The Color Red

Saved by a Stranger

Alone. "Great just great, " she grumbled. The only thing she could do now was march onward. Elaine remembered the bar tender mentioning a town about an hour away. Maybe if she followed the road, a car would come by and give her a lift. If a car didn't come by, she could just continue walking until she hit civilization.

The night was getting colder as the sun went down and all Elaine wore were a pair of jeans, thankfully snow boots, a long sleeved shirt, and a coat. Without gloves and a hat, Elaine knew she was going to get cold.

As she kept walking it started to snow. Hard.

Eventually Elaine had to hold her hands out in from of her and try to walk straight. The snow was coming down so viciously, it was too difficult to see.

Squinting her eyes, Elaine pushed forward, forcing herself onward through the blizzard.

Up ahead she could make out a figure or dark object. Maybe it was a person! Maybe it was her rescue!
With a new determination, Elaine pushed through the storm harder out of desperation. Her hair whipped across her face harshly as her teeth started to shiver. It was getting colder and she knew she had to find shelter fast. She yelled out, "Hey! Help! Over here!" Nothing.

After getting closer to the dark figure she touched it and realized it was a large tree. Elaine cursed herself for her own stupidity. There weren't any trees in the road Elaine thought....

"I'm off the Main Street!" She panicked.
She swung around and tried going back the way she came but it was no use. She was helplessly lost. She kept hitting tree upon tree!

Out of sheer anxiety she thrashed and ran around trying desperately to get free of the Forrest. It was caving in all around her, sealing her doom.

"I'll be lost forever..." She thought to herself." Yelling and screaming she desperately begged for someone to help her. But no one ever answered.

Elaine felt like she had been walking for hours. She was so cold and tired.

Her fingers and ears were numb. She couldn't stop from shaking. She shook from the cold and because she was frightened beyond belief.

After fighting with all she had, she plopped down under a tree and laid there waiting for her fate.

Would she die because of the cold? Frostbite? Disease? Or would she be eaten by a wild animal? Shaking even more violent she tried not to think about it.

All Elaine could do was lie there and think about everything that had happened.
She had been dragged along on a trip she didn't want to be on because of her controlling now ex boyfriend. Elaine didn't even know how to ski!
She had been bullied and antagonized the whole trip there, not to mention she had been assaulted by Roger. Shiver....
Called multiple names, and beaten.
Elaine couldn't believe the kind of day she was having.

"Whaaaaat a a a daaaayyyy," she shivered sarcastically.

It was in that moment when she was lying in the snow lost, cold, and alone, that Elaine thought about home.
She'd give anything to be there right now. Safe, happy, secure. But she couldn't picture where that was for her...

Ever since Elaine could remember she had moved around constantly. Hopping from school to school. Her father was a traveling salesman, so she continuously switched schools. She didn't mind because she never got too close to anyone anyway after her mother died.Elaine was seven years old when her mother lost the fight to leukemia.

Ever since then, Elaine had been on the move with constant change. After she thought about it, Elaine realized she had no one. Not even Marcus. Sure, they dated for three years, but Elaine just needed someone.

She wanted a place to call home. For those three years it had been Marcus. Now what?

Drifting in and out of consciousness, Elaine struggled to differentiate between reality and fantasy. The last thing she remembered was seeing a dark figure walk toward her, bend down and cradle her in their arms.
She didn't know if they were real, but she did know that they were big, warm, and not a woman's!