“Where the fuck did she go? She walked off way too fast. If you hadn’t slowed us down, we wouldn’t be climbing up this god forsaken hill!” The man screamed at the woman.
“Shut up, Frederick! I needed to take a shit, sue me!” The woman retorted. She shoved him in the shoulder, he glared at her and stepped close to her face. Trish kept her eye on them, her breath shallow.
“What did I say about you touching me? Equal rights, equal lefts, as they say…” Frederick stated gruffly as he stared the woman down. His breath blew her hair around her face, and she cowered away from him. She then took a few steps back and placed her hands on her hips.
“I can do whatever the fuck I want! You put a hand on me, you’re dead.” The woman said triumphantly as she shoved him again.
“You’re a crazy bitch, you know that? Why would I be dead for hitting you? If I would be dead for that, don’t ya think I would be dead for killing people? Did the meth rot your brain so much you can’t even think logically anymore?” Frederick smirked. “Can we not do this right now, Elizabeth? We need to find her. We haven’t scored in a week now,” Frederick snapped. Trish bit her lip as her hands rattled as if they were trapped in a can.
Elizabeth eyed him and sighed, “You’re right. I thought you said you were a tracker? Can you try to find her? I don’t think she could’ve gotten too far ahead of us.”
“I am a fucking tracker. I’ve tracked over twenty people, you know that,” he snapped. She ignored him.
They walked closer on the path towards where Trish was hidden. The couple looked over at the boulder she was cloaked behind. Trish lowered her body as close to the ground as she could, her body hunched over as if she were a small child. She accidentally got dirt in her mouth and threw a hand to cover up the cough. She blew a dirt pile away from her mouth. The dirt tasted of a mixture of soil, moss, and hopefully, escape. The two walked forward on the trail, up into the forest and away from Trish. She listened to their footsteps as they galivanted around loudly. They broke twigs, rustled decaying leaves, and cursed among themselves. She heard them grunt as they uphill hiked. They wandered away, and Trish waited for a few beats before moving from behind the boulder. The last thing she needed was lunatics murdering her. The same lunatics that have been stalking her this entire trip.
She sighed and leaned her back against the rough rock as she looked out and over the cliff. The drop seemed to be about fifty feet with trees and bushes that littered the bottom. The floor was covered in flower petals from the flowering dogwood trees. Trish really wanted to finish this hike, but now she didn’t think she could. The realization that she wouldn’t be able to finish this hike tore her heart right out of her chest. She bit her lip as a sob threatened to explode. She placed her hands on the boulder to steady herself. Disappointed but unable to finish this trip right now, she planned to make her way back down the trail to civilization. It would be a fifteen-mile trek, but it would be easier than before as a lot of it would be downhill.
Trish pushed herself up and off of the boulder that hid her from the strangers. As she bent over to grab her trusted pack, her foot slipped on a small rock that slid out from under her. She tried to grab onto the large boulder, but there wasn’t any way she could grip her fingers. Her hands slid off the boulder-like butter, unable to stop herself from falling off of the cliff.
Trish’s body fell backward as she hit a tree branch. She bounced off of it like a child on a trampoline. Her throat let out a scream that she couldn’t hear. Trish attempted to grab some roots as she tumbled down, but the momentum of her trajectory made her unable to do so. Her body rolled and slid down the cliff, and it seemed as though she hit every jutting rock along the way.
Trish screamed in agony as her arm hit a jagged rock. Her arm snapped like a slap bracelet, and the white bone protruded from her skin crudely. The serrated skin that surrounded her bone dripped crimson, filling the air with a metallic scent. Blood spewed everywhere; on the rocks, the dirt and her clothing as she tumbled down. Trish howled as she grabbed hold of some weeds to slow her down, but they just ripped out of the wet Earth.
She finally hit the ground with a thud. Her ankle twisted around a root and her head hit a smooth rock. Trish groaned quietly as she tried to push herself into an upright position. She had used her broken arm without thinking and screamed in pure, unadulterated agony. The blood pumped from her wound and onto her face. She fell backward, passed out in nothing but shock and pulsing terror.
Chapter Five
T
rish awoke to a midnight sky that drenched her body in complete darkness. Her head swam with random thoughts of her grandpa and the dark beauty surrounding her. She tried to focus, but her head, which seemed to be filled with concrete, wouldn’t let her think straight. She thought of taking a dip in the cool river she’d hiked past, remembering the time her grandpa had to have a leech removed from his thigh, and she thought of her mom and dad, who would never know what happened to her. She didn’t love her parents; they never understood her. She only ever loved her grandpa, but she needed them to love her now. Her ankle burned as her arm pulsed, which brought her mind back to reality. Her eyes remained closed as she tried to remember what happened and how she got here. Her head ached with every thought. Her eyes opened slowly as she took in her surroundings; the soft grass squished beneath her, the full moon saturated every crevasse, and her blood was splattered around on the ground and boulders next to her.
She took a deep breath to try to stop from screaming out; the warm and crisp forest air encapsulated her senses.
Trish coughed. Her bloody saliva dripped onto her bloody and torn shirt as she used her good arm to try to prop herself up. Tears streamed down her dark red-stained face as she took a deep breath and steadied herself. She looked down at her arm, and what she could see in the pitch-black darkness, made her almost pass out. A large bone protruded from her arm.
She raised her shirt with her good arm and bit into it, and in one swift motion, tore the bottom off of the shirt. She draped the torn fabric over her broken arm and felt around in the darkness for a twig of some sort. She found a small one and placed it into her mouth. She took a deep breath in through her nose and sobbed as she tied the fabric as tightly as she could above the wound. She was more worried about bleeding out than infection at the moment. Snot dripped out of her nose and onto her lips as she pulled tighter. She spat out the twig and laid her battered head against the sturdy rock behind her. She listened to the sounds of the forest, taking in the music of the night.
“Help!” She croaked out, barely above a whisper, as she kept her eyes closed. She yelled for help once more, her voice greater than before, but there was no response. She knew she’d fallen down the cliff. She also knew that no one camped down here. What she wasn’t sure of was how far she fell or if she was near a campsite. She couldn’t remember where exactly she fell or what she was doing in the moments before she tumbled. Her throat burned with thirst as she licked her dry and swollen lips.
Trish closed her eyes and decided to let her body succumb to the rest it begged from her, for now.
~~~
She awoke in the early afternoon after a squirrel scampered over her lifeless body. She shook her head and coughed; dirt shot out of her mouth at the movement. Trish decided it was time to try to stand up and move to safety. With her back against the boulder, she lifted her bad ankle off of the ground and pushed herself up with her good leg. She inched her way up as she pushed her body upward against the rock, scratching her back as she did so. She couldn’t help but moan in agony while working her way up and into a standing position. She licked her lips and hopped to the next rock as she tried to make it out of the hole she got herself into.
She hopped from boulder to boulder, tree to tree. She scraped her hand and wrist along the way, trying to find balance in every movement. Her broken arm had stopped throbbing, but she couldn’t feel it at all anymore. Her sloppy tourniquet stayed tight around her arm, but her arm had turned a
pale-yellow color. It was no longer dripping warm blood, which had now browned and congealed. She couldn’t figure out if that was a good or bad thing, but she hoped for the best.
After an hour of slow movement towards what she thought might be the right direction to civilization, she took a seat on the soft grass that padded the ground. She lowered herself as gently as she could, guiding her body in a way to lessen the damage and pain, and leaned her back against a tree.
The green, luscious and untouched grass beneath her body felt like heaven. She was glad she walked all this way to at least have somewhere comfortable to rest besides rocks and dirt. She used her good hand to caress the blades of grass; the smell drifted up into her nostrils, which filled her head with all kinds of memories. She thought back to when she was in soccer as a little girl. She was never really any good, but she enjoyed running around and playing outside. She thought about the first camping trip she took with her grandpa. He took her out to Yellowstone National Park, where they camped for a week.
“How are you feeling?” The deep voice boomed behind Trish and interrupted her calming thoughts. She jerked and turned her head to where she thought the voice was coming from. Her head pounded as she turned to see where the voice came from. A few tears streamed down her cheeks as she just felt like she couldn’t catch a break.
“I’m fine,” she replied, hoping her tone would get the entity to back off.
“Are you ready to make a deal?” It asked. She smelled a mixture of decay and wet grass around her as the entity spoke. She covered her nose and mouth with her good hand as she tried to stop the bile that was burning up her throat.
“No! Just leave me alone. I don’t know why you’re following me,” Trish cried and shook her head. The smell of rot and death lingered around her, enveloped her every sense.
“I’m not following you. I’m just always with you,” the entity whispered into her ear.
Trish sighed loudly and tried to stand up and move away from the voice, but she couldn’t find her balance. She toppled back over and hit her head against the moss-covered tree she was just leaning against.
“No matter where you go, I’ll always be here, ready and waiting to make a deal.” The entity stated matter-of-factly.
“What deal? And why are you harassing me? I told you to leave me alone. And now look at me? Beat up, broken, and tired. Just leave ALONE!” Trish cried out loudly, her body convulsed with sobs that rattled her chest and hurt her broken arm. She stood up with a loud grunt and hobbled her way towards the next tree for support.
“If you follow me to my domicile, I can help you,” the entity stated once more in her ear, blowing breath that smelled of damp moss and burnt beef.
“Help me with what? Hurt me more? Kidnap me? Hide my body and never to be found again?! I’d rather die on my own terms and not by your hands!”
“No. I will heal you and make sure you get back home safe and alive,” the entity said with a hint of kindness.
“Fuck off,” Trish said abruptly as she slammed her body against the next tree. She pushed off and landed on the next, her palm cut open by a stray sharp piece of bark. She ignored it and moved to the next tree.
“You will be begging for me soon enough. I know how to help you. If you continue along this path, you will die. I am giving you a chance at life and salvation. You should be grateful for what I am offering,” It continued, but the voice sounded far off in the distance, and she no longer smelt death. She tried to move faster and hopped along on her good foot.
The sky started to darken, and the forest quietened. Trish no longer heard birds chirping or deer running along the forest. She heard a stream of water somewhere off into the distance as the moss covered more and more trees. The trees felt damp underneath her fingers, which made it hard to get a firm grasp. She left a trail of blood everywhere she went.
She grunted as she heaved herself to the next tree as her body slowly broke down. She could no longer think clearly as her mind hopped from food to water, then to dancing with a woman she once knew, to yelling at her mom after she broke curfew years ago, to now as she thought about a parakeet she once got to pet at a zoo. She dug her fingers into the moss as she steadied herself. She pushed off of it and landed with a thud onto the ground.
She howled in pain as she landed on her broken arm. A crunch was all she needed to hear to know that she’d fucked up. Her bone was pushed back into her arm when she landed but then re-punctured her skin as she rolled off of it. Her blood pumped out of her arm with a new kind of ferocity. She threw her other hand onto the wound to try to stem the blood, but she couldn’t handle the pain.
“Oh God, please, God, please!” She yelled, her throat dry and voice cracked. She ripped off another piece of her shirt quickly, delirious in pain, and placed it directly around her bone. Her bone no longer white but covered in blood and dirt, with a yellow puss that oozed out with every pump. She tried to grab onto a low tree branch that hung directly above her head, but she slipped right off of it.
“Ladybug, what are you doing?” Her grandpa asked as he placed a cool hand on her cheek.
“Trying to wrap my arm and stand up,” Trish whimpered.
“Now, why would you do that? You know you’re hurt. You won’t make it very far.”
“I know...” Trish cried.
“You did pack smart. You packed everything I told you to. But you lost your bag in the fall, and now you’re stuck. What did I tell you to do in times like these, ladybug?” Grandpa asked as he smoothed the matted hair on her head.
“Thank you,” Trish mumbled as she started to close her eyes.
“Hey, you stay awake, now. Why won’t you let my friend help?” Grandpa asked as he placed a hand against her wound. Trish didn’t feel it as her head spun.
“Your friend?” Trish asked deliriously.
“Yes. I sent him here to help you, but you’ve been rejecting him. He is here for good. I met him on the other side, and I knew he was just the right person to watch over you.” Grandpa said as he hovered over her, the wind blew dirt in her face. She coughed and tried to sit up but fell back over.
“No, Grandpa. He is trying to hurt me, he—” She said but was cut off.
“Listen up buttercup. I sent him here to help you, and you WILL follow his lead. Do you understand me? Do you trust me, ladybug?”
“Yes, but—”
“No buts. Just listen to what he says, and you will be okay. Please, for me, ladybug. I need you to live, and he is your only hope right now.” Grandpa stated as he floated away and disappeared into the trees of the forest. Trish started to cry. Her chest heaved, and she couldn’t catch her breath. She tried to sit up but fell right over. She hit her head on the ground hard.
Chapter Six
T
rish awoke in a damp and gloomy cave. She opened her eyes and tried to get a read on her surroundings but could hardly see anything. She was lying down with her head supported by a smooth rock. She looked to the left and saw the cave entrance about one hundred meters away, and the dark sky ahead. She saw a couple of torches hung up about the cave, the light shallow and dim. She sat up and rubbed her head gently. As she did, she noticed warm wetness on her fingers from her temple. Her mouth was wet with saliva and blood, which excited her as it was a step up from the horrid bone dry sensation she’d had before.
She leaned her back against the moss-covered walls of the cave. The smell of wet dog and damp, moldy laundry entrenched her. Her own blood was wafting up into her nostrils, adding a metallic note to it all. She looked down at her broken arm and noticed that it was now in a make shift sling, one that she didn’t remember making. The sling was made out of what was left of her ratty and abused shirt. Her bare back cold was pressed against the dirty wall of the cave.
She took a deep breath, allowing the moisture in the air to dampen her mouth, and sighed, lying her head against the cave wall. Trish laughed quietly to herself, so happy that she had saved herself. Did she remember getting to the cav
e? No. Did she remember putting her arm in a sling? Also, no, but she did have a head injury, so she figured it was just a lapse in memory.
She sat straight up when she heard voices coming from outside. The voices echoed in the cave. She barely remembered them as the couple she’d talked to three days ago. The woman’s voice a little louder than the man’s, but the man’s voice came off as more tired. Trish couldn’t remember the woman’s name. Was it Claudia? Cinthia? Cathy? She held her breath and tried to be as still as she possibly could as she listened to them.
“Do you think she’s dead yet? She put up one hell of a fight,” The woman said in between breaths.
“Probably. She’s lost a lot of blood,” The man said, accompanied by a loud thump as he sat down right at the cave entrance.
“Wait- she’s still breathing!” The woman exclaimed.
“I wouldn’t worry about it. Her arm is hanging on by a thread and the stab to her chest is still bleeding. She’ll be dead soon,” The man stated confidently.
“I suppose you’re right. I’m just so fucking tired. I don’t know why she fought so hard. I also can’t figure out how she ran so far, being as busted up as she was. You did a real number on her baby,” The woman said in a curious yet flirtatious tone.
“It made it for an even more fun time, right? The last few gave up so easily, and I have grown tired of the begging. She didn’t beg, and she didn’t cry. She didn’t even make a sound while we were…busy with her. I can’t understand it,” The man said as his voice tapered off.
“She did talk though, remember? She was saying some weird shit that made no fucking sense,” The woman interrupted.
“Ah, yes, now I remember. She was saying something about a Sausage, which is the weirdest thing to be talking about. Who the fuck cares about Sausages at a delicious time like that?” The man questions to no one in particular.
The Cave Page 4