• Her white cotton dress was tearing and ripping from the branches. Her golden blonde hair was flying wildly as she ran through the moss green trees. The twigs and branches ran up against her bare arms and legs leaving thin pink lines.

    All of this for a little gray cat?

    You could see the cat in the distance, through the forest looking so proud, chest stuck out, thinking she was the feline of the forest. But, did she know what she was causing this poor little child?

    The sunlight going through the trees made the cat a strange tinted green, matching greatly with her glittering emerald eyes, you would think they were the gems themselves.
    Her dainty little paws running over the brown forest terrace. She had a slender and slim body; it looked breakable and delicate, as if every step it took would make it shatter.

    I ran after the girl, never once pausing. She was getting too far, her small body had more energy than mine did, but I could see the dangerous clearing in the forest ahead, and her white glowing dress getting closer to it after that small gray kitten.

    I remembered the first time I had looked into the girl’s eyes before seeing her run into the forest. They were the brightest blue, and distinctively matched the color of the ribbons flowing through her golden blond hair. Her white dress had already a number of stains from her previous meal, but still looked dainty hanging off of her slender, delicate body.

    She told me her secrets, I told her mine. I still remembered her name; she was at a young age, only seven. Yet she trusted me. All of the words that came out of her mouth could have been lies, and could have been true at the same time. She trusted me not to tell anyone. But, yet, whom could I have told?

    She told me about her small gray kitten, how she loved her. How her only friend was covered in fur with a tail. How her tears would spill and she would let out all her thoughts, to her little gray friend.

    As I began running faster, I spotted some blue beyond the green in the trees. One of the girl’s ribbons was caught in a branch, as I ran past it I quickly snatched it out of the branches hold. Only one ribbon remained in her hair flying along with her.

    In a matter of minutes she had reached the clearing, and me soon after her. I yelled for her to stop a number of times, warning her, for I knew what was to become of her if she kept running. I had been in this clearing before, the wild flowers that grew spread reminders into my thoughts, the calm swaying grass was inviting.

    Beyond the beauty was a terrible drop, a sudden gorge in the trees. There was water rushing below, looking like thousands of white serpents swimming through the river’s bright blue currents.





    I stopped there in the opening, my eyes widening with the shock filling up inside of me, I could feel it in my veins. It was a feeling of both fear and confusion.

    I was confused that I had so much fear for this little girl finding her despair, I suddenly felt like I was about to lose a very dear friend, even though it had only been an hour since I had spoken to and met her.


    She felt like my own child.

    My own dress had been torn from the forest’s trees. My shoes muddy from the forest floor. The same pink scars on the little girl’s arms and legs were on mine, they were more severe, red beads of liquid slowly turned into thick red lines painted down my arms.

    The purple, yellow and greens of the wild flower field started to blend together, I found that there were tears in my own eyes making the colors around me swerve and dance together. Beyond those colors I could see the multiple dots of gray and white running across.

    It hurt with every heartbeat to watch her run towards the danger, I couldn’t stop her.

    I ran as fast as I could, hoping that if I made it, if I could get a hold of her, but as the little gray cat stopped suddenly in front of the gorge, she still flung forward.

    I stopped shocked, the colors in my eyes blended even more, this time there was no white swerving with the others, only a small tint of gray and blue accompanying it.

    As I ran to the edge of the drop beyond the field, the cat stood still, watching me run curiously with wide eyes.

    As I got closer I started to walk, I realized there was no scream from the girl as she fell. Is she still there? Did she grab hold of something?

    I crept closer to the edge, making sure that I would not fall after her. I looked down over, I could hear the sound of the rushing water down below; if she did fall she would have not lasted in the water. There was nothing where I looked, no humanity to be seen.

    I felt like I had been ripped in half, I was sobbing, for this little girl that I had known for such a small period of time.

    The cat stared as I began picking wild violets that were close by where the little girl had fallen. I stared back. For I noticed something I had never noticed before when I had approached the cat the first time. She had a single blue ribbon tied to her tail; I did not remember her having it when I saw her running through the forest, the little girl right after her.

    I still held the one that had fallen out in my hand; I tied the pathetic little bouquet of wild violets with the bright blue ribbon and threw it down into the river.

    I studied the cat more closely, trying to wipe the remaining tears out of my eyes to see her more clearly.

    I now noticed that the small kitten had bright blue eyes, the same color as the little girl’s. I must have been hallucinating, I was sure that the eyes of the cat were green before, Emerald green. Yes, and they sparkled like the gems themselves. But, now they were exactly like the little girl’s, like Lauren’s, and the bow on the kittens tail were distinctively the same color, Lauren’s bow.

    Lauren.