Darkness | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Darkness | Previous Challenge Entry
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12/08/05
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There were trees all around. No place to run. No place to hide. Dark. Noisy night animals added to the terror. The trees looked like people, with their arms spread wide, ready to attack her. The moon was just a sliver of light tonight. Alone. She was completely alone. Walking around in circles. Lost. Missing her path in the inky darkness. She was ready to scream.
Suddenly, adding to her nightmarish panic, gunshots echoed again from across the river. One. Two. Three. Silence. She broke into a run not caring which way she went. Fear pounded in her throat. Where would she hide? The river. She could follow it home, it went all the way up to the back of her house anyway. If only she could find it in this blackness without falling in.
Stumbling in the direction she thought it would be, Raina was rewarded with the faint bubbling of water. She tilted her head to hear it better. Focus. That’s what she needed. The night sounds weren’t scaring her as much any more, but those gunshots…What if they returned? What if they were meant for her? It wasn’t hunting season that much she knew. If only the river could be found. Raina tripped on a tree root as she quietly worked her way towards the rushing water sounds.
The forest floor started to feel spongy and wet. She’d finally found the river! Now which direction was home? She leaned against the nearest poplar tree, and felt it up and down. Starting at the bottom, she trailed her fingers, spread wide, along its bark. There was mark here somewhere. It was her favorite tree. How could’ve she got that turned around? It was the gunshots that did it, that much she knew. But how to stop the irrational fear that gripped her from thinking straight? She found the mark, and felt once more its comforting grooves. The arrow inscribed underneath her mark told her what she needed to know. Head south. To her left. Upriver. Comforted that she had now found her bearings, she no longer felt so alone. The owls and rodents sounded more friendly and her heart rate was slowing. Not the adrenaline however. It would keep her going for hours.
Gunshots again. Crouching down against the nearest tree, Raina mentally kept count. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Silence reigned. The gushing river beside her echoed the shots from the twenty-two. Fear filled her veins again. How could she control it? It did nasty things to her mind. Suddenly, a verse from her morning devotions popped into her head. It was like she’d just read it. Psalm 139 verses 11-12, “If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” (KJV)
Peace flooded her soul. Receiving comforting strength from Christ, she stood up and made her way south. Towards home. Dim moonlight followed her, reflecting off the moving river.

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