Entry #44

The Dream
by Adele Lemon


She awoke with the sun's warmth on her face and breathed in the dampness of the earth.

She tried to sit up but couldn't feeling the sharp pain in her ribs. She tried again, but this time rolling over on her side and pushing up with her left arm. The blood had dried to a dark rust on her skin and the forest floor was matted in her hair. A centipede crawled across her shoeless foot. Had this been another time she would have flinched, but not now. Right now, all she could feel was fear and humiliation.

How had she got it so wrong? The evening's events started to flood back and she found it hard to breathe as she remembered. The flirtations at dinner, the suggestion of a moonlight walk. It all seemed so perfect, so innocent. Until the other two arrived.

They circled her and as she turned to him for protection she realised he'd stepped behind her and was twisting her arms. She didn't think she'd had that much to drink, but maybe he'd slipped something in her glass. Soon after it began she must have blacked out.

Now she was alone, sitting on the forest floor in a sunbeam. How could a place of such beauty and warmth be witness to such evil. How could she.....

5:55 AM she is jolted awake with the mornings news. A young girl's body has just been found in the University endowment lands.