Anew

25

Scarlet’s pounding heart seemed to quiet as she paced away from the cabin.

She thought she’d be balling by the time she stepped off the cabin porch, but no.

She was too numb for tears.

Air flowed in and out of her lungs, but she felt nothing.

She walked toward her car without a plan. What was she supposed to do? Go home and have dinner with Laura like nothing life-changing had happened today?

Uh, no.

I’m going to die.

The curse had existed for hundreds of years and no one had been able to break it. It was hopeless.

Scarlet’s heart was going to kill her.

Oh, she would come back to life again, but not without the same horrifying, confusing, unfair memory loss she’d experienced two years ago.

Her life? Screwed.

When she reached her car, the schoolbooks on her passenger seat reminded her of the “normal” life she had back home.

She wasn’t ready to re-enter “normal” life yet.

Her feet began walking into the woods and she followed their meandering trail. Through the dense forest and fallen leaves she paced, not seeing anything around her, not feeling anything inside her. Just…walking.

The sun was low in the sky and night would come soon.

Crunch, crunch.

Dead leaves and small twigs broke beneath her footsteps.

Scarlet was alone.

Alone in her fate. Alone in life.

She had no one to turn to, no one to lean on.

She had nothing.

Except a broken heart—literally.

Agh.

She ducked under a tree branch and found herself in a small clearing. Realizing where she was, she froze.

It was the exact spot where she’d awakened two years earlier.

She remembered it perfectly.

Scarlet’s eyes roamed the clearing for a moment.

It seemed fitting to have absently arrived at the origin of all her confusion and fear, since she was more confused and fearful than ever.

With a numb body, she sat on the damp earth and closed her eyes.

She wanted to feel the wind kick at her hair.

She wanted to feel the cold air of the forest and shiver.

She wanted to feel something. Anything.

And she wanted to cry.