A Soul to Lure

Part Two- Past the trees

My lungs burned with a ferocity I'd never felt before, making it harder to bring the surrounding air into their depths.

But I didn't dare stop.

Even if I'd wanted to my mother wouldn't have allowed it. She had my wrist in a tight, vise like, grip, forcing me to keep up with her long, hurried strides. Every one of her foot falls landed true onto the dirt floor, crunching over red and orange fall leaves, never tripping or stumbling over the rocks and sticks that seemed to favor my path. Yet, no matter how many times forest debris caught the tip of my boot or the side of my ankle she kept me upright, never letting me fall or fall behind.

"Just get past the trees." My mother repeated, a desperate kind of mantra for our frightening situation.

I could still hear the screech of the harp playing woman, her horrifying image still fresh in my mind as she and her sinister friends gave chase to our retreat. I'd only looked back once, and that was enough to strike a fear so deep in me my own heart threatened to rip from my chest, slamming desperately against my rib cage in an effort to leave my body. The group of creatures after us weren't far off, black winged figures flew just below the canopy; things, that I only could describe as goblins, with green, pimply skin, and giant hands hopped and jumped after us, some even swinging from tree to tree like some sort of gruesome monkey. There were many more creatures I couldn't even begin to describe, but none as fearsome as the one leading the pack, still holding tight to her silver harp, a smile upon her black lips.

Screeching.

Always screeching.

"Kita! Don't look back!" I heard my mother order, pulling my attention back to the task at hand. Our escape. "We're, almost there. I can see the open-"

And that's when something, a vine or a very limber branch, caught both my feet and I went down. My fall brought my mother to the ground with me and we tumbled down a small hill that I hadn't known was there before. Thin sticks and prickled grass scratched at my skin before we landed, with equal umphs, at the bottom of this new rise.

My mother didn't waste time trying to bring the breath back into her body as I desperately needed to. She got to her feet, pulling me with her as she rose. "Get up! We're close."

She was right, we were close. I could see exactly where I'd entered this treacherous place only hours before. I was more than ready to put an end to the curiosity that got me into this horrible predicament.

I was ready to go home and never step foot past the warning of our town's gate ever again.

I was ready but my body...

"Ahh!" I screamed out in agony, a sharp pain shooting up my left leg as I went to put weight on my ankle; almost causing me to drop to the floor once again.

"Oh no you don't."

Tears sprung to my eyes as my mom caught me on my decent, throwing my arm around her shoulders, swearing in words I'd never been allowed to repeat.

All the while the screeching grew closer.

My mom glanced back and her eyes widened to saucers. I'd never seen her so afraid. "Okay, Kita, we've got to go. I can't carry you completely, you're going to have to bare the pain."

Without giving me a chance to reply she took off in another run.

I gritted my teeth through the ache pulsing between the muscle and bone where my leg met foot, holding on to my mother for dear life as she ran, half dragging me along with her.
All of the sudden the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention, and I realized, just as we made it to the pillar trees, feet away from freedom, that the screeching had stopped and I could feel an icy breath on my skin.

My mom's voice caught on a sob as she choked out, "Kita, I love you." Before picking me up with all the strength she had left and tossing me through the opening I had once been so curious about.

I only had enough time to look back and see her tear streaked face before the harp lady wrapped her grey, boney hands around my mothers neck and yanked her back into the shadows, away from me forever.

"Moooooom, nooooo!!" I screamed, my body racking with sobs. "I'm sorry." I sat there, crying at the edge of the trees until a group of townsfolk found me there, half mad, half broken, and took me home.