A Mystery

"Ahhhh!!"

A shrill voice rebounded from the middle of the deep forest, influencing all the birds relaxing in their nests to take an abrupt flight to somewhere far in the sky as a consequence of the huge fright brought to them.

The noise of the berserk foot stomping of the wild animals as they ran to save themselves possibly from some hunter, became equally evident as that hair-raising shrill!

Amidst all this chaos, a tear-stricken face of a young woman was embellished with a nerve-racking terror when she found the same man leisurely leaning by the tree from whom she was running away.

The girl broke out in cold sweat and staggered back on her bare-injured feet as she looked at the face of the same man who had been the reason of her nightmares for months!

The same man who had kept her locked in that huge mansion at the top of the mountain since days! The same man who had been the reason behind several horrible scars on her body and unfortunately, the same man...for whom she had once fallen for blindly!

Only...only if she had listened to her friend! A lump formed in her throat when her thoughts wandered to something else.

H-how could he be here?? She had made sure that he was deep in sleep and completely knocked out before freeing herself from those huge chains!

She went ahead with her plans to escape that dungeon only after taking all the extra precautions to prevent him from catching her even if he found out about her having escaped.

"Surprise, my kitten!" his voice designed the crack on her dazed wall which steadily shattered her bits and pieces of hope.

Again in front of him, all of her preventions failed!

An unbelievable cry filled with fear broke through her throat when she realised that he was really there and that too...to take her back!

Her sweaty face that had strands of her fizzy hair glued to it shook in constant denial while her lips unconsciously started muttering, "No, no-please dont!! Dont bring me back to that hell-like place!! Please dont!"

She desperately advanced her hopeless eyes around her to find anything. Anything that could protect her from this man! Any way from where she could escape!!! Just anything!

But around her was just forest, deep forest. Since they were on a downward path, there was only one way to safely reach the city without getting lost for someone like her who knew nothing about the way through between the trees. And on that road was this monster standing!

His lips which resembled the colour of blood went up to form an arc seeing his petty little prey all distraught. Those were the lips of that same man that never missed a single chance to erupt fluttering feelings in her stomach.

But now, those same lips made her insides feel sick and vomit.

Even the tips of her toes shivered under the sinful smile of the man. Instead of soothing her wildered heartbeats like they once used to do, his smile only intensified the grim aspect of the truth behind this man that was sickly horrible!

Her white dress was torn from her shoulder, her hair appeared as if they were not combed in days, and her body looked nothing like her usual self; all in all she looked completely different from the girl that was known to be the university's campus belle.

Yet...yet her face shone more under the dim light of the old streetlight.

Yet something about her eyes that sparkled like a deep sea attracted him. Yet her body that had a lot of black patches came out more appealing to him than her usual brightened even skin tone!

Everything about her current state was more than enough to make anybody feel empathy for her except for this man. Especially...when a serial killer was hiding behind his facade!

"Tsk tsk, now...where will you run my kitten?" The winter's night was as dark as it could get without the presence of the moon up there in the sky to lighten it and having a single streetlight, which was in lamentable shape and could go off anytime as a company.

Still his voice reflected into her ears darker than the night and gave her vibes chillier than the wind itself. Just with this sentence, the girl looked as if all of the strength was seized through her body.

Simply the thought of the blunder of things that happened with her in that hell made her blood run cold. She wanted to break away from this fear that was nothing but a suffocation that she had been breathing in for the past week.

She lifted her trembling hands to wipe away the tears that had blurred her vision. Those huge chains bound to her wrists and ankles made sure to leave a stinging pain behind that flared up every single time the icy wind blew by her.

At the same time, the streetlight behind her that had been flickering for quite a time now started producing buzzing sounds causing a pathetic chuckle to almost escape her lips. Was the streetlight afraid too?

Right when that man extended his hand to hold her arm, the light behind her went off and everything became pitch dark.

After a moment of shock, she realised that it was her only chance, so she bent down and got a fist of small rocks in her hand. In fear that the girl would run away, he tried to held her when she brought her hands to touch his face and after sensing his eyes, she threw those into his eyes.

The result was a piercing yell.

Without knowing whether she was successful at her attempt, the distressed lady pushed him to side and ran as fast as she could.

Since it had rained in the evening, the road to the city was very slippery. Running downhill with no slippers, several tiny things pricked her an already injured and sore foot and with every step, she felt that same pain moving up her legs causing her brain to feel dizzy and cloudy.

She was tired. Very tired now! Her body was giving up...

"I-I guess just a bit more. It can't be that my death would occur in such a manner..." her soft whimper radiated in the silent mountain hill that blew away along the chilly wind.

She had not been through even a few metres when she heard the sound of hurried footsteps and heavy breaths behind her. The alarming sound fuelled up her body that was on the verge of collapsing, leading her to run as fast as she could have.

Just a few more minutes! Just some more...

As she repeated this line like a mantra on her head and forced her dizzy mind to stay active, she heard a sound. Right when she was on the verge of dying, that sound fell on her ears like a blessing. It was the sound of water! There was water somewhere!!

But at the next moment, the same person sent out a soul-piercing shrill as her foot slipped and her body ended up rolling down the slanted hill.