Water's Light #LGBTQ+

Scylla

The path ahead of me grew clearer and closer with every movement of my legs, the gravel and rocks scattered across the compact ground and the luscious green, freshly cut grass almost seemed as if it was glowing beside the dull greys and browns that separated two separate fields. Smells of fresh grass filled the air and soon my nose as I drew closer and closer until I began to hear the crunching of my boots against the pathway, the quiet tapping of metal buckles on my satchel was the only other sound in the air and I was finally free from the torment of the perverted guards and men in the small village left behind me.

The air grew chilly and the wind speed picked up, my stomach churned with unease and I soon heard the hard crunching of gravel from behind me. My gut told me not to turn back or look behind me as it would put me off but my heart told me to look and find out who was there, my body was in an ongoing war until I decided it would be best to continue running rather than turning around as my gut was right, it would only put me off. Crunching and cracking grew louder and nearer as the person drew closer to me, the sounds were accompanied by heavy breathing and rugged grunts that I recognised, but not in a good way. The man behind me was the head guard, Aleksander, he wasn't particularly fast or well built compared to the guards and sailors in Galway but he was respected merely because of his intimidating aura and ungentlemanly actions towards woman and young girls, including me. I wasn't exactly oblivious to what he would do to me if he caught me, hence why I had not yet turned back and allowed him to return me to Acanon. I continued running until my breathing was just as uneven and as rugged as Alek's was, my legs certainly felt like my nana's strawberry trifles by now but I couldn't feel it, my heart longed to be free and be happy in Galway not cooped up in Acanon, it wasn't home.

I let out a piercing scream as Aleks caught a grip of the hem of my high neck shirt and began attempting to drag me backwards. I dug the heel of my boots into the gravel but they couldn't dig far enough into the slightly baked and compact ground before he gripped my left arm and picked me up. He threw me over his shoulder which was covered by a mucky leather vest and began carrying me back whilst muttering things like, 'that was the biggest mistake of your life' and, 'punishment is required' and not to mention, 'you know what's coming' the whole time. He was right, I did and I really did not like thinking about it or even thinking about thinking about it..

He made sure I didn't have to try and think about it because it'd linger in my mind for so long after then, he made it obvious that if I were to run again it would be worse.