The Protector

Chapter 10

The sun was warm on my outstretched arms that were the wings to my plain. I ran through the yellow field, my arms itching from the rye scratching my skin, but I couldn’t have cared less. There was a pile of rye seeds in the bottom of my shoes, but I couldn’t be bothered to stop and empty them because I was in the air flying my invisible blue plane.

I turned quickly to my right, catching sight of a white dress behind me who also flew a plane much like my own. Swooping in for a dangerous landing, I crashed amongst the rye around me, pieces of the plants flying everywhere and nestling themselves in my hair. The little girl in the white dress crash landed beside me, her blonde hair covered in rye seeds much like my own. 

“We’re hiding?” She asked, though her words hadn’t been forming right since she lost her two front teeth last week. I shook my head in response before pointing to the bright pink sky, symbolizing that we would watch another sunset. Unlike the younger girl, I could watch sunsets all day and all night. It was the only time I could truly feel like I wasn’t dying of boredom whilst being still. The girl in the white dress shuffled close enough that our matching white dresses meshed together to become one large dress, and we continued to watch as the sky changed from a light pink to a dark purple. 

It was at that time that I knew we needed to head back to our mother and father, since we technically weren’t supposed to be this far from home without someone with us. Standing up with my sister, I offered to pick some of the rye seeds out of her hair and helped her shake out her dress and dump the rye seeds from her shoes. We both giggled and skipped back through the field on our way to the forest, our access point to the trails that led home. I held my sister’s hand without fear, though she gripped mine with an iron clasp as we entered the dark forest that was in such contrast from the bright and whimsical rye field behind us.

The sound of a twig snapping from my right caused us to turn and see a familiar boy walking quietly towards us. My sister and I waited for the boy to reach us, though he took quite some time. Unlike the other boys, this one didn’t yell at me about cooties and didn’t throw frogs on me or chase me around at school. He was very kind and very quiet, which I liked very much. 

“Where have you been?” Hunter asked, his voice sounding worried. “Everyone has been looking for you,” he added. I could have sworn that we had not stayed out too late, and while I was thinking of how late it was, my sister spoke up. 

“The rye field,” she beamed at him, her cheeks glowing red from his presence. Hunter nodded and the three of us began walking back towards the house in silence with the crickets echoing amongst the leaves around us. The scent of Hunter washed over me, a familiar smell over the past few months that we had been around each other since school started, and calmed me. We began walking on the thinner trail that led to the back of my parents house when we heard a large branch or stick snap from somewhere not too far off. 

Hoping it was my best friend Casey from school, I turned and made eye contact and made eye contact with the most yellow eyes I had ever seen. 

Right

in front 

of me.

I smelt the odor of death and blood as the monster in front of me that did not look man nor beast, but something of the two. Before I could even scream, my younger sister let out a shriek that I knew would reach the entire town. 

Before I knew it, Hunter had shoved my sister and I to the side, causing her and I to land in a heap of tangled limbs. 

“Run!” Hunter screamed, causing me to jump up and grab my sister’s hand, yanking her to her feet. We began running, my sister’s immediate sobs echoing off the trees around us. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong and we were in a lot of danger. 

“Claire!” I screamed as my sister tripped and fell out of my grasp. I grabbed her hand and yanked her up just as I saw the monster approaching us at an alarming speed. Before I could think, I pushed my sister to the side and out of the way of the monster, allowing only one target for it to chase. As I turned to run away again, I barely made it a foot away before I felt a scorching fire trail down my back and cause my legs to turn to jell-o. I screamed, attempting to shuffle my feet at the same time while feeling a warm sensation run down my back and trail down my legs. I fell back down, feeling the breath of the monster on my back as I did. 

I was too young to understand death at the time. I did not know what would happen if I continued to bleed like that or if the monster decided to have a snack, but I did know that something bad would happen to me. I cried and wailed in both pain and fear, but I never felt more claws. Instead, I turned to find the monster fighting another beast of a different kind.

“Daddy!” I yelled, my sobs distorting my words. The monster tore a chunk of hair from my father’s body, but he fought back with equal ferocity. 

“I’m going to get help,” I could hear Hunter say as Claire crawled over and sobbed with me. I sobbed until my mother came and by that time, my father was the only one left standing. 

I had once heard a story. It was of a beautiful woman named Medusa who was taken advantage of, though I hadn’t known what that meant at the time, by a very powerful man. And so because of that, she was given a gift that allowed her to turn anyone she wanted to, to stone. They would be stuck, unable to move or to look away. 

I felt as though I had seen Medusa in that forest that night because even as my father fought for his life, I could not tear my eyes away. As Claire covered her eyes and drowned out the noises with her sobs, I could not help but watch with fear as my father fought the monster. I watched, as my father caught the monster and ripped it’s throat out from its neck.

I had witnessed the meaning of death.