The Mouth of Evil

Allison didn’t know how long she had been lying underneath the large spruce tree, but her mind was too muddled and her limbs to strained and weak to care less about the amount of time that had passed. She opened her eyes, sprinkles of dust fluttering from around her eyelashes, and after a few seconds of gradient shapes and white spots, she found that she had passed out on the forest floor and was surrounded by the cold dew of morning and the soft shuffling of small animals. At first, she could only notice the heart shaped leaves and spongy moss that littered the ground along with the dirt and soil, but it wasn’t until she registered the wet Earth beneath her that her instincts began to kick in and she lifted her head only slightly as she noticed the dew on every leaf and hard surface.

Water.

It was the only thing she could think of as she reached out her shaking index finger and hesitantly touched the fragile droplets that had settled on a large leaf. With her hand still trembling, she gingerly stuck out her swollen tongue and flicked over that small drop. It was gone in an instant, disappearing into her parched moth as if it was never there, and she coughed violently as she tried to conjure up some type of moisture. Her lips were dry and cracked and there was a constant ringing in her ears. When she wiped her tongue across her upper lip it felt as if sand paper was rubbing against bark.

“Water,” she rasped.

With as much strength as she could fathom, she lifted herself up, and when she could finally stand on her two feet, she swayed from vertigo. She leaned herself against a tree and breathed out heavily through her mouth. She looked around her and could see the mist dissipating ever so gradually as the sun began to rise. She looked up but the clouds were just a constant gray like they have been for the many days she’s been here.

She looked straight ahead, too tired to swipe away her curly red hair from her face, and her hooded light green eyes stared at the uncharted path that lay before her. She tried to think back to the days to when she wasn’t alone and hadn’t had her innocence ripped from her. She remembered staring transfixed at the red slab of meat that barely hung onto the crisp white bone that was still being devoured into twig snapping bi-.

“Stop it,” she croaked as she closed her eyes and shook her head from the memory but it only caused the headache she was forming to worsen.

“Need water,” she whispered and forced herself to not lean onto the tree any longer, “need help.” She took a step, her black rain boots sinking into the mud and she wrapped her narrow arms around herself. She shivered, her tank top and thin shorts not doing much to protect her from the morning cold. She trudged along through the green forest, walking, and feeling like a wayward zombie, her mind in a total coma induced haze.

“Ally.”

She stopped moving, her entire body frozen in an apprehensive fear as she slowly turned her head toward the crowded forest where the bark and greenery overlapped each other. She probably had just imagined the small child like voice, but she knew she couldn’t have. That voice was a sound all its own. She stared...and stared...and stared. A breeze swooshed past rustling the leaves and twigs and with it came a smell that put all her senses on hyper-drive and with a terrified gasp, she ran.
Her feet were bruised and throbbing but she didn’t care. She swiped at the twigs and leaves that seemed to be closing in on her, grabbing her worn clothes, almost as if they were conspirators with the thing itself. Everything seemed to grow darker as she went deeper into the thicket, the hairs on the back of her neck rising as goosebumps tickled her flesh.

She screamed as she tripped over a branch that seemed to have appeared from nowhere and landed face first into the mud. She quickly scrambled to her feet, clawing at the ground, her boots flinging up dirt as she could feel it getting closer with each panicked breath she took. She pushed herself forward and this time jumped over a fallen rotten tree that was in her way. There were tears now and she didn’t stop them as the dread of death stalked her, waiting for the time to strike.

The trees were getting larger and they loomed over her. The bushes and thorns destroyed any chances of getting passed them. She pushed her way through, ignoring the stings of cuts she obtained and was left with no other option but to get on her hands knees and crawl her way out. The mud was getting mushier and soon she was up to her thighs and elbows in it. Her labored breathing turned into full on sobs as she tried to force her way through, trying to get out of the darkness and into any opening she could find.

The mud was as black as tar, the environment beginning to take on the form of a dark swamp from a long-ago fairy tale that didn’t do happy endings, and soon the mud became just a watery mush that enveloped her until she was practically swimming in it, her chest tightening as she tried to keep her head above the suffocating substance.

“Eric!” She screamed even though in the back of her mind she knew he was miles away. Her brain conjuring up the only person she had always relied on in the past, but this time there was only her, the mountains, and the thing that tasted flesh.

She screamed again as it became harder to breathe, desperation and the need to take in more air pounding within the hypothalamus of her brain. She struggled in the mess until she spotted a leaning tree planted within the water, and went towards it. She reached up with a smothered hand to try to grab onto any of the thorny vines that weaved above her. Her nimble fingers wrapped around one of them, the small thorns pricking her skin, and she hauled herself up using her legs to push herself towards the tree. She released one of her hands so that it could wrap around the peeling bark and then leaned herself forward until her cheeks were rubbing against the rough decomposing skin.
She allowed herself a moment of rest and then she looked tiredly behind her to gauge how far she had gone, and her blood ran cold.

It stood in the water, the mud clinging to its tall form and concealing its heinous features. She could feel her entire body begin to shake with fear, the fact that she just urinated on herself not even registering in her mind.

“Ally.” It said in that same childlike voice and she wanted to move. She wanted to run, but all she could do was stare. Suddenly it lunged at her spraying her with mud, and she screamed and scrambled around the tree, thankfully landing on semisolid ground again. She ran with a limp, screaming until her voice turned hoarse.

She didn't know how long she had been moving, straining her muscles as she forced herself to continue, and she knew that if she stopped now than she would be done for.

She cried out when she could no longer run anymore and leaned against a tree. She looked around her and could see that the atmosphere had turned slightly brighter and bits of sunlight peeked through the canopy and heavy clouds. A low rumble sounded in the distance deep within the clouds and she sniffled as she looked back behind her, nothing tall or ominous watching her from in the distance, but she knew it was there. She knew it was only a matter of time before either it or she grew tired of this cat and mouse game.

She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and dug into her short pockets as she leaned away from the tree and started to walk again.

“Eric,” she whispered as she pulled out a battered cracked IPhone, the only possession she had, and a small balloon of hope inflated in her chest as the light, by some miracle, flicked on.

“Eric.”