If I Die

PROLOGUE　

　

As she stood at the mouth of the woods, her heart stopped beating. Her breaths were coming in short gasps and her hands were shaking as she stared into the eerie darkness of the night.

Standing there, she had no sense of time. She didn't know where she was, nor how she even got there. She just was.

Although frightened, something was pulling her forward. Tempting her to take a step.

  "Nothing good ever happens in the woods."

She paused. Knowing she shouldn't. But that was just in stories, right? This was reality.

Temptation overtook her body as she took a shaky step forward.

Twigs snapped, leaves crunched as Adriana weaved her way through the trees. She didn't know where she was going, but some way, some how, her legs knew. A raindrop hit her head. Two. Three. Four. Pretty soon the light drizzle turned into a torrential downpour.

Normally, such drenching rain would bother Adriana Kingsley, but she just kept walking; seemingly unaffected by the shower.

The deeper she walked into the darkness, the sicker she felt. She was fighting off a wave of nausea when she approached a clearing.

Stepping past a tree, the clearing came into full view. Her breath caught in her throat when she realized it wasn't raining. Except...it was where she was standing. The woods surrounding her were getting drenched. But the clearing, it was dry. Peaceful looking, almost.

Creeping slowly into the clearing, the rain was gone. Even the sound of the rain hitting the trees and ground was silenced. Turning her head, she peaked into the woods. The rain was still pouring there.

A squawking of a bird make her head snap her forward. At first, she couldn't place the noise, but when the sound echoed through the silence, her eyes flicked upward.

A bird, as black as the night is dark, was perched on the lowest limb of a dead-looking tree, staring straight at her. Its beady eyes were fiery red and burning a hole straight through her very soul. Shivering, she looked away.

The raven screeched again. The sound bouncing off the trees, and into her ears, causing them to throb in pain.

Unable to stop herself, her eyes drifted back to the bird.

It wasn't there.

Confused, her eyes swept through the clearing. The raven made its presence known once again. Startled, her eyes fell to the ground.

There it was. Standing. Staring.

That feeling was back. Pulling her forward. She didn't know why, but she had the feeling that the strange bird was trying to tell her something.

Everything stopped, it seemed. As she ambled forward, all sound ceased to exist. She couldn't hear the sound of her breathing, the sound of her footsteps, or even the sound of her own pounding heart. Nothing.

As she grew closer, a silhouette came into view.

Crumbled on the ground, the figure of a young girl was lying there. Lying face down with her arm and light brown hair covering her face, she lay unmoving. Staggering back, she stared at the familiar girl.

The brown hair cascading down her back rested on a pink flowing gown. And despite the fact that the girl with lying facedown on the ground, the gown appeared to be unscathed. It was a beautiful and a terrifying sight.

Kneeling down beside the body, she studied it closely. Then her eyes drifted to the lifeless hand. But it wasn't the pale white hand that caught her attention. It was the ring.

Hands trembling, she slowly reached out to grab the hand to examine the ring.

It was cold. Ice cold. The feeling of the icy hand shocked Adriana enough for her to let out a soundless gasp, but she continued on.

Finally, the ring was staring at her and her entire body went cold at that moment. She knew that ring.

Adriana brought her hand up to prove her fears true. The ruby ring that normally rested on her right ring finger was gone. Another wave of nausea hit her.

What the hell is going on?

She broke out into a cold sweat and had an overwhelming urge to cry. Turning her attention to the girls face, she stopped breathing.

Crawling closer so she could see, Adriana took her hand and drew it near the girls face. She sat there for a moment hesitating, knowing fairly well that what she was about to uncover could end it all.

Taking a deep breath, the tips of her fingers came in contact with strands of hair. Brushing them away, she could the see the face she had became so familiar with over the years.

It's me, she thought calmly.

      "It's me."

When her words broke the silence that consumed the world around her, she panicked.

Falling backwards, she screamed. Her lungs were burning painfully, her vision had gone blurry, and she couldn't move. She was paralyzed.

All of a sudden the rain from the woods decided to join her in her terror. The screeching of the raven floated into her ears, and when she looked up, it was flying right toward her.

   But before the raven could slam into her face; she woke up.