Crossbones

4 - Running

Ingrid

Ingrid's heartbeat filled her ears, drowning out the crunch of leaves under her feet and the sound of her bated breath as she ran.

Her legs worked like switchblades, slicing past each other in a panicked blur of blood and tattered cloth. Her arms pumped just as fast, her fists flashing in and out of her vision as they swung back and forth.

They were coming, she could feel it. Their hot, sticky breath seemed to stay on her skin, coating her in a thick dew of dread. She couldn't get the feeling of their starving hands on her body out of her head. Every time the wind slapped her clothes against her body, she shivered in fright as if those hungry fingers were still caressing her, still trying to rip the meat away from her body.

She'd been running for ten minutes or so when the sobs overwhelmed her. Flashes of faces plagued her eyes, spatters of blood, sharp teeth. All of these came pouring out of her in tears, blurring her vision to a black smudge across the woods.

Poor Edward. Eddie had always been so good to her. She knew she would never sleep again without seeing his head roll toward her, eyes flipping back into his skull.

Where was the rest of the crew? Had those horrible creatures gotten them too?

She didn't know where to go, which way was North, how long she'd been running. She couldn't stop. Their thick, bloody breath pushed her on, evaporating the tears from her face. She gasped for breath, her throat closing.

The scenery began to change. The trees thinned, giving way to a black sky, alight with stars. She tripped in her haste to reach it, hardly able to right herself. It took every ounce of energy she had left to pull herself up off the cold, wet ground. It would be so easy to collapse and let them have her. Let them tear her to pieces and feast upon her organs.

But the beach, if she could get there, she might just survive.

So she pushed on, forcing her legs to perform a final sprint. Tripping through tree roots and rocks, she threw herself out of the woods as if they were on fire.

"Whoa, there!"

The voice startled Ingrid so much that she scrambled back, a scream rising from her throat. Now that she'd stopped moving, the tears choked her. Her legs and arms shook like leaves, her tongue dry and heavy in her mouth. She collapsed in the sand, too tired and drowned in horror to move.

"Ingrid?" said the voice. She knew who it was. Jace knelt beside her, his ebony face full of concern. "Thank the Lord! We's thought you was gone."

She shivered, letting him set her on her feet although her legs felt like jelly. "W-we have to g-go!" she cried. "They're c-coming!"

Jace cupped her face in hand. "Calm yerself," he said. "Yer safe now. So tell us, how you en' up in these here woods?"

Ingrid clawed at his chest, ignoring the three other concerned faces watching. "We have to run! They's gonna kill me, Jace, they're gonna eat me!"

"Ye quit talkin' like that, hear?" He patted her back, letting go. Ingrid tilted, falling back to the ground with a pained cry. She noticed the blood saturating her clothes, seeping together from various places. Jace offered her a hand. "We's goin' ter the camp t' patch up you an' Missus Willi'ms here, a'ight? Ye just breathe an' tell us wha's wrong with ye."

She glanced up to find the captain, Dully and the captain's wife all staring at her in something between awe and fear. She supposed she must look just as hellish as she felt. Captain Williams passed his wife to Dully, stepping forward to take Ingrid in his arms. He folded her into his embrace, giving her cheek an affectionate caress.

Ingrid clung to her old friend, the two of them trailing behind the other three. She wept on his shoulder, Edward's last moments replaying themselves in her head.

Charles let the others go a good five yards ahead before pausing to kiss her forehead. "I have only found our crew on the beach," he told her. "So what of you? What business was yours in the woods?"

She sighed. "Unspeakable, it be, Charlie. Disgusting. Vile. To die now would only be a relief."

The captain glanced up, watching Dully carry his wife toward the other end of the beach. "Don't say that, Love," he told her. "It can't have been so bad as you say. What, it the woods, could be horrible enough to make a woman wish death upon herself?"

Ingrid shivered, closing her eyes against the horrible images. Sharp teeth, dripping saliva, bloody hands. She could still feel the papery lips and the thin tongue, lapping up the blood from her side. She couldn't help but cry again. "You've heard legends, Charlie," she said. "When we was kids? My father told us stories."

"Stories of what?"

"The cannibals," she exhaled. "The carnivores! The ones that eat humans."

Charles stopped walking, nearly dropping her. His face blanched white as he pulled back, looking her over. "Oh, Lord," he whispered. "I -- I suspected things, Ingrid. I thought of it. But I dared not say in front of the crew. But Lord almighty, you poor girl. It's a wonder you live!"

He enveloped her in a tight hug, all doubt erased. She hugged him back, unleashing the full brunt of her sobs. Every repressed memory, every vulgar image, every painful emotion began flooding out of her.

Dully, Jace, and Stella paused, watching Ingrid fall apart. Dully seemed shocked, Jace looking upset. Stella, from what Ingrid could see, continued to wince and whimper in her own pain while she watched.

"Shh." Charlie's hands surveyed her body, finding the bleeding spots. His fingers ran over the teeth marks, over the missing chunks of flesh. "They will not hurt you again," he promised. "We will make sure of that."