The Girl: Chapter One
She was perfect. The way her arms curled and stretched so elegantly against the breeze, how her feet gently kissed the grass as they moved with one another in perfect unison. The woman’s face was glowing as she danced through the meadow, completely content.
…
I felt the grass scratch against my skin as the blades dug into the backs of my legs. My eyes opened only to be blinded by the sun as it sat directly above me. Why am I outside? I rubbed my face a little too aggressively, trying to remember what happened before this but my mind was blank.
I was wearing black shorts, a dark green tee-shirt, and runners that looked very worn. My fingers combed through the long, dark hair that fell against my chest. My hands moved up towards my face, exploring my features while I struggled to picture what I looked like.
It was at that moment that I heard the rushing of water and realized the deep burn in my throat. I stood up and ran towards the water. My feet moved quicker than I thought they were capable of, yet the seconds dragged as my throat became increasingly raw. When I finally reached the stream I threw my whole body into it and welcomed the cool rush against my sticky skin.
As I gulped down more water than my body could handle, I caught a glimpse of a young woman. In the reflection of the water, I could see eyes – my eyes – wide and alert, the colour matching that of the stream. Then, a vision of a woman flashed into my mind with eyes not unlike the ones reflected in the stream. The image disappeared as quickly as it came and I was back to seeing my own eyes, dull in comparison and moving in waves with the water.
The reflection made my face look quite pale compared to my sun kissed legs. The rest of my features were just blurred shapes resembling a nose, a pair of lips, cheeks, and a chin. This little bit of information made the sick feeling in my stomach a tad more bearable.
I got out of the water and sat on the grass. I decided that, until I found more people, I had to figure things out on my own. That meant food and shelter. For shelter, I figured that a tree would suffice until I found a more permanent solution, ideally a bed in a house, but that seemed a little far off at the moment.
I then started to list the animals that could be around here and split them into two columns: dangerous and dinner. Not knowing where I was made the animals harder to list and therefore, more difficult to anticipate. I figured that with all the trees, there must be some sort of tree animal I could eat. Fish could also be an option, but my stomach curled at the thought of that.
I stood up to start hunting down my next meal, when I heard a light thud behind me. I looked around and noticed a pocket knife lying on the ground. It must have been in my pocket this whole time. I bent down to pick it up, and examined the light gray shell surrounding the knife. Dark powder dotted the handle, dirt I assumed. When I very carefully pulled the blade out from its cover, I discovered it wasn’t dirt at all, but dried blood. There was so much of it that it looked like the knife was completely rusted from handle to tip.