The gravel crunched beneath each footstep she took.
Small beads of sweat rolled down her face,
Her hand sweeping across her brow repeatedly.
Her heart was racing, her breath becoming labored.
The voices were following her,
Their whispers and hushed laughter haunting her.
Faster and faster, she ran --
But the voices grew louder with her effort.
She gasped, "Please" -- crunch, crunch -- "not me!"
The voices became shadows,
And the once brazen and bright sky
Turned to lightless obscurity.
Shadow after shadow,
They crept after the girl.
Her world morphed into an endless plain --
It didn't cease, as if she were running in place.
They swarmed her body, their hazy bodies overwhelming.
"Remember..." they spoke to her.
"I can't," she rejected.
"Remember..." they taunted once again.
She keened,
For she knew it was time to face her demons.