Lost
The afternoon sun shone through the canopy of leaves creating a
golden-green glow over the small glade. It was late summer still and warm, on
the verge of autumn. This time of year always created a sadness in Beth. It
marked another summer gone by spent alone and warned of the solitary winter
ahead. As she walked out of the glade onto the banks of the river she could hear
the birds in the trees above her, it sounded so peaceful here. She climbed the
embankment and started looking for a new way home. She walked for some time,
listening to the birds calling to one another and feeling the warmth in the air
around her. But soon she began to feel quite lost. Nothing looked familiar and
she wasn't sure from exactly what direction she had come. She tried going
southward, or what she thought to be southward, hoping to get back to the river.
But the longer she walked the more she knew she was really lost. She stopped and
rested for awhile but then got up and continued walking. As she walked she
cried, for it was near darkness at this point. As the sky above her went from
light to a deep purple and red she began looking for a place to hide for the
night. The best she could find was an old oak tree. She gathered the fallen
leaves and piled them to make a bed, whereupon she laid herself down for she was
exhausted from walking so long.
Sleep came easily, as she lie there in the still forest. She
watched as the moon rose in the night sky but fell asleep before it reached its
full ascent into the stars above. She had been asleep for some hours before she
was awakened. Actually, she was not fully awakened, but brought from her sleep
into a semi-conscious state. A state which she would never leave...
Beth felt the silken strands of hair on either side of her and the warmth of his
face in hers. She smiled as he kissed her lips softly. She was awake enough to
know this was not a dream but in such a relaxed state she knew only to follow
her impulses. Beth put her arms around him as he leaned over her. He kissed her
neck, slowly moving down over her. As his kisses went further down her body his
hands moved up her legs and over her stomach and breasts and found her neck. It
all felt so good that she didn't feel it as his hand tightened into a vice-like
grip around her throat... As her neck was broken she felt as if she was falling
into a spiraling darkness. Voices from her past and memories of her short life
played themselves out behind her closed eyes. As she died she sat in the bed of
violets outside her mothers house, listening to the radio through the kitchen
window... It all happened so fast and then it was over.
Life is so short then we die, but how lucky to die like this, he
thought. He looked down at her body. To die young, so innocently in such a place
of beauty. She would never get old or sick or outlive everyone she knew only to
die alone and afraid and uncared for. She would be 20 years old for the rest of
eternity... He kissed her lips softly once more and shut her eyes. She would be
his until the earth claimed her once more. He lay next to her and watched as
gray turned to dawn...
Copyright by Velvet Dare (2004).