I woke slowly, moaning in pain and shivering from the cold. I attempted to roll over but my hair was tangled in something and preventing me from moving. My shoulders shook in the effort of reaching above me to pull my hair free, and when my hands seized my hair I pulled them back in sudden alarm. Pain lanced through my palms and small pin pricks of blood bloomed all over my hands. I pushed my body off the ground enough to turn my head and get a blurry look at what had hold of my long hair. My hair was wound in what appeared to be a ball of thorns attached to a vine.
I tried to yank my hair free until m energy depleted and I could no longer move. I knew terrible things were inevitable. This creature stalked me, chased me for fun, and now has bound me in its lair. It is intelligent, strong, and clearly cruel. My head still throbbed from the headbutt, my body felt destroyed, and now it has me bound by my hair.
My eyes burned but no tears fell, so instead I laid on the freezing stone ground and whimpered to myself. I didn't bother to quite myself when the creature returned, only squeezing my eyes shut when it grabbed me and rolled me onto my back. I could hear and feel my hair tearing and coming free from my scalp, but I gave it no heed. The creature reached under my head and lifted it, i opened my eyes to see a small, crude bowl in its hand. It had squatted down over me, and was lifting the bowl to my lips. I was unable to turn my head in protest, but when the cool water hit my lips I was unable to stop myself from drinking. I took to large swallows before the creature suddenly moved away and placed the bowl next to me, slightly out of reach. I was severely dehydrated and it was so very apparent to me now. The creature took a few steps back and simply watched me. I kept flicking my eyes from the bowl to the creature. I desperately wanted the water, but I was still coherent enough to know what it was trying to do.
This was a form of physiological torture.
Regardless of everything that has happened, I still resolved to try my best until I died. I was not going to give now. It was clear this was a clever and intelligent monster who might of done this to another human before, and reality I didn't stand a chance, but I wasn't going to play into this things games and give it the satisfaction. I slid my arm under my head and closed my eyes. If I could sleep I would conserve energy and maybe it would give me the water sooner on its volition, not wanting its new play thing to die so quickly.
I fell into a sleep like state and stayed there for some time, opening my eyes and not seeing the creature around. The bowl of water was in the same place, and I managed to move my body in a way so I could slide the water to me with my foot. As soon as I had the bowl I drank it carefully, not wanting to spill a single drop. When I was done I pushed the bowl back to the same place it was and settled back down. Reaching up to slowly begin ripping strands of hair from the thorn ball. My shoulders burned with the effort and I cursed my vanity, my long hair made me prettier but practicality should always trump appearance. I heard something approaching so I feigned sleep, only to have the creature walk up to me and poke me hard in the rib cage. I lurched but otherwise stopped myself from lashing out. The creature presented me a handful of tiny eggs and berries, looking at me curiously and placing them next to my face. It moved and sat down next to me, its expression never changing. It was probably best to take what I could get and I quickly shoved the food into my mouth, berries and eggs all at once. The taste was awful, but I was forced to chew thoroughly as to not choke on the egg shells. I gagged several times, but forced myself to swallow the mixture of bitter berries and raw egg. The shells cut the inside of my mouth a bit and a few of the smaller pieces had wedged themselves in between my teeth, and I really hoped the berries weren't poisonous but I wasn't going to waste the opportunity. The creature sat up straighter and made a small huff, almost seeming satisfied before going and laying down a few meters from me.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and by the time the rain was upon us the creature was fast asleep, breathing loudly through its mouth. I had been ripping my hair free for some time and had regained a good deal of movement in because of it. My scalp stung and my entire body burned, but I was nearly free. I gave my head one final tug and felt it all come free. The creature must not be that smart if that's the best way it had to tie someone down. I looked at the ball of thorns and saw the disgusting clump of my hair and grimaced, knowing now wasn't the time to be concerned with this. The creature had rolled onto its side, but otherwise appeared to still be sleeping. I was careful when I rose, the food and water had helped a bit but I had taken a serious beating the last couple days and didn't want to risk waking it. I knew when it woke it would only be a matter of time before it found me, so I looked around for a weapon. A small pile of bones wasn't far from me, so I crept towards it, carefully sliding out a thin, jagged piece.
I turned towards the creature, and saw its eyes flash in the dark.
It was awake, and it was now or never.
It screamed and jumped to its feet, knuckles resting on the ground it slowly turned its head and pulled back its lips to reveal its shark like teeth. I screamed at it to come at me and it broke into a sprint, heading directly towards me. I readied my improvised weapon and waited until it was close, thrusting the bone at its abdomen when I saw its eyes roll back to reveal the white. The force knocked me to one side and the creature to the other. I jumped to my feet, hearing it let out a piercing scream. It flopped on the ground in a panic attempting to dislodge the bone I had jammed into its stomach, right below the rib cage. I took my chances and turned and ran, going down a small tunnel. Rain dripped down through holes worn into the ceiling, but I had enough light to see. I kept running, occasionally stopping to look through a hole and see where I was, but the screams of the creature echoing in the distance frightened me to much for me to get a good look. The path diverged and I paused, getting excited when I saw one had an bright source of light and a significant amount of water flooding the cave. I sprinted towards the light, occasionally tripping over the torrent of water flooding in. I burst from the cave and found myself standing in the middle of a thunderstorm surrounded by massive old trees. I fled blindly, running until I hit a river. My body was weak, but I thrummed with hope. I ran continued to move downstream. I had no guarantee the creature wasn't already following me, but the torrent of rain, and severe injury would likely slow it down, if not out right killing it. I knew if I just continued down river I would eventually find people, even if it took me days to do so.
I grasped this one hope, and it inspired me to push my battered body until the storm broke and into the night, |
