Kiss it Better (Part 5)

Slowly, your eyes began to grow accustomed to the lack of light and you realized that you were in the middle of a forest. Dim moonlight illuminated the black and twisted trunks around you, the dark sky just light enough to backlight the dead and dying branches, reaching towards the sky with accusing fingers of blackened wood. Everything around you was dead. The trees, the grass, anything else you could see, all of it putrefying in dank shades of black and gray as it decayed.

A sound caught your attention. A rustle.

Your gaze snapped towards the source of the sound, but you saw nothing. Your pulse began to accelerate as you stared in the direction the sound had come from, both wanting and not wanting to see what had made it.

The bottom of your stomach dropped out when you saw them.

Two red eyes flashed at you before disappearing back into the black backdrop of night. So briefly had their appearance been, that you almost thought you could have imagined them. Surely you had imagined them. You couldn’t possibly have seen…

Your breath caught in your throat and your every rationalization fled from your mind as another sound reached your ears.

A low, menacing growl.

Backing away slowly, you began your retreat, thinking that perhaps if you were quiet enough…

A twig snapped beneath your foot.

All thoughts of stealth were forgotten as the eyes reappeared, two red glowing orbs in the pitch darkness of the landscape. You turned on your heel and ran, your only thought of living to see tomorrow.

There was another growl behind you as you sprinted, hoping with all of your might that you would make it out of the forest without stumbling. You couldn’t see where you were going, save for the occasional tree whizzing past you, but trusted that the ground was there as your feet kept treading onward.

The rushing of the wind and the erratic beating of your heart pounded in your ears, almost drowning out the snarls and howls behind you as you ran for your life.

~~

The monitor over your bed began to beep rapidly as you began convulsing, “Something’s happening.” McCoy moved swiftly to your bedside, checking your vitals on the display and scanning your body with his tricorder.

“What’s going on?” Kirk asked, approaching your other side.

“Her pulse is out of control,” The doctor said, tossing aside his scanner and grabbing your arm, “Help me hold her down.”

“Bones, what’s happening?” Kirk reiterated as he moved to pin your other side. McCoy hadn’t answered his question

“I don’t know,” The other man responded. “This isn’t like the other seizures, her brain activity is off the charts. Whatever she’s seeing, it’s scaring the hell out of her.”

~~

Cold feet pounded against the damp ground as you ran, dodging trees and trying to find an escape. You had to be close, but then again, the wolves were probably close, too.

Suddenly, your foot caught on a twisted root and, unable to keep your balance, you pitched forward. But you had another problem.

You had run out of ground, as well.

The only thing you could do was watch as the side of the embankment rushed up to meet you. Rocks bruised and cut your flesh as you tumbled down, every imperfection in the ground seizing its chance to batter your already bruised muscles. Squeezing your eyes shut against the pain, you prayed that your ride would be over soon.

You got the wish you weren’t sure you wanted as you were eventually slammed into the ground at the base of the embankment, the savage hit knocking the breath out of you.

As you lay unmoving where you’d landed, your only focus was on remembering how to breathe. No matter how hard you tried, you were simply unable to draw oxygen into your lungs. All you could do was lay back and suffocate slowly, completely incapable of saving yourself.

This was it, you were going to die here, all of the tasks you left unfinished would never be completed, all of the people you left behind would never know how you truly felt.

One person in particular.

A ghost of a smile crossed your lips at the thought of the ill-tempered doctor. Although he was a little rough around the edges, you knew that there was a part of him that most people didn’t see.

He was gruff, but only because he cared. He only chewed you out when he treated your injuries because he wanted you to be more careful.

He watched out for you, and the only one who cared enough to be angered by the way you treated yourself. And the only one who cared enough to tell you that he was angry at you for pushing yourself so hard.

As the world began to fade away, a single tear escaped your eye at the thought that you would never be able to tell Leonard McCoy that you cared about him, too.