Redemption by Kaye Draper

tired of the pursuit.  He stopped and came back to himself enough to look
around at his surroundings.  It had grown much darker under the canopy of
trees, and the wind had picked up, making the branches sway overhead.  His leg
throbbed.  He realized, quite suddenly, that he had no idea what direction he
had come from or how long he’d been walking. 
    “Moron,” he
muttered to himself.  “Idiot.  Why did you wander off?” 
    He looked about
for some sign of his passage that would lead him back.  He found nothing. 
There was not a single footprint, or broken branch, or crushed fern.  All
directions looked the same- not that he could see much in the encroaching
darkness.  Soon it was so dark that he could see nothing, as if he were surrounded
by inky blackness.
    Isaac’s chest
hurt again, clenching and burning, but the sensation faded quickly this time. 
He noticed that the wind had stopped.  That was the first real sign.  The first
time fear finally made itself felt.  There was no wind.  There was no sound of
wind.  There was no feeling of the trees, or of other things residing in the
darkness with him- in fact, there was no feeling at all.
    ~~~~~
    Rebecca tossed a
few more berries into the basket she had made of her shirt.  She straightened
and glanced behind her.  The sky was growing darker, and the deviation in the
weather worried her.  A bend in the path blocked her view of the boulder where
Isaac was sitting.  Tension quickened her steps as she headed back the way she
had come.  She didn’t like being out of sight of Isaac.  He was struggling. 
She knew he was trying to hide it, but she could see the pain in his eyes and
the weariness in his movements.  Something twisted inside her and she realized
that she actually enjoyed having someone to worry about.
    She rounded the
bend and halted, staring at the empty boulder.  He wasn’t there.  Her eyes
searched the path, but he was nowhere to be seen.  There was a faint rustling
in the trees and a dark, hooded form stepped onto the path.  Rebecca fisted her
hand in the hem of her shirt to keep from dropping the berries.  She was so not
in the mood to deal with death.
    However, the
figure wavered, going see-through for a moment.  He solidified and held out a
skeletal hand toward Rebecca.  Then he vanished.
    Rebecca stood in
the middle of the path, tense and on guard, waiting.  The seconds ticked by and
there was no further sign of the reaper’s presence.  She slowly spun, scanning
the forest at the edges of the path.  She was afraid to leave the road, but
that must be where Isaac had gone.  She wondered what had called death away
from tormenting her.  Her chest clenched.  She had no clue which direction to
take, but all of the sudden she felt like she should hurry.
    “Isaac,” she
called.  “Come on, this isn’t funny!”  There was no reply.
    When she turned
back to the boulder where she had last seen him, she met the mismatched eyes of
the black cat.  It sat on its haunches for a moment, tilting its head as it
studied her. 
    Rebecca worried
her bottom lip with her teeth.  “Uh… you don’t by any chance know where Isaac
is, do you?”
    The cat stood
and stretched.  Then it hopped off the rock and headed to the left of where she
was standing, toward a tiny trail that Rebecca swore hadn’t been there a moment
ago.  She hastily dropped her pile of fruit by the rock and followed the cat
into the woods.
    “What kind of
creature are you anyway?” she asked the cat as she followed its question mark
tail further into the forest. 
    The little beast
cast a glance over its shoulder and kept on trotting.  Rebecca followed.  The
forest became darker as they went, the huge, old trees blocking out the light
of the cloudy afternoon.  Deep green moss and lichen covered everything, like
something from a fairytale. 
    There was an
ominous rumble in the distance and the air smelled of rain.  The cat’s steps
sped up and Rebecca