Prologue - Lost (.004)

The heel that was once secured on her foot was now dangling along against the back of Ellyn's ankle. Her non leveled walking didn't bother to help her injured leg. Each limp proved to be ten times as more painful than the previous one. If her leg wasn't enough to worry about, her lungs throbbed each time she breathed in the frigid air. There were moments where she wouldn't bother to breathe just so she could avoid the hell that awaited her. Blood still lingered in the corners of her mouth, yet there was no raw ache. Her face had almost grown immune to this kind of abuse, but the gash burned relentlessly due to the salty rain water seeping inside. The bottom of her foot sank deeply into the soggy wet earth, causing her to nearly fall. Crickets and earthworms crawled through the blonde's toes, frantically trying to escape the vicious down pour. Ellyn had already given up on trying to upkeep her makeup. The eyeliner around her eyes had taken the place of the fallen rain drops, and the few tears she managed to let escaped from the corners of her eyes. Now, black drops of liquid carelessly fell down her cheeks and onto her shirt, which too, was shot to hell. Every inch of her body was frozen. Walking in the forest, alone, in the rain, during the month of November would be on the list of things only a fool would do.

From what she could see, there was no evidence of solid ground or any livable shelter. The adrenaline pulsating through every vein in her body had hidden the fact that she ran into the harsh rain and freezing cold weather after just throwing herself from a moving car. There was no exact destination. There never was. Anything other than being in the presence of him was heaven at its most essential form. Death would be the only consequence if he found her. And as far as she was concerned, she wasn't about to die. He wasn't about to take the last and only thing she had left.

Walking blindly ended up making her escape from the dark shadows of the unforgiving forest a failure. The deeper she sunk into the trees; the chances of her evasion from the darkness grew even slimmer. She had come to a point where she couldn't tell the difference between darkness of her eyelids and the blackness of her surroundings. There were no specific signs alarming her to take a special route that would lead her back to civilization. Branches and leaves crumbling under her bare foot caused Ellyn to jump on numerous occasions. Suddenly, the sound of wings slicing through the blackness was no more than a foot from her face. That was the final straw that broke the camel's back. Ignoring the pain in her leg, she broke off into a stride. Unexpectedly, the sounds of wildlife grew louder in her ears to the point that she thought that losing her mind was the next stage.

Her feet finally stopped moving. Within the distance, she could see light. Not manmade. Natural and real. The moon. Ellyn debated with her subconscious mind and finally walked closer to the light. The blonde woman gasped at the impeccable beauty of the moon's reflection in a shallow pond. Adjacent to the pond was a small cottage.

Telling the difference between whether the random cottage that sat in the middle of the forest was real or if overwhelming delusion had consumed the remainder of her good sense was not an easy task. Walking closer, Ellyn began to understand that she was nowhere near losing her mind. The house was in fact real. Empty and lifeless. New house. New life. She could start over. At twenty-nine, she didn't have much of a choice. For the first time in years, Ellyn's heart pounded for something other than fear. Sanity.


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