The Forest

Jared Mende
I ran; ran from the blood I had spilled.
My heart clambered up through my throat with every living beat, fear pulsating
through my nerves as my legs carried me through the tangled umbra of forest.
Tick
Tock
It was inevitable now. I was trapped; locked within the confines that the Fates had
woven. Trembling and terrified I tore through the jungle, stomping on the undergrowth
below.
Tick
Behind me, the corpse I had given to the ground lay amidst the bushes, red
staining the dirt beneath it. As I sprinted, I could still hear the screams that issued from
my victim when I had done that deed.
Tock
Harder now, my heart beat against my ribcage, as if it were a vicious beast trying
to escape its imprisonment.
The dreadful shrieking still rang in my ears as I vaulted over a root that protruded
into the air. Faster now, journeying faster every second, but knowing that I could not
escape what had been foretold to me by my own eyes.
Ticktock
As I ran, I became ever more aware of the sound of footsteps in the vegetation
nearby, the sound of long-dead leaves crunching and crinkling underneath another souls
weight.
In the ancient, dreaded forest, my pursuer followed me, but he did not know it.
The tales of the Fates would be woven together.
Tick
I had been told not to do it. I was told not to enter this forest; told that the clocks
went all wrong around these parts of the wilderness. People had entered these creeping
jungles and come out hundreds of years later, not having aged a bitthat was what our
mothers told us children. I was an adult now, and fairy tales were of no effect on me.
Tock
The clocks went all wrong here.
I reached into my pocket as I ran. I pulled out my fob watch, still aware of the
sound of someone else nearby.
The hour hand moved faster than my second hand ever had, spinning and whirling
around the timekeepers face.
Shaking, I put the clock away.
Ticktockticktock
My heart now rammed itself against my chest, aching to be free, begging me to
end it all before my destiny came to me with one swift hit. Death laughed; the Grim
Reaper waited. They could wait as long as they had to; they were inevitable. None could
dream of escaping what Time brought.
Tick

Tock
With one sound leap, I jumped over a stray branch on the ground, turning as I
heard the sudden sound of dead plants being crushed underfoot.
The Fates laughed. The muses cackled.
Time had brought to me my grave. Time kills all men. Time leads all men to the
gates of eternity where we grow terrified wondering what awaits us. Time is the monster
that prowls our waking horrors. Maybe time is infinite, but our time, in this realm, at
least, ends.
With one sudden and relentless swoop, the branch that my pursuer carried
slammed into my face. Trauma and pain coursed through the front of my head for only a
second as, with the force of the blow, I fell backward and knocked my head against a
nearby tree, my skull being crushed as I let forth one final scream of a human animal
being wounded.
Now having met my fate, I fell to the ground, dropping into the bushes nearby.
Blood flowed freely and stained the environment below as my other self stared in terror
at the face he saw.
I had been running; he had been running. I was now dead, and now, my past self
looked into my dead eyes. He knew, nowI knewthat his Fate was sealed.
And now, I, my past self, dropped the stick he had been carrying and ran.
What phantasms coursed through his head? Oh, I knew them too well. Had I not
been him? Had I not been wandering through that forest, terrified at the sound of another
human running through the night? Had I not grabbed that branch in self-defense, and had
I not swung in sudden protection when a figure leapt out in front of me?
Had I not looked upon that bloodstained face that was my own and recognized
that I had killed myself through the winding whispers of time?
Time kills all men. Time is the monster that lurks in the shadows of that forest,
and no man can escape it.
And so I ran; ran from the blood I had spilled.
My heart clambered up through my throat with every living beat, fear pulsating
through my nerves as my legs carried me through the tangled umbra of forest.
Ticktock
It was inevitable now.