Seclusion in Shadows

It looked okay out, so Gerard decided to go for a walk. maybe sketch a thing or two. he had spent great masses of time locked inside this hous and just wanted to get out of there. Gerard decided to walk into the woods to find a quiet place to escape from the world and sketch, he knew a place a little way into the woods where there were tombs that had been virtually overtaken by saplings planted in front of them to provide shade.

The place was beautiful, although a little creepy and morbid. The trees flourished in the seclusion of the walls, fed well on the rich, reddish soils. In some cases the roots had spread so far to crack the memorials they'd been planted on. These scenes of verdant and ruin he found particularly poignant. He was lingering at one, about to retrieve his sketch pad and pencils from his bag when the perfect silence was broken.

He heard a whimpering sound coming from his far right, hidden behind some greenery he supposed. He automatically stepped back out of the trees shadow and into the hot sun;the sun blinded him a little and he stumbled backwards, shielding bis eyes. Shock made his heart beat furiously, it's thump deafening him to the sound that had excited it. He waited a few moments and listened hard to be sure he even heard something. But then he heard it again. A frail, desperate whisper of pain. The sound that he heard could not have been human for it had the cry of what he expected a dying animal to possess. He drew closer, knowing that it would surely perish knowing that someone had passed by, knowing it's agony only to walk away.

At the next whimper he heard, he felt a twinge of pity and emotion sear through his body, lingering at his heart; this caused him to breathe faster and more erratically. So knowing that the only way he could help the animal was to see it he stepped closer still. To his shock it was a teenage boy, a little younger than him, he would guess. But this was not the first recognition, or the most shocking. The boy had a frail, bony body with his bones jutting out so furiously every time he drew a shuddered breath.

As the boy was wearing only scraps of clothing, his anatomical bone structure was visible to reanimate in your head. Gerard stepped back as he realised the skeletal boy had stopped panting and shuddering as he realised there was another presence among him. Perhaps the boy was frightened of him Gerard thought as he stepped back, although never moving his Eyes. The pale creature gazed at him wide-eyed; his dark doe eyes, wet with tears. His neck was barely able to support the weight of his delicate head as he looked at Gerard. Even as Gerard returned his gaze the boy seemed to give up on life. His eyes drooped closed and his head sank to the ground.

As Gerard moved foreword he stroked the boys head, feeling the wispy hair and the boy was almost beyond responding to his touch. His eyes flickering open momentarily at the first touch, then closing again.

Gerard could see no sign of a wound but the body beneath his hand was feverish and full of tremors.
As Gerard lifted the boy up he was beyond the spasms that ran through his nervous system before. There was no power left in his muscles. His limbs hung limply, his head the same. Gerard could tell the boys final moments approached.