The Huntress

I’m trapped in the forest, lost in a place where I don’t know how to survive. There’s a smell of fear in the air - and it’s mine. My gritted teeth and nervous hands panic their way through the brush. But I’m only moving aimlessly, never getting anywhere. But I have to do something – anything –to avoid the Huntress. If only I could leave these silent sentinels of the woods.

“Kill him! He’s worthless!” Those were the last words I heard her say. I’ve been on the run ever since then but never been able to shake her. Her fury knows no end and is relentless in its pursuit. I am a disease to her, a tumor to be removed. Living with me is not an option and with maniacal jealousy does the Huntress guard her life. No thing, no person, nor even a truth can she tolerate to come between her and her wishes. This I knew from her final speech.

“You are useless! You are no kind of man and your life is nothing but shit! Just look at what you’ve made of it! You think I want shit like that for my life? You are a loser who’s never done anyone any good. How have you earned the right to live? All you are is a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe and I mean to scrape your annoying ass off of me! There is no excuse for a worm like you.”

I’ve been melting into fear ever since. I ran into the forest to find escape but escape had already left. For when I ran away, the Huntress’ resolve hardened into my death warrant. She began talking to others – the Haters – as I knew she would and they too joined the hunt for the Worthless One. So that’s how I find myself, slashing through the woods in terror, imagining the Huntress’ bow taking aim at me from behind every tree. But even if I can hide from her, I cannot hide from myself.

Slowly, I’m disintegrating. My face, my hair, my spindly legs are rotting. Won’t be much left of me soon and the witch will have my carcass to gloat over. In that, I am resigned. I just don’t want her or her minions to be in on the kill, to have to hear her last few words stab me and shred my remaining soul. It’s true I don’t measure up to her - or anyone. And her condemnation is completely unbearable to me. I am Shame’s slave.

I’d heard of a place perfect for hiding, thinking there I could find rest and peace and buy more time from the Huntress. To my dismay, I found only her and her minions glaring at me in raging contempt. The hunted beast was trapped at last. “How did you know?” I involuntarily asked. “Because I know you, loser,” sneered back the Huntress. Indeed, it was the knowing of me that doomed me. But I had to let someone know of me. Maybe that’s the Achilles Heel of each of us. So they shot me down and spat on my dead being as they passed. Only the Huntress paused with a second thought.

I wish I knew what it was.