“Anna, wake up.” A
deep rumbling voice called out to me urgently. Dazed and confused, I lingered
in the safe warmth of darkness.
“Anna!” The cry
came again. I steered myself into enough consciousness to wonder who Anna was,
only to remember groggily that it was me. I opened my eyes.
“What?” I said,
annoyed to be awakened. I felt strangely warm and numb at the same time.
“Wake up. You’re
freezing.” The huntsman said.
As the finality of
his words hit me, I realized that freezing had been what I wanted all along.
Even in the midst of the memory, I panicked, clinging to life.
I didn’t want to
die. Not anymore.
“Help me,” I
murmured, “I’m sorry.” I felt my growing numbness with a sense of growing fear.
I had wanted to die, to drift away in peaceful sleep, free of my sins and my
guilt. But primal instincts returned, making survival my only hope.
“Shh. Don’t talk,
just wait a minute.” The huntsman shuffled his hands beneath the freshly
layered snow, hoisting me up into his arms. Afraid and embarrassed, I tried to
make my arms and fingers work to grasp around his neck, but I couldn’t feel
either. Lost and blinded by the swirling snow, all I could make out were the
huntsman’s dark eyes. Sparkling onyx, they stood out against the surrounding
whiteness like stars guiding a wayward ship home again. They looked down at me,
and I caught my breath.
For one brief
instant, his expression changed, and I felt certain that he saw. But just like that it was gone and
the mask of blank indifference returned. He whistled to his dogs and we started
back through the woods.
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