who you are?" he asked.

"I am pleased to meet you, Steve. I am Maura Series." she smirked and shook the cop's hand.

"You must take plenty of rest, Maura. You have just been discharged from the New Walters Hospital last week. I was not able to find any identification of yours, so I have decided to accommodate you here, at home temporarily." the cop explained.

Maura began nodding. Steve placed his hand on the door handle. "You can always call me whenever you need." he smiled.

. . .

The wind was vile.

Sweat beaded on Maura's forehead. She was alone in the room when she have decided to go downstairs for a glass of ice-cold water. Her wounds were not completely healed yet she tried to get up from being laid down for she can really feel the scorching hot season. She stretched both her leg slowly and crutched the bed's headboard as she slouched. Then she walked in a very slow pace to the door and pushed down the handle as she cautiously slid the door open, just a crack. She then eased the door slightly wider.

Pale lights greeted her as she walked outside the room. She can hear a snarling voice from the kitchen but she cannot barely hear the words being uttered.

And so she tried to step closer to the staircase. "Steve?" she asked in a low and somewhat shuddering voice. "Steve, are you downstairs?"

Silence answered.

She finally dragged her feet to the stairs. And walked quietly until she have reached the kitchen.

"Steve? Are you doing good?" she asked as she saw Steve facing the sink.

Steve turned around, startled. Maura even noticed him gasped of surprise.

His voice turned squeaky all of a sudden, but he was too shocked to care.

"Maura? Why'd you left the room by yourself?" he managed his emotions. His eyes squeezed shut.

"I... I badly need some glass of water." she shrugged and smirked. "The hot weather dried my throat."

"Oh." he paused for a while. "I see." His grin quivered weakly across his cheeks. And that grin quickly faded as his mouth worked wordlessly.

He brought the glass to the faucet and added some ice cubes.

"Here." he handed the glass to Maura but it crashed down to the ground right before he have handed it to her.

He looked quite pale as he stared unfocused at Maura for a while and chuckled. "I.. I'm sorry."

"Are you okay?" Maura started getting conscious of Steve's sudden shifting of mood.

She ran her fingers through her hair. Steve shook his head. His voice was completely calmed when he spoke. "It was just a spat... Job matters." he relaxed his shoulders and took his phone from the table. His hands shuddered.

Maura flashed a smile. "Steve, can we talk about the last night incident? I mean, last week."