1 First Encounter

I was starting to get fed up now. The sun had fully disappeared and the dark eerie night invaded the sky. the cold had invited itself to where I was sat, on a bench in the park, alone and depressed. The tears that had long been running down my cheeks for hours already started drying crisp. They're not coming, I thought to myself. they were never going to come. They don't even care if I'm dead or not. They are probably celebrating my absence in the house.

My tears started erupting out of my eyes again. All I ever wanted was for my mom to stop hating me soo much and instead start loving me the way she loved my brother. It felt like my heart was being tightened by a rope and being stabbed by a poisonous needle at the same time. Knowing that she didn't come running after me after that heated argument, had already shown how little she cared for me. The lack of love I felt from her was slowly killing me.

How I wish I could just end it, that way I wouldn't have to feel all this pain. Flashbacks to the moments my friends brag about how much they bond with their mothers and how much they joke about and share clothes, these thoughts were digging a grave in my heart. The pain of these thoughts could not be held anymore. I could hear my sobs echoing from a far.

Suddenly, I felt this sort of intuition, like an alarm in my brain of some sort. I didn't feel safe anymore. the darkness and loneliness had seemed to evade my courage, the only pillar for the cause of me staying here. It felt like anything from the memories of my nightmare would jump out at any moment from now.

The rustling in the bushes, the whistling of the wind through the trees, the music from crickets of the night that sounded like a sacrificial ritual from a tribe, and the sight of no movement at all, was slowly starting to become more noticeable. The feeling that surrounded me had me trapped and with all reflexes I just wanted escape from there.

I got up nonchalantly slowly reassuring myself that I was over exaggerating, that this was all just an illusion or my contaminated mind just playing despicable games of its own. I begged to let go of that thought. my feet began to stride fast. In front of me a lone road endlessly laid with only one lamppost in sight. This sight was suffocatingly scary, it looked like a murder scene in my eyes.

I looked back drastically as I heard soft rustles in the bushes. Sensitive to every sound as my heart would drop to every drastic sound. Every hoot of the owl, every whistle of the wind, every heaving breath of my own. My breath halt to a stop as I felt a presence behind me. My legs suddenly stopped moving. a footstep or two, I heard behind me right after I stopped. My eyes strained, this was just an illusion. I'm just being paranoid...

Breathing, I could hear breathing too. no, no, no, no, this cant be happening. I picked up my pace trying to walk as normal as I could, but the footsteps behind me were even faster. As if whatever it was trying to hide, it didn't want to anymore. I was a long way from home, I wished I never ran away. But now all I could really do was just run. Without bothering to look back, my feet bombarded the road with all its might trying to get as fast as possible. my breath exulted chaos and fear, whimpers escaped my mouth unwillingly and my legs were starting to weaken with fear.

the footsteps were growing louder and more rapid behind me. My whimpers became even louder hearing the hefty breathing behind me that was definitely out to hunt me. These feet were coming closer and closer, I had to hide somewhere, quick. I ran out of the road heading to the trees. There it was, pitch black. No light at all as the moon wasn't out. I swirled my way around trees and I managed to hide behind a tree big enough to just hide my whole body. I held my mouth so no breath could escape me. Tears started running down my cheeks and my heart uncontrollably pounced and leaped in my chest.

I tried listening for any sound of those predator feet, that mercilessly chased me here. silence, for a moment there before the snap of twigs engulfed my ears. Its close. Till this moment, I didn't even take a minute to take a guess at what was following me. Peeking behind that tree I could see the enraging silhouette. It was definitely a man. It had the stance of a man.... Wearing a cap, I think. IT was too dark to tell, but one thing was for sure, he was definitely holding a hammer. I turned back, pleading to God that he didn't find me.

With the sound of the twigs that broke I could tell that he was coming closer and closer. I closed my eyes still hoping for the best. suddenly he stopped. My eyes opened. My heart skipped a beat before I could scream at the face that was only 5 cm away from mine. A smile that I couldn't unsee, a smile that screamed creepy murderer. I screamed out of horror at the fact that I couldn't even see his full face. His hat was covering almost half of his face. He stamped his hand ungracefully at the tree that my head leant on. I leapt out of fear and dropped my body to the ground giving up whilst screaming.

He quickly leapt on top of me and forced my back on the ground forcing me to face him. My eyes quickly scrolled around looking for the hammer I saw him hold earlier, and their on his left hand a huge mallet in fact. before I could scream at the sight, he dropped the mallet immediately covering my mouth as his right hand tried restraining both my hands. he leant closer to my ears..

"shhhhhhh" he whispered creepily, sending shivers running down my spine. " I'm trying to help you Elayne." his voice broke as he whispered into my ears. I could swear that I nearly passed out to the creepiest cringe that rummaged my nerves.

I tried to wriggle my body out of the cage he formed with his body. Finally my knee crushed between his legs leaving him groaning and screeching in pain, as I quickly got on my feet heading wherever my feet could take me. with only a few steps, one of my legs was pulled back, leaving me to land straight back, to the point where my stomach touched the ground. he climbed on my back again, cuffing my hands with his hands

"Elayne, I told you to stop!" he roared. "I told you, am only trying to help you." I could tell he tried to sound as persuasive as possible. Me not being able to trust a man I had no clue of what his identity is, and to the reasons of him being on top of me. It was just too hard to believe that he was trying to help, because I needed no help at all at that moment. I gathered courage to scream one more time for help before he could shut me up again.

As my screams began to echo in the woods. I felt a throbbing pain on the side of my neck. my body felt numb and weak as it all just collapsed to the floor plainly as I felt him let go of my hands. My breathing started becoming loud in my ear drums. My vision, of the smallest sight of the dark objects began to turn blurrier with every second. I felt my body get lifted. Felt like I was in the arms of the man. He was walking gently with me in his arms. My eyes still couldn't focus on his face that was right above me. I gritted in pain as I finally blacked out.