When Sarah walked out of the big shoebox department store she called a job, it was only 6:oo in the evening. It was September but summer was still holding on for dear life, the sun was still hanging, though very low, in the sky.
Sarah pulled her jacket close around her against the gusting wind in the parking lot. She lived a mile from her job and had decided to walk to work that day, a decision she was now regretting. Not wanting to walk home on the main drag because she knew from prior experience when windy it became a frigid wind tunnel so she decided to take a shortcut she knew of through the woods that connected her work to her backyard.
She walked to the back of the store where the path waited. She approached the entrance of the path, she had ventured down it many times but tonight it gave her an uneasy feeling and the mouth of the path seemed to resemble that of a demon. She stood at the edge of the parking lot and the grainy dirt of the path for a good fifteen minutes before willing herself to take that first step. When she finally did she was meant with a huge blast of wind emanating from the path but when her foot hit the dirt the wind ceased immediately.
She took another step and felt goose bumps cover her, she felt like turning and running, screaming the other way. She took a deep breath telling herself she was being a paranoid idiot and decided to keep going.
She walked on for a while, feeling the air get colder the further she walked, she was shaking violently. She started imagining the hot shower waiting for her at home, as a way of warming up.
In a complete, cold induced, daydream she continued walking. Then she felt a tap on her shoulder.
Sarah screamed and swung around but saw nothing but her breath in front of her. She turned around twice in panic. She was terrified and breathing rapidly.
Then she felt some one whisper "My flower", softly into her ear. She screamed again.
By now she was crying from fright. "Who are you?" She shouted to nobody.
She glanced around frantically, looking for signs of shoe prints or anything that would prove she was not going crazy, but there was nothing. She decided she better move on and started running down the path.
Sarah was not the most athletic of people but adrenaline and fear kept her moving faster than she has ever moved before. Sarah felt as if she was running for hours when she suddenly fell like she had been pushed to the ground, she rolled over achingly, propped herself on her elbows, looked up and screamed.
There standing above her was a young man. He had long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail; a couple strands of hair blew in the wind across his face. His eyes where a deep dark brown, she found herself being drawn into them and had to look away. He wore a white button up shirt and plain black pants with a long flowing black cape.
"Don't be afraid." He said. She found his voice strangely soothing and she found she was no longer afraid.
"I want you." He stated.