A young girl walks down a weathered path strewn with curled leaves, a canvas of criss-crossed dead branches halfheartedly cover the sky overhead. A rough black cloak coversher fragile shoulders, along with a hood that shields half of her ghostly white face- all you can see are her pale pink lips that silently whisper words to an unheard song. Her bare feet stand strong beneath the whipping fabric, caught by the wind.
Everyone had begged for her to stay, but its too late now. She always knew she must go, for the strong must survive.
The forest seems to swallow her up, pulling her deeper into the mass of fallen leaves with each step of her dainty, unmarked feet. She trembles slightly with each shuffling step, fighting against the orders of her tribe- but she had known that she would be the one who was chosen, not her brave sister.
She furtively glances at her surroundings- dead leaves, the sole remnants from the autumn long ago and now just a sad reminder of the cold winter to come. She shivers as she steps through the dull colored leaves that litter the ground, feeling like icy cold fingers that grip her small feet.
She turns her head a fraction, afraid the heartless guards were still following her, making sure she didn't turn back as she once would have, back when she was just a foolish girl. She glances down through the semi-permeable fabric that sways around her mechanically walking feet. Although it was so tattered at the ends, the body still remained unworn- reused, time and time again, a small fraction of the sacrifices of which she had been witness to..
She shudders as a strong wind blows through the leaves and she wraps the long sleeves across her chest- more from terror and less from the chilly breeze. She wouldn't have to worry about either soon enough, if she just kept walking. Grays, browns, and the iciest of white- she would still miss her colorless world.
On either side of the well-worn dirt path, the unending forest stretches for miles- just a mass of dead boughs and scattered leaves, impermeable even by the pale sky. They drooped hopelessly, no longer reaching for the cloudless sky. She almost expects his pale blue eyes to bring color back to her life, but she still yet knew that he wouldn't dare to rescue her. Not even him. Not even all the times they had whispered of escape, of breathless running, of fearlessness and all the promises of redemption it would bring. And yet, her pale feet with their little toenails of the softest pink still took one sure step after another, and her lips still formed the songs she had once dreamed of and sang for him.
Then, she saw it coming- the clearing with branches so dense that no light could even penetrate. The canopy seemed almost woven of branches, as if nature itself claimed that the beast that lived below didn't deserve even a single shred of light. In the middle of the darkness, a single cave jutted out of the rocky hillside. It almost seemed inviting, in a way, as if were only a labyrinth to be lost in. She walks into the darkness, the last ray of warmth she had felt from the reflections of the grey clouds faded. She's on her own now. She glanced down at the expanse of black that covered her body, the type that shielded even the faint color of her body. At least, as her last glance, she would see a flash of that beautiful crimson red. She shook her head, formed the last word of the song of her life as the midnight darkness of the cave seemed to swallow her up.
You can't fight fate