Brier {Pt II}

         Brier looked back through the darkness at the flames. They painted the night sky in furious shades of red and blue, stretching so high that it's glare made the stars impossible to see. It was a beast on the horizon, a demon with an ugly leering face that had watched her flee and watched her still, its roaring laughter and the stench of its breath reaching her on the wind. The demons that had only followed her, mere hours ago, when she had first heard the cry rise up on the wind was now sitting on her shoulder. Brier trembled, curled into a ball at the foot of a tree.
         The tree shook its fists down at her, laughing. Even the wind mocked her, moving about freely why Brier was constricted by the harshest chains of all; the chains of sorrow that are made to fit the enslaved perfectly, made to bring low man, who would be the highest amongst the living. In response to the feeling of those irrepressible chains, another instinct welled up inside her.
         It was an animalstic instinct, cruel and savage. Her mother, who had always preached of gentleness and compassion, even when being persecuted cruelly, would surely have not agreed with what Brier was now feeling. It was a violence Brier could not explain, the incredible rage of a caged beast longing to lash out at the unseen people responsible for putting you here.
         But her mother, the gentle, loving woman, was dead now. Brier hadn't been able to help it. When she had seen her lying there, her soft features frozen forever in death, the tender mouth that had kissed Brier's forehead so sweetly...when she had seen the only human being she had ever truly trusted in a world prone to cruelty, she had snapped. Brier had felt the first stirrings of that thing inside her and she had unleashed it, burning the house down and fleeing as fast as she could.
         But now, Brier could move no further. She had crumpled into a heap at the foot of this tree, shaking underneath the shadows it cast, and she had been unable to move. She didn't know how long she had stayed here, peering blindly into the darkness at the flames, letting the tears she'd been holding in come flooding out. A cry escaped her lips, piercing through the night. It sounded to Brier like a wolf howling at the moon, a cry full of sadness and loneliness, of hunger and longing. Brier's eyes were too heavy to keep open. They kept fluttering shut, but Brier forced them to stay open, afraid that if she went to sleep, she would only be haunted by her mother's face.
         But slowly, darkness descended on Brier.

         She woke groggy and confused, the sunshine filtering through the branches of the trees to dance across her face. There was an ache in her back, and in her legs as well. It took her a second to remember where she was, and then another second for her to open her eyes.
         "Well hello, hello pretty," a hoarse voiced called to Brier.
         The hair stood up on Brier's arms. She shielded her eyes against the sun and glanced across the path at the figure she had not noticed. It was a broad-shouldered, heavy-set man with a thick man of black hair, his leathery, scarred face twisted into a perpetual scowl. He walked towards her with a bit of a limp, nevertheless closing the distance between them thick.
         "Who are you?" Brier asked.
         He smiled, but it didn't touch his cold, hard brown eyes. He leaned against the trunk of a tree with the lethal regality of a lion, surveying it's prey. "No, pretty, who are you?" He slurred, his words hard to distinguish.
         "Don't call me that," Brier whispered.
         "Oh now, need you be so touchy, love?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.
         Brier didn't answer. Her heart beat faster and faster as he took another step forward, his finger reaching up to trace a path down her cheek. Involuntarily, Brier snatched away, her fists curling up into a ball. He smelled unwashed, his stench almost unbearable. Brier noticed something like blood smeared on his left hand. As much as she wanted to believe that it was the blood of an animal, somehow Brier couldn't convince herself of that.
         "Answer me," he demanded, a dangerous softness to his voice.
         Before Brier could step back, he seized both of her wrists in his hand and pulled her close. She lashed out instantly, her fist connecting with his jaw with a resounding crack. He swore, a look of shock on his face. Brier ran instantly, darting for the trees. He was close on her heels, breathing. He sounded like a beast, ripping through the undergrowth, branches snapping against him as he hurtled forward, always one step behind Brier.
         Her eyes were clouded with tears of frustration. Her heart was like a wardrum pounding out a frantic pace. Branches scraped her cheeks, but she was unaware of the pain. Nothing mattered but running again, running until the trees were a blur of green and brown, until the only thing she could feel was the ground beneath her feet and the wind in her face.
         Then, he crashed into her with a force unlike any other Brier had ever felt before. It felt like a bear running her over, and she lay where she'd fallen, with him firmly on top of her, struggling to breathe.
         "I was going to be nice," he muttered. "I was going to let you live. Why did you have to do that? I never like harming the pretty ones."
         "Kill me, then!" Brier snapped. "I wouldn't mind dying. Then, I could be with my mother anyway."
         "I didn't say that, love. I only meant that I'd have a wee bit of fun with you before stealing everything you have. It's always a shame damaging the pretty ones, but sometime it can't be helped."
         Brier closed her eyes, trying not to sob. If only she could get loose! But his weight was still crushing down on her, and every time she moved pain shot all through her. Blackness was descending on her, and Brier welcomed it. Maybe she would die and be with her mother. Brier could remember cradling her mother's stiff corpse in her hands, tracing the beloved features, those lips that would never smile again, those eyes that would never sparkle again.
         Soon, she would be dead too. He would kill her, after...after doing unspeakable things to her, and there was no way she could stop it. She could try and fight again, of course, but there was no way that she could overpower him and that might make him even more mad at her. There was nothing else she could do but surrender.
         "Pig!" A sudden voice cut through the silence, and the blackness snapped. "Pig! Pig!" It was decidedly feminine, but cracked and old-sounding. And there, flying out from the clearing in front of them that Brier had not noticed was an old women. She was anything but frail, despite her slender stature and her heavy wrinkles. There was something dangerous about the woman as she hiked up her skirt to reveal muddied boots and came to stand in front of him with a gnarled finger pointing at him. "Pig!" The woman accused again. Before Brier could study her too closely, however, the world began to grow blurry.
         Brier wasn't sure what happened next. The ground rose up to meet her and she met with a soft smile. Before the darkness claimed her, she thought she heard a loud crack and what sounded remarkably like a pig squealing, and the old lady cackling.


~'m only 13 and there are so many people on her more experienced than I am so if anyone knows how I can improve this in anyway, suggestions muchly appreciated :) Oh and also...does anyone think I should rewrite the beginning? The burning-down thing at the beginning seems kinda...I dunno, typical?? Actually I'm plannin on rewriting the whole thing anyway sooo yeah.~