Day 28 of 365 Days of Writing Prompts: Write a story based on this image.

Erin: I knew the second I saw him again my heart would relapse. That is exactly what happened. My heart was weak, he lurched for him. My body listened, and before I knew it I was in his house. I was smelling the familiar scent of his detergent mixed with his sweat. Before I knew it, I was on his bed and feeling him. The touch of his body was like a cup of coffee to me. My safe place, my source of life.

I closed my eyes and we were transported to the woods. My heart was excited I was giving in, and seemingly decided to dance in circles within my chest. I felt like I was seeping into the mud of the forest. I grabbed at the buttons of his shirt to save my drowning. One came undone and my hands decided all should follow.

The shirt melted off his shoulders and my coffee went cold. Every inch of his body was covered in tattoos. I traced some of the lines. “Oh,” he chuckled. “I got a few more,” he illuminated.

“A few,” I repeated his words.

“Okay more than a few,” when it became clear that I was thrown off he collapsed to my side.

How could I continue? Who was he? I wasn’t the type of person to slept with a stranger, and that was who he was now. Time had passed since he was the reason I woke up in the morning. I thought back to the day I left. I wouldn’t recognize myself back then. How could I expect him to wait for me? The old me not only abandoned him, but abandoned the world the day we parted. The person my heart longed for was gone too, the only person I ever loved was dead. “They’ve consumed you.”

“I’ve consumed my body, this is how I’ve always looked in my eyes.” I got up, because there was a speck of someone I loved in that body. A speck that wasn’t whole with me. We could never be our current selves together, we couldn’t afford to rewind.

Shannon: “I know you’re close. You should run now. Maybe you can still get away,” the last tracker standing had just traveled to the segment of the playing field where I was I lying down under the cover of a thick patch of leaves. It would take him a while, but if he was confident in my location, he would eventually find me. “Come on Mask, come out, come out, wherever you are,” he teased as he jumped behind a tree.

He wasn’t giving up on this segment. I needed an escape, but it might end in some backtracking. I got up to throw my last electronic screamer into the tree above him, and started crawling back toward the past segment. I needed to load up on competition aids, and distracting him would give me enough time to stop playing the hiding game, and start fighting back.

Before I exposed myself to the open path, I made sure he was chasing the screamer up the tree. He was, because as soon as he got it, he’d be able to put them together and my uniform would become its own screamer, and then we’d have no choice but to face each other. He’d finally see me.

One picture today, more room for you to run!