Redemption by Kaye Draper Page B

hers
automatically.  “Stay close.”
    There was a
breathless sense of foreboding building just behind Rebecca’s breastbone. 
Another challenge was coming, she was sure of it, and she didn’t know if she
had it in her to face the next monster.
    They hadn’t gone
much further when the silence around them was disturbed by the sound of
something large moving through the trees.  Branches snapped and treetops swayed
just to the left of the path.  There was a horrible wheezing, grunting sound,
growing closer by the second.  Rebecca’s eyes met Isaac’s and they moved as
one, dashing down the path.
    They ran until
they were both gasping, clutching their sides in pain, dizzy from lack of
oxygen.  Finally, they slowed.  Rebecca glanced back over her shoulder, but saw
nothing chasing them down the path.
    “Did we outrun
it?”  It couldn’t be that easy.  The hooded man would see to it that they
suffered, that they dredged up something unpleasant from their psyches,
something that would distract them from making it to the key in time.
    Isaac started to
speak, but he was interrupted by a horrible crashing near at hand.  They both
looked back in time to see their newest challenge plunge onto the path,
knocking down several good-sized pine trees in the process.  The sound of
splintering wood was deafening.
    The thing was
humanoid in appearance, though its features were grossly distorted.  It was
huge, some sort of giant or ogre.  Its arms and legs were roughly the size of
large tree trunks, and knobby with muscle.  It clutched a wooden club in one
massive paw, its arms dangling past its knees like an ape. 
    They stood stock
still, rooted to the spot.  Its big, ugly head was perched atop rounded
shoulders that were hunched and misshapen.  It leaned forward and took a long,
snuffling breath through its bulbous red nose.  Its eyes rolled around,
searching for its prey, white eyes with no color and no pupils.
    Rebecca took an
instinctive step backward as it turned its blind eyes toward them.  A stick
snapped under her foot and she looked at Isaac in mute horror.  He shoved her
into motion as the ogre launched itself at them, its massive feet eating up the
distance, more than making up for the clumsy slowness of its lumbering
strides. 
    The thing took a
blind swipe at them with its club, taking out a few more trees with a horrible
splintering sound.  Isaac had a hold on Rebecca’s upper arm, and he gave it a
vicious squeeze.  “Shit, shit, shit!”  He dug in his feet and jerked her back
against his tall form.
    Up ahead, a
massive ravine split the path, and they had almost rushed headlong into it. 
Rebecca’s heart leapt into her throat as a massive foot landed beside her,
nearly squashing her.  She turned and followed Isaac as he pulled her off the
path and into the forest.  This had to be a bad idea, she thought as she panted
and puffed along behind him.  But there was no time for deliberation.  The ogre
was wuffling and snorting behind them, scenting them out.
    They ran until
they could go no further.  Finally, they collapsed behind the trunk of a big
old tree.  “What,” Isaac panted, “the hell are we going to do now?”
    Rebecca glanced
out from behind the tree.  That sense of foreboding bubbled up in her chest
again and she wanted to scramble out of their hiding space- anything but sit there
waiting.  “I don’t know, I don’t know…”  Running seemed pretty pointless.  They
were both exhausted, and anyway, this was supposed to be some sort of
challenge.  Probably.
    The ogre came
crashing through the trees and stood about ten feet away, turning its head this
way and that as it sniffed the air, its gargantuan nostrils flaring.  Rebecca
took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the tree.
    “Hey ugly,” she
shouted, her voice ringing like a bell in the deserted forest.  The thing’s
head swung toward her immediately.  Isaac hissed. 
    “Rebecca,” he
said in an urgent