The dew drops on the numerous blades of green grass glinted in the golden sunlight. The clouds that lingered in the sky for a long time finally cleared out. Nothing seemed out of the norm; the new day was supposed to be just another new beginning.
In a little wooden house on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, a woman in her mid-twenties, safely enveloped in her new crisp white bed sheets, grunted and turned to her side, away from the sunlight that had started creeping across her face. She felt around for her newly-wed husband, only to be disappointed by the endless mounds of blankets. She opened her eyes and sluggishly sat up. Putting on her robe, she walked into the kitchen. It was only 6:14 a.m. They had already been living together for a few weeks; never had her husband woken up before eight.
"Finn?" she called out as she searched the house for him. "Finn, where are you, sweetheart?" The house was as uninhabited as the center of the Sahara Desert.
The fresh breeze caressed the woman's face as she stepped out into the yard. Finn was nowhere to be seen. As the woman decides to return to the house to give her husband a call, she notices the empty space normally housing Finn's hiking boots. She turned around and scanned the yard. "Where could he have went?"
Her heart stopped.
There, in the midst of the tall green grass, was a fragment of blue. At first, the woman thought she was imagining things, and though unsure, she walked towards the blue. Having made certain it wasn't the sunlight playing tricks on her eyes, she picked up her pace and ran towards it. Heart racing, she took it in her hands.
That blue. She would recognize it anywhere. It belonged to Finn's favorite pair of jeans. How did a piece of it get ripped off? She was certain that as long as Finn was breathing, he would let no harm come to those jeans. How on earth did a fragment of it end up in the grass?
She looked up, and saw a small opening in the wall of trees that spread across the area, from West to East, right behind the house. She couldn't help but notice the broken twigs on the ground, and indents in the soil that looked like footprints. With only the thought of seeing her husband again on her mind, she intrepidly took a few steps into the woods.
The air was cold and dank. Apart from the woman's short, shuddering breaths, the forest was filled with all kinds of peculiar noises: the screeching of the wind, the sudden rustle of a bush, the eerie hoots and croaks ... A few more steps into the woods, the woman became smothered by darkness. No light passed through the thick canopy. She turned around and saw the beacon of light from which she came. Despite her yearning for comfort, she turned back with the knowledge that her heart could not be at rest until she found her husband.
Proceeding cautiously, the woman continued her search. "Beep beep!" The woman jumped as the sound came from her wrist watch. It was 7 o'clock. "Oh, Finn, where could you be?" She felt as if the forest had amplified her heartbeat tenfold; it throbbed in her head.
She spun around, dubious of where she was or where she was going. Then, she noticed. On the tree to her right, were jagged scratch marks on the bark, with thin traces of blood. She staggered backward, uncertain of what to think.
"Mmmmmm! Mmmmmm!" The muffled screams of a man came from in front of her. She held her breath like an animal detecting prey. Having identified where the sound came from, she sped towards it, ignoring the branches that whipped her face and bare arms, leaving behind streaks of red.
"Finn!" she yelled out at the top of her lungs. She did not realize that the muffled screams had stopped.
And there he was, hanging from a tree. His clothes were ripped, and he was covered in dried blood. Helpless, she watched as he took his last breath.
The woman collapsed on her knees and let out a blood-curdling scream. She could not control the tears that flowed from her eyes like a river.
Not long after, the world went dark.
In a little wooden house on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, a woman in her mid-twenties, safely enveloped in her new crisp white bed sheets, grunted and turned to her side. She had just had a terrible dream. She still felt the sharp pain all across her face and arms. She felt around for her newly-wed husband, and found comfort in putting her arm around his warm, strong body, resting her cheek against his breathing back - until the pain came, sharper than ever.
It was at that moment that she realized the stinging was not just remnants of her bad dream. She sat up and saw the network of wounds all over her arms. Her mind became flooded with the image of her husband hanging from a tree. She had actually watched him die.
Then who was that man in her bed?
She lifted the sheets, revealing a sleeping face that bore no resemblance to the strong-jawed, blue-eyed, blond-haired man that she had married two months ago.
~2015