THE PAST PLAQUE

The trees were the first thing I noticed.The foliage was thick and dense while I was in the forest, far enough away from the edge.The evergreens influenced somewhat in the breeze, their trunks established immovably in the ground.They seemed to have been there for a long time and were much older and wiser than I was.I could just make out the grey sky above peeking through the branches if I squinted my eyes and looked straight up.The forest floor was not illuminated by the light.

However, there was yet another light.I could just make out a yellow, red, and orange brightness in the distance.It appeared to be completely covering the trees and swallowing them up.It brought to mind a sunset just before it vanished from the horizon.That point in time when the last glints of sunlight appear to be bleeding from everything they can reach.

I knew this light was different somehow.Like a sunset, it wasn't something beautiful to look at.No, this light was risky.On the off chance that you got excessively close, you would have been dying.burning, not just bleeding.igniting to ashes.

"Catherine! "I heard a scream in my ear that was so loud that it immediately sent pain through my entire skull.I was being lifted from the ground and placed in someone else's arms before I could react.My mom was to blame.Her hair was covering her face and casting shadows on her skin, so I tried to look up at her.Her white, tightly drawn lips were all I could see.

A male voice ordered, "We have to go."When I turned my head, I saw my father grimacingly walking toward us.I felt like I was trying to look at him while he was underwater because his facial features were so blurry.His attire was torn and worn out, and his uncovered arms were shrouded in debris. "There is not enough time.

“No!”“As her hair curtain whipped over in the direction of the light that I had been looking at earlier, my mother cried, clutching me closer to her chest.We cannot simply abandon them.

Regarding the light, I was correct.Instead of a raging fire that was tearing through the forest in our direction, I no longer saw a sunset.As the centuries-old trees on this site burned to the ground, I could hear a faint wood crackle.The intense heat that came along with it was rapidly approaching.The fire was getting closer to us as the innocent breeze that had been blowing through the evergreens did so.Now that the thick, black smoke had entered my nostrils and made it difficult to breathe, I could smell it.My dad was correct;there was zero extra time.

As he began to take off his clothes, he replied to my mother, "They will be alright."It appeared as though he was attempting to persuade himself as well as her of this fact.They are aware of our location.Everyone will be met there.

I knew that the words weren't true because of how he said them.The way his clothes were ripped and the frantic look in his eye told me that not everyone would survive, even though I had no idea who everyone was or how the fire started.I struggled in my mother's arms, wanting to take action but not knowing what I could do to help the situation. The realization made me automatically tense up.

My mother whispered, "Hush, Catherine," to me.She spoke into the evergreens as if it were the wind itself.We will safeguard you.

My father transformed into a werewolf as soon as she spoke, so her assurances did little to soothe me.I reemerged in shock, but I realized I was unafraid.I had previously seen this wolf.Despite its vicious and animalistic appearance, it retained my father's eyes and was large and gray.It made a small whine and pointed to us over its shoulder.My mother climbed up behind me and lifted me onto the wolf's back before I could react.She grabbed my father's grey fur on either side as she bent over me, entangling me in her grip.Before scurrying off into the forest, the wolf let out one last whine.

As we ran through the evergreens I had just been admiring, it felt like everything was moving at a snail's pace.I tried to make sense of my surroundings by looking around with wide eyes, but because we were moving so quickly, everything became one big green mass.I tried to shield myself from the noise by raising my hands to my ears as the trees whizzed by our heads like bullets.I felt my mom incline down further and generally kiss me on the rear of my head.I was certain that she was going to break the wolf's skin as her fingers dug so deeply into its fur.She didn't seem to be bothered.

I completely forgot about the trees when a howl suddenly pierced the air all around us.It seemed to have come from behind, as if.As she looked over her shoulder, my mother let out a terrified cry that made my neck hair stand up.My father's legs started pumping faster as a result.We were being chased.

The following few minutes seemed to drag on for hours.Despite the fact that my father seemed to be flying through the forest at such a rapid pace, the howls and screams of the wolves behind us grew ever closer.Her breaths came in short bursts as she sank so low that she was basically crouching over me;They were ghosting against the side of my face, and I could feel it.We were barely separated from one another;I was unable to move.I could only watch the road ahead and pray that we would reach the location where my father said everyone would meet.We might have been the only ones who didn't make it there with the others.

I could make out that we were heading toward a clearing through the blur.I could see more of the gray sky as the forest's greenery vanished in the distance.I realized that it was a bridge as we got closer.Stone-built and slender, itIt appeared to have been there for a very long time, like the trees.The river's churning water filled a gorge beneath it.Indeed, even from here, I could hear it sprinkling toward the sides of the valley.You were certain to die if the bridge could not carry you across.