The sun rose revealing an overcast sky where the ashtray clouds created shadows. Briskly, they walked through the hollowed mist and felt the cold October breeze brush across their dainty faces. In the core of a dense, lifeless forest, they traced their steps searching through the still but never-ending boulevards. The silence echoed through the germinating branches that sheltered their golden hair. Their opaque shadows stalked their every step. Fear choked them as the darkness began to travel nearer.

The thick, tall trees became frosted with feather-like snow hosting a gather of bronze daffodils which lay by their feet and, as the mist hung heavily around their bodies, they hurried. Innocent faces: pale, pink petal-like cheeks that shimmered in the light, eyes of forest green contrasting the beautiful blue sky that grew ever so close, mind and heart so gentle that they knew of nothing but innocence and purity. They stopped. Sitting down in the centre of the path, they gazed briefly at each other.

There was no way of telling which direction they were going, or which way the ghastly wind was blowing. It was snowing. Or was it raining? Their smiles seemed to cease. What happened next was a bitter dream moving slightly in the soft breeze that was playing through the dimly lit forest. One was missing. All that was left were her red shoes which reflected the pain she went through and her red jacket: ripped, torn and chewed to a million pieces with traces of blood around the collar.

I don't know why I didn't wake. She was blinded and alone, I wished that I could have found a way but now I'm standing here, in her bloodshed and my heart is drowning in my own guilt. Quickly, I picked up the pieces from the ground and began to walk aimlessly, looking for her.

I heard a scream in the distance. I listened. I followed. I prayed it was her. Drops of blood painted the bronze daffodils brick red. The screams drew me in and I could sense my legs falling to the ground. Everything looked the same: the trees, the ground, my position. Nothing seemed to change; my breath was being stolen away into the deep and I couldn't carry on any longer. I could feel myself choking but I had to carry on. I knew neither where I was going nor what I was doing, all I knew was I had to keep on running. Towards the sound. Toward the screams. Towards Emily.

The screams turned to wails of pain and torture. I managed to follow that dreadful sound and, emerging around the corner, there was a sight that was to be sketched into my mind forever. Emily, with a body full of bruises and eyes full of hate. A long, thin figure crowded on top of her and starred back at her with angry eyes of a hateful soul. The slender fingers of the damp, cold forest seized the air around them and captured the moment. Emily turned her eyes to face me. They were blank. No sense of life. No sense of reality.

The red tears placidly fell from her flesh. The liquid diamonds that my eyes painfully shed gathered across my face and blurred my vision. I wanted to look away but I couldn't. Her face drew me in. The love in me was to suddenly fade as I walked away from Emily and, with death chained to her feet, I could hear her silent whispers; whispers of memories that the night carried away allowing them to echo through my heart. I turned to look. I felt her excruciating pain. It licked its fangs and left Emily there: dead, on the winter plains.

A sorry serenade was to be heard from high up in the powerful trees where nightingales and song birds sang her to heaven. I walked back into the darkness with Emily lifeless in my arms. I closed my eyes for one last time and tried to lie to myself that nothing had happened. But it had. I was the only one to witness it and this time, this place, would never pass my lips again.

Time stood still around me. Lies and hollow openings lay before me and, without knowing where to go or what to do, I dropped down; dropped down on my knees and shed liquid diamonds that splashed across Emily's wounds. Something was terribly wrong; I could feel it. Something was watching us, someone was spying on us. I twisted and turned, studying my own movements. It couldn't be true. I didn't want to believe it! I shook her, I yelled her name and I even dared to kiss her. Her lips were cold.

Tears gathered up in my eyes, falling like the October snow on her blood stricken face. For hours I sobbed, holding her, stroking her hair, all the while praying that she'd wake up, that I'd hear her laughter one last time, that I would smell her innocence, her purity, her allure. I wasted no time in pursuing. Hastily descending the forest paths where only the insane have strength enough to prosper. I hated to think I was insane but knew I was.

"Take my last breath and say goodbye. I'm leaving and I won't come back, not this time, I'm sorry, but not this time." I whispered softly into her chest hoping it would reach her heart and wake her up but nothing seemed to work. The cold touched my face and the wind began to terrify me. It seemed to erase my memories but held up my lies. There's a moment of truth in my lies.

***
In my arms I hold her corpse close to my heart; watch her finish being torn apart. I have all the rage inside me, I dreamt I was dead and no-one would listen and now I'm alive and no-one still listens, I long for Emily. Hungrily, I scavenge through the dead forest; my steps are covered in snow and now I am truly lost.