l’incontro (part I)

Mary looked back but didn’t see anyone. She knew he was after her. He had come for her. Her heart was speeding up and she increased her pace. The streets were desert and a cool wind was pushing her, as if helping her to run away.
She started hearing footsteps. Determined and slowly paced footsteps that managed to be louder than the wind and the distant cars. Mary was terrified, she didn’t need to look back to see that a black hooded figure, with glowing red eyes was heading towards her. She could feel the scorn of his smile and the scent of his cigar filling the world around her, and her heart warned her that this will be their last encounter.

Terror hit her back. She had nowhere to run, he would always catch her. Her heart was pounding hard, as if trying to run away. She was short of breath, and her legs were failing her. She took her phone, and dialled a number that she had been trying to forget about.
“– Please Gabriel, you got help me. I’m heading towards my house. He’s after me; you got to help me before it’s too late!” – She panicked
“- I thought you didn’t want to see me. Who’s he? What are you talking about?” – an indifferent voice replied - “please, please come, I can’t hold it much longer”- tears were already rolling down her face – “I am sorry, but the number you have dialled can not be reached at the moment, please try again later” – an electronic woman replied: he’d hang up.
Feeling completely alone, and despaired, she tried to run. She would have to try to run away. She knew there was a church close by. There, she would be safe and could ask for help, or wait until the morning to go back home. She had to reach it before he reached her.
Gathering all the energy she could and setting her mind and heart, she sped up. No one was on the streets, and apart from the buzz from a failing streetlamp and the highway cars at a large distance, everything was silent. Her feet echoed in the night, in a fast thumping rhythm.
She had been running for almost 10 min, when she saw the church a couple of blocks down the road. She didn’t hear anyone besides her, and hope start filling her. She was almost there…
“- Stop. You’re not going anywhere.” – voiced a pitch-black playground. His voice was calm, deep and disturbingly seductive. She froze. She couldn’t tell if it was out of fear or if he managed to command her own legs to do his willing.
A tall, black hooded figure, with o red eyes and a cigar glowing from a darkened face came slowly behind the children toys, as if enjoying the feeling that his presence was corrupting such an innocent place.

Mary couldn’t move. “This can’t be happening” All her plans to run away, to be free had just collapsed. She had lost. Her heart sunk and she knew the worse was yet to come.
He came closer to her. “- I missed you Mary, why did you run away?” – there was no anger in his voice, he spoke almost gently, looking at her bottom up, while circling her. He got closer, and whispered into her left ear: “- did you really think I’d let you run away?” – he passed his hand over her back and continued to circle her and got closer to her right ear “- didn’t you missed me at all?” he scorned.
He started to smell her hair. His breath was burning, and she sensed that the trees around revolved around his breathing. She couldn’t stop shivering in fear, and couldn’t say anything. He bit her ear, his teeth burning deeply into her flesh. He then grabbed her strongly by the hair and neck. His grip seemed to be draining all her energy as he forced her to look at him. There were only raging eyes, a blooded mouth and pure hatred.
Mary couldn’t stop shivering; she was in pain, freezing cold and couldn’t stop sobbing. She knew her time had come. “- You are mine! I own you! And now I’m taking you with me” – shouted the insane voice while manning a knife, ripping her dress. “- please don’t…” Mary meekly defended herself, as she was being dragged into the darkness. All hope, joy and dreams were gone: he had won.
“- Leave her alone!” – shouted a voice from behind.