The Abyss

Under the cold skies of July winter, on a dense pine forest, a young girl in violet coat walked alone, tied on the back of her head were a polka dot ribbon. She carried with her a satchel bag, and an assault rifle that was obviously too big for her size, slinged on to her body.

She lurked among the trees, carefully choosing her steps as not to make noise, for noises would alert the prey to her presence. On the other side, a deer with its fawn is grazing what little grass available, a perfect prey.

She regulated her breath, emitting a cold vapour with each breath. After a moment of wait, she deemed it the right time to take the shot, she raised the four kilograms rifle up and take aim in a prone position, her chin could feel the freezing cold buttock of the rifle.

She lined up her eyes with the iron sight of the rifle so that the deer’s head lies right at the thin iron crosshair, she took a deep breath, held it, and pulled the trigger.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!

She shot thrice, with the recoil of the rifle crashing against her small shoulder harshly each time. Consecutive loud bangs accompanied by a bright flash brought the deer down, the fawn immediately flee into the woods.

“hit…”

She whispered as she stood up, and slowly walked to the now dead deer

She stared at her prize, two hits on the head, one of them missed apparently, probably the last one as the recoil most likely foiled her accuracy.

The deer’s head was tilted up above, it’s eyes seemingly looked at her. The cold, lifeless eyes resembles an accusing look, taunting her. Its head was lolling and unwaveringly. The moist black nose pointed to her direction; the eyes pierced through her very soul. She could feel something sizzling against the other side of her lips.

She wiped off the smudge from her lips and stared back indifferently.

“Am not…sorry.” She breathed as she pick up the head and moved away.

Her eyes were downcast for the rest of the time

Opening her satchel, she grabbed a rope and hung it around the deer’s body so that she could transport it more easily.

It took her a while and when she’s done, she dragged it along. Whilst doing that, she spotted the fawn on the woods, staring at its parent's lifeless body. It was that typical animal look. A wide eyed, hard to read expression. It looked as if its heart’s stood still for a moment.

And as she was dragging the deer, the fawn, on instinct, seemed to make a turn and started running towards the back of the woods. Running away from the terror that has killed its parents. She felt pity on it, but continued dragging it along, her mind drifted back to her lost parent, for a moment she couldn’t recall her mother’s face but somewhere in her mind, there’s an image of her mother.

“I miss you…Mother.” She breathed softly.

Suddenly, she heard a yelp

She looked back, the fawn is now lost, hiding in the dense trees. She turned back again, but didn’t see it. Her heart thumped against her chest for a brief moment, and a little pain shot up through her belly

She dropped the rope and raised her rifle. Faint sibilant noises could be heard coming from the fawn’s last direction. It sounds like a rabid beast gnawing on its feast.

Wolves, most likely, and they were probably attracted by the echoing sound of her rifle. She abandoned the deer she was dragging, and slowly walked back several paces to get away. But alas, her feet touched a branch and made a loud cracking sound. Attracting the wolf’s attention.

As it emerged from the trees, she frantically started shooting at it with both eyes open wide. The first two shots hit its head. The wolf fell down on the ground, unmoving. But it is clear that more are coming.

She breathes hard, and started to run. She run aimlessly ahead, dodging any obstacles on her path, her rifle and her satchel bag shook violently on her shoulder, until eventually, she stopped.

What lies beyond her crushed her hope. It was a large, deep abyss.

A dead end for her.

“No… no! no!”

She could hear the growl of the wolves chasing her down, on the split second that followed, she decided to take cover near a fallen tree, and stood her ground, she readied her rifle.

When she sighted the first movement among the woods, she opened fire without hesitation, killing not only one, but three wolves as they tried to rush her.

The recoil of the rifle gradually overwhelms her as her shooting pattern becomes more and more erratic. Two of the wolves had flanked her on both sides. she killed the one on the right. But before she could swing her rifle the other way around. she felt the wind whistling past her. She opened her eyes to see the wolf coming straight for her.

The wolf growled, and jumped on her back. Sinking its claws deep into her shoulders, and holding her tight. it pressed its hot, rough breath onto her arm, forcing a strong panic attack on her. Her reflexes dictates that she fired a shot and she did. At point blank range, it killed the wolf, but as it had already jumped, it crashed onto her.

“Aaah!”

Her small, frail body was pushed back. A major problem, as her improvised entrenched position is no more than two meters away from the edge of the abyss. When the wolf struck at her with full momentum, She was pushed several step back, eventually causing her to lost her footing to the ground. She slipped, and fell towards the dark, endless abyss.

“No! No! This can’t be happening, I cannot die! God please! I don’t want to die!”

As she was falling down the abyss with the dead wolf, she thought of her home, the orphanage, and all of her little siblings that eagerly awaits her return.

Ever since all the adults died, she had single-handedly cared for the children on the orphanage, being the oldest one around. She acts as their beloved older sister. She loved them as much as they loved her.

She cannot afford to die now.

If she dies, what will become of them?

Who will take care of them?

Who will feed them?

Who will clean up their dirty clothes?

Who will recite bedtime stories for them?

Who will… who will…

Countless line of thoughts flashes on to her mind on a short span of time, of her younger siblings back home. She has already lost so many of them.

parting is always a painful event. death is always sad.

What will become of them?

What will become of all the orphans now?

Is anyone coming to their rescue?

No. She has no time to wait for their savior. She may not even live to see the salvation of the rest of them. She was in a single fatal situation in an unforgiving place and at a singularly bad time.

She do not want to imagine what would happen if she fail to show up on the front door the next morning.

It’s all because of the wolves.

The damned wolves.

And then a suddenly, the wolf's head tugged around, seemingly coming back to life.

“Rrrrrr.” It looked around, and then it said. “Have you... really... been paying... attention... Miss?" it said.

Bizzare is an understatement of this situation. She could barely mount an answer because of the force pulling her down towards the abyss, but the wolf kept talking.

“Because... it is... the truth...”

She looked at the wolf that caused her all of this with anger. she hasn't accepted it yet, but deep down, she knew she's probably going to die.

What, a talking wolf carcass? she probably has lost her mind.

"You... took so many... from others... yet you... are unwilling... to give back..."

What? What is it trying to say?

Ignoring the blabbering of the dead wolf, something doesn't feel right.

She's been falling down for quite some times. and the blood withdrawal started to drain her consciousness.

in a last-ditch effort, she grabbed the wolf, turned her body and adjusted it so that the dead wolf would absorb all the impact of the fall before her. Effectively turning the wolf into a landing pad, it probably wouldn’t do much, but she had to hope.

The ground was coming towards her fast.

She was about to die.

Then, something began to look off in the corner of her eyes. blurred by her velocity downward, but as she went down, it became clear. surrounding her were bioluminescent plants of some sort that grew on the abyss's walls. it grew thicker as she fell deeper. And then she could feel herself grazed by something, something soft but thorny, it also made crackling, sounds… tree branches.

It didn’t stop her, but she felt her velocity was significantly impended by it. Fortunately for her, when she hit the ground, it was rather soft, she fell onto a bush accompanied by the sound of crackling branches, and a loud squirt.

at great heights, the impact caused great pain, she had a momentary concussion which made her vision all fuzzy.

“ngh….”

when all is clear, she saw that the wolf carcass had spat out all its innards, she cringed, and jumped back, leaning back opposite to it.

She tried to regulate her chaotic heavy breathing, the events that just unfolded was a little too much for her undeveloped body, she looked around her, it’s dark, the ash clouds that blocked the sun didn’t help either.

“I’m… alive? Where is this… I’m…”

It goes without saying.

She is now trapped inside the abyss.