Game

The game was man hunt and that's what it became. Blood stained oaks and tiny limbs shredded and abandoned under clutters of autumn blades. The harvest pallet matching the scene perfectly, golden maple sun over blood red infamy- brown trees and crisp green foliage.

'One, Two' - she screamed from the door, her voice an echo of generations before her, her eyes screwed so tightly no one could ever brand her a cheater.

'Three, Four' we all began to scatter, a late start due to our heightened excitement. Turning our backs to her booming shouts, they faded as we faded from the protective sight of the dithering adults. We became spirits, punctured by sun. Shadows cast longer and longer with every hurried step until we were celestial figures stretching to the climate.

'Five, Six' to the woods we flew, off in different directions - a solitary path laden before us, never to be tread back. I tip-toed away from her travelling holler and stalked further into the darkness of the woodland. The calm pressing down on me like pressure from an advancing ocean, so far I trod into it that it became me, imbued itself intertwined within me.

'Seven, Eight' giggles and murmurs lost amongst the timbers, their jealous leaves snatching our childish ambiance and crushing it into silent apprehension. I heard the padding of approaching feet and offered a harsh 'Shh' to the direction of my fellow. But no warning was headed. No whisper returned. The blue ghost of a moon shone above the struggle that ensued, breaking through the azure sky - an ominous prediction of the lunar glare yet to follow. A shy wave to the day, to bid it goodbye.

'Nine, Ten' A gleam of teeth and a splash of red, a hiding place is made vacant once more. 'Ready or not here I come.'

And she wandered towards the places where we once stood, so silent and serene and buzzed with vitality, awaiting our predator with gleeful innocence not morbid fear, the way we would have perceived it had we known. The dull thud of approaching paws growing louder and louder as we sat behind bark and crouched under bushes. A perfect mask of purity veiling the carnage occurring in the hush. The girl wandered through the silent woods, fleeing after every snap of a twig, her melodic twitter chasing the sinister sound. She traipsed around the  thicket for over an hour, her excitement fading into dread which stuck to her like the cobwebs she'd been collecting along her journey. They grew thicker around her and with every sweep they clung harder. She tripped and fell and the further she ventured the darker the skies became, the harsher the winds, the louder her heart beat in her own tightened chest. It was only as her eyes fell on my ravaged carcass that she gave up looking. The game was over.