11/29/24
Chapter Three
April woke up just as the early morning light was streaming through the trees. She tied her hair back and wiped the sleep out of her eyes, taking stock of her surroundings. She heard the birds singing and animals moving around in the trees, something she has never experienced before.
Ben was a great teacher and taught her all about the animals of the world, explaining them in great detail. She remembered once, he brought extra crayons for her to use, and they drew their favorite animals together, his being a dog. Aprils would have to be anything that came from the ocean. She made Ben explain the concept of oceans and lakes so many times. Sometimes, she just could not wrap her mind around the concept of being able to breathe underwater. She drew dolphins that day, jumping freely out of the water, gracefully soaring through the air before diving back down under the water's surface. Now that she escaped, she promises herself that she will make it to the ocean.
April watched as the squirrels were jumping from branch to branch, chittering along. The birds were singing beautiful songs of their freedom, high in the treetops. I'm free now, just like them, she thought. Memories of everything that happened the day before flashed through her head. Magic, fire, and a wolfman? How could that have happened? It just is not possible.
April stood and knocked all the debris of her nightgown. Looking down at her hands she thought, Did I do that to Travis? His hand crumpled like a piece of paper. There was so much blood. I know I wanted revenge on him but how is this possible? Do I really have magic? Can I hurt people by looking at them? So many questions swirled around in her head.
She heard a rustle in the underbrush nearby. I have to get somewhere safe. They could be hunting me down right now. April nervously glanced back from the way she came. Putting one foot in front of the other she walked deeper into the unfamiliar woods.
After what seemed to be hours, it was as if she was walking on auto pilot. April kept going over the events from yesterday in her mind. Convinced she was still in that dark bunker, and it was all a dream.
The sound of twigs and rustling of leaves brought her out of her thoughts. She glanced over at a particularly dense section of trees. April desperately hoped it was a rabbit. She saw a picture of one once during one of her lessons, and she thought they looked so soft and cuddly. The tall grass shuffled, and a small squirrel popped out.
“Awe, you’re so cute!” April walked slowly towards the fluffy brown squirrel, careful not to scare it away. It had something in its tiny paws that it was nibbling on. April crouched lower in awe; she had never seen something so adorable before in her life. All she wanted to do was touch it. She reached out to stroke its fur when it dropped the nut it had and ran up a nearby tree.
April watched in longing as it scurried away. All of the sudden, the tall bushes near her burst open. She fell back, landing hard on her butt, as a 10-foot-tall bear, standing on its hind legs emerged from the dark forest. April was frozen in fear, as she had never seen a bear in person before. It was unlike the cute cuddly bears in the book she read about Goldilocks. Its thick black fur was slick with a dark red substance, the 4-inch-long fangs dripped with red slime as it roared, deafening April as she scrambled to her feet.
The terrifying bear seemed to be bursting out of its skin, its muscles rippled as it lumbered closer to April. Its black eyes seemed to be slightly luminous as they never left April. She noticed it had a massive gash in its side, exposing bright white ribs, it must’ve been in a recent fight and won.
April managed to turn around and run through the dense underbrush. The effort of running as fast as she can, caused her recently burned calf to flare up. She could hear the bear chasing after her. She tried jumping over a log when her foot snagged on a branch sticking out. She falls face first into the leaf-littered, opening the burn wound on her calf. She scrambled to get back up when the massive bear jumped over the log, landing a couple feet in front of her. She pushed herself up against the log. At least Vince won’t be the one to take my life. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the searing pain of the bear killing her. Her long tragic life will finally come to an end and not at the hands of who she thought. She thought of the fluffy squirrel and how she wished she could’ve just touched its silky fur once.
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