The Shadows Within Us | Grethan

prologue

I was being dragged by my dislocated ankle through the woods. I cried out in pain every time a branch would slice more into the already gaping wound at the back of my head. My right leg was mutilated and I could see the bone, my femur, sticking out. Dirt was inside my wounds, and the thorns and sharp rocks on the forest floor did no help to my already aching body. Whatever was dragging me- yes, I had no idea, it was pitch black out- had no mercy and never turned its head at every scream or whimper that came out of my mouth.

I had tried to escape, my nails black from the dirt. But this thing- this creature- would not let me get away. I tried to scream louder, an ear piercing scream, but nothing happened. It still dragged me by my left ankle that was severely dislocated and was barely hanging on. I couldn't name the other cuts and breaks on my body. My brain couldn't fathom this much pain, and I had passed out many times. I was in shock and I couldn't even feel the tips of my fingers. I hope to be far away from here, ideally in a hospital bed, when the shock wore off. But I knew, from venturing in the woods with my older brother as kids, that we were passed the state boundaries and I was in unknown territory.

"AHHHHH," I screamed, something slicing deeply into my side. It felt like sharpest metal and the pain didn't cease, it increased. I started to cry, even though I had no tears left. Suddenly, I couldn't breathe. Something felt foreign in my mouth and I soon realized I was choking on my own blood. I tried to move onto my side to get the liquid out of my mouth, but being dragged through a forest, the creature not stopping, made it nearly impossible to drain my mouth. I cried out in more pain, but the sound was mostly gargled.

I was going through my worst nightmare and I wished it would stop. I wished I could pinch myself and wake up in my comfortable queen bed with my pet fish swimming around their tank, and have my stuffed turtle, Snapper, that I've had since I was three, by my side. However, I was being dragged by a dark figure that had no mercy and had done the unthinkable on my body. I had been attacked. Something from the shadows had come for me, and had tried to kill me. But I wouldn't let it. I had survived the attack and now, I was in even more pain than after the actual attack.

The creature did a number on my body, slicing up my back like it was chopping carrots. Snapping my femur, so bad that the actual bone was sitting outside it's rightful place and now in view of my own eyes. Ripping my ankle away from the bones in my feet and slicing joints when I tried to crawl away. My pelvis was somewhat intact, but it was badly bruised. My neck was definitely sprained because I couldn't even move my head a few inches before my spinal cord and nerves were screaming at me to stop. My right shoulder, I didn't even know anymore. I could barely even feel the right side of my body, that my actual shoulder and arm felt gone to my spinal cord. But I had eyes, and I could see that my right arm was still there.

"P-Please GAHHH stop!" I began coughing, the blood trickling down my throat and into my lungs. My whole chest and stomach felt like it had been beaten with a bat relentlessly. I tried to grab onto something to slow the creature down, but my hands were so cut, and sore that I couldn't hold on for the life of me. My fingers slipped trying to grab the roots of the large trees that stopped the blinding light of the full moon above me from reaching the ground. Summer was here and all the leaves were now absorbing the light and the chlorophyll were dancing around and making the leaves an outstanding green.

I knew that this creature wouldn't stop until it reached the place it was dragging me to. I knew that if this creature did not stop, I would die choking on my own damn blood right on this forest floor in the middle of buttfuck no where. I started regretting ever wanting to kill myself over the fucking assholes at my school, because if I survived this bullshit, I would come out stronger than I ever was and beat their fucking asses. I would tell the whore of my best friend secrets and live the life I wanted and not what my parent's wanted me. I would come out as gay and kiss the kid I've liked since 3rd grade right on the lips and tell him how hot he looks on the football field.

But I started losing hope. My brain started to cloud from the lack of oxygen. And I soon was knocked out into the deepest of sleeps and I didn't wake up. Until....