The Promise

Running, I am running for my life.Trying to avoid that pungent smell of nature’s wrath as it had once eaten the flesh of a human. I am running through a forest to avoid my future. I am crying, crying because my actions last christmas, were unforgivable. I know my death is near so I want to take in the beauty of my surroundings. I stood there, only for an instant, listening to the whispers of old pine trees as they cry for me to. As I am running through the forest, my christmas gown gets caught on a tree. Hastily, I begin to tug at the dress, in doing so; a thorn on the side of a branch cuts deep into my skin, running through my left arm, cutting it open. Pulling the gown free, I tear a piece of it and use it to wrap my dress. Looking down at my dress, it seems as if a painter has artistically thrown splotches of red paint on a white canvas, letting drops of paint fall into the others creating the image of a distorted rainfall. Out of my mouth came an utterance so loud it even frightened the birds. The pain of the cut surged through my body leaving my left arm paralyzed.

The snow began to fall, coming so fast that I am blind to the trees in front of me. I squint my eyes to find the nearest shelter to hide in. Running forward, I began to see a light. I think shelter, warmth from this cold nightmare, food, clothes. Coming into view is a house, a burning house. The suddenly stops and there is silence as I watch in horror what was playing before me.

I see myself running out of the house, sobbing, and yelling his name,” Joshua, JOSHUA!!”. I then turn away from the house realizing that he would die there. Without warning a glass window from the top floor breaks open. “Caroline, CAROLINE!!” I hear a voice from the inside calling my name.

“Save me, PLEASE!”

“I CAN’T”, I say screaming and sobbing, “I can’t do it,” I whisper.

Out of nowhere I see his arms and hands frantically reach for the broken windows ledge. I feel myself begin to have hope. Maybe he can save himself? Maybe he will live! When pulling himself up I saw his face. The once beautiful brown skin he had, was charring to a crisp. The skin is burning off his hands, to where I can see the whites of his bones. I turn away from the house once more, out of disgust. He then shouts a phrase that invokes my feelings, releasing the final wave of emotions I had left.

“WHAT ABOUT THE PROMISE YOU MADE TO ME?”

“I’m so sorry “ I say in a soft whisper as I walk away from the house.

I hear screams, a thud, then silence, as the fire eats away at the house, I knew he was dead.

Instantly, the vision of me disappears, and the snowstorm resumes. I keep hearing Joshua’s last words, whispering in my ear, getting louder and louder and louder. The toxic voices began to fill my head, creating a pounding more deafening than a construction worker fixing a water main break at the dead of night. Then I begin to run, clutching my left arm, since the pain still lingers while running away. I smell it. I smell the burning because I know he is there. When I run I trip over a fallen tree and fall onto the snow laden floor. My eyes close and when they open, he is there, standing in front of me. His skin all charred black and his once royal blue suit, now a burnt piece of cloth. I could still hear the faint sound of his skin sizzling from the burns. He runs up to me, so close that I could feel his body, as he whispers in my ear, ”What about the promise?”

My eyes open once again to a bright white light and the faint words of a woman saying,”She’s awake!! Come, Come!”

“Wh-Where am I?” I say in a raspy voice.

“The hospital, sweetie” a lady in all white says, “You were in a coma for two years.

What day do you think it is?”

“December 25, 2011?” I respond

“No honey, it’s December 31, 2013. You were found in a burning house looking for a lost doll, saying you didn’t want to break your promise.”

-End