Blood.

The pine needles pricked my cheek and I pushed them aside feeling what I thought was snow, damp and weepy, running down my face. I wiped the droplets from my lashes with the back of my hand and noticed fresh blood streak across. Startled, I stopped, rewinding in my mind, the steps I had taken from the jeep.
     The Tainted Veil 
I back-tracked the last thirty minutes. Another drop caught my sight and fell, as if in slow motion, landing on my boot. It was then I realized blood had noticeably disrupted the otherwise pristine blanket of snow laid before me. Glancing over and above my left shoulder, another droplet fell from a needle of the pine. Although there had been rumors of bears in the area, I found it hard to believe. Someone had to be only seconds ahead. I was certain by the tracks in the snow I hadn’t noticed until now. They had either been tall enough to bleed out onto the limb or were pushing their way through and had it on their hand. It was difficult to judge their height from that alone, but from the weight of the snow and ice accumulation on the tree limbs, they were at least five foot four if reaching upwards to clear the branch, or taller and bent over due to their injury. Their boots had soles similar to the Red Wings I had worn since I was a child, bird hunting with my dad. Their shoe size and height close to mine and I’m five foot seven. Whatever the case, there was a large blood loss involved.

The blood was a concern, but the more ominous question was who would be out here and why?
  • ClWork in Progress. . .