Shadows flooded the forest ground, dancing, taunting, laughing it seemed. Leaves crunched under our weight, the trees stayed still in the eerie absence of wind. My hand felt wet, that’s when I noticed the blood. I reached out trying to touch any surface, maybe they would see it, maybe it would help them find me. My heart was beating fast, my breathing was in short bursts, my vision was beginning to blur. I reached out one more time and rubbed as much of the dark crimson liquid on the nearest tree. Surely they’ll see the path we took. Littered with broken leaves and blood. That was my last thought before it all became too much. My feet stopped moving, I was told to keep moving but I couldn’t, how could this happen to me? Why did this happen to me?
I jolted awake thinking how awful that dream was until it all too soon became clear that it was no dream at all and reality’s cold hand wrapped around me and fear seeped back in. My eyes began adjusting to the darkness around me, I was underground it seemed, in a cave maybe. A rope around my ankle and a tray of bread and water were the closest things I could see. I had no appetite and the rope wouldn’t come undone. I tried to focus on my surroundings, maybe I could find something to help cut the rope free. I slowly got up, my head spinning and heart pounding and I took my first step, gripping the rope and steadying myself I began following it. The further I walked what I was tied to became apparent. The dark outline of a person sat, silently facing me. I couldn’t quite make out the features in the dark but I watched them move an arm and heard the sound of a blade coming out of a pocket knife.
Adrenaline was building and I my mind began racing, the arm began moving towards me, I turned to run, knowing it was hopeless, that I was tethered to this monster. The rope was pulled, hard, and I fell. I grabbed at the cold, hard ground but I couldn’t find anything to grip onto. I felt my stomach burn where the floor was cutting into my skin. A cold hand wrapped a hand around my ankle sending shivers up my spine. I screamed and I screamed, asking why and for anyone, just someone to help. As quickly as the hand was placed on my ankle it was gone and cold air hit where the rope once was. I took no time to wonder what was going on and ran. I had no idea what I was doing, or where I was going or what would happen but I ran and I ran and I ran.
I ran until it felt like my lungs were going to bust open and I stood, catching my breath and trying to listen, trying to gain any idea of how to get out of this. I thought I’d imagined it at first, I thought that my need to feel something other than fear and despair and want to be safe was playing tricks on me. But then I heard it louder this time, and closer, I heard people running, I was frozen in place, I didn’t know that to do, what if it was a trick? Let me go, give me hope, then inject absolute terror back into my bloodstream. A beam of light crossed my face and I ducked down but it came right back to my face, blinding me. I covered my face and tried to run back away, more people came around the corner, flashlights in hand, all pointing at me. I was so adjusted to the dark I wasn’t able to see anything beyond the lights. I felt a warm hand on my shoulder, not cold and menacing like my captor but soft, and caring. I looked up, I saw my neighbor standing there and behind him two police officers.
My neighbor picked me up, I buried my head in his shoulder, tears pouring out of my eyes as relief flooded over me. I held on as we were guided out into the woods. I looked at a tree near the entrance of the cave that had been marked and saw my blood smeared across it. I smiled to myself, I was right, it did help them find me. I heard people yelling and talking, once we were out of the woods camera flashes were all around me and I was put on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance. My parents pushed through the crowd and passed the barriers yelling that that was their daughter. They came into the ambulance and held me and cried. The EMT came into my vision and put his hand on my ankle. My heart stopped, I kicked back at him and screamed and yelled saying that it was him, he was the one who took me, I thrashed around and hit at him. Soon I began losing consciousness as I was given a sedative.
I woke to a bright hospital room, stitches in my arm and bandages in random spots on my body. His face imprinted, permanently in my mind. I could still feel his hand, but when I looked. only a bandage was there. My mom walked in along with my dad and a few police officers who began asking me what happened. I told them everything I knew, which was putting my blood on the tree to now. The last thing I remember was I had been outside enjoying the nice weather by going for a walk. I told them everything and they asked me about the EMT and I told them it was him that had taken me. I guess they had already talked to him because he had an alibi and there was no way it was him. But I knew better. I knew it was him.
Its been seven years since then. Seven years of nightmares and seven years of them not finding who it was. Seven years of me seeing him. Seeing him everywhere I go, a few isles away at the store, across the street from my house, in the parking lot of my children’s daycare. Seven years and he is still free. And I, well I am still his prisoner. This was inspired by a headline in the paper titled MANHUNT
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