They Hunted Her

Cold bites with mean blue teeth, and it bit her now. Cheeks and nose tip raw, and the rest of her fairly frozen to match, all the way down to her bones.

Stumbling through the drifts in the silver twilight, she tried to power forward on the strength of will alone, with the baying of dogs behind her.

Every breath raked her nose and mouth. Each step under protest by muscles that had enjoyed too little nourishment these many months.

She'd have sobbed in a panic, but that would have wasted energy. Eyes wide and teeth gritted, she pushed on. The baying sounded closer. Her muscles screamed as if in answer, and she ignored them, except to try forcing them to move faster.

If she could make it to the forest, she could climb a tree... If she could make it to the river she might be able to make them lose her trail... If she made it to to the edge of the village she could hide in a barn.... If she made it. If she made it.

Her whole life distilled down to a frozen handful of terrified minutes. Whatever she had left. There was nothing visible beyond that. Everything was now. The universe full, edge to end and back again, with nothing but fright, and cold, and death nip nip nipping so close at her heels.

A thought crept up and squeezed in where there was barely any room not taken up with sheer survival, and it was this: At some point she was going to have to stop running, and turn and face them.

The idea would have turned her gut to a puddle, except there was no time to dwell on it. Only to run, and gasp for another sharp breath, and run some more. No luxury to ponder over the reason this thought arrived; that the forest, and the river, and the barn were all beyond her reach.

They were definitely closer, if she wasted precious seconds and energy looking over her shoulder she'd surely see them, loping over the white with their eyes and teeth flashing.

Was that hot breath on the back of her legs?

Down she went.

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Word count: (excluding note): 366

Submitted on: 24th April at 22:29

*Quick Author's Note*

First, and most importantly: thank you for reading!

A Year of Stories: I'm writing a story every day this year. This one makes an 115 day streak since the 1st January. I can't believe I've come this far! I'm collating them all here.

Prompts: If you'd like to have a go at my unofficial April Challenge (Fucked Up Fairytales) I've linked it at the bottom. there's just seven days left of it!

If you'd like some more prompts to get your creative juices flowing, I've linked to a list of prompts for April.

Thank you

Thank you again! Especially if you are one of the people who has been staunchly reading these daily scribbles since the start of the year. I see you, and appreciate you 😁

I do my best to reciprocate as many reads as possible. If you leave me a comment, that makes it much easier. I'm behind at the moment, but I will catch up!