Anna's River

As the night led on, and sirens were behind her, a voice in the back of her mind continued to say, “We’re almost there, just hold on; we’ll be there soon, but watch out for the water…”

           

            It had been three days since Anna and Gavril had left their town in Maryland. They walked along the road during the night on the third day. Anna was angry at Gavril because he was not following the road map that they were using. He was taking them through areas that were far away from the main roads that led to Maine. The idea that they had in their heads was to start over, far away from the lives they’d left behind in Maryland.

            For the night, they decided to use an old campsite to sleep in. The campsite had not been used in at least twenty years, as the only structure of the site showed. A small lean-to was the only structure, aside from the other fallen lean-to. Gavril started a fire outside of the lean-to to make the immediate area a little more comfortable. After Gavril was done, he came into the lean-to with Anna. He wanted to hold her, but he knew she wouldn’t let him.

            “Anna, I’m sorry.” Gavril said. Anna looked at him in amazement, only because he never apologized for anything that he did wrong. “I should’ve read the map right, and I should’ve taken your word on where to go.”

            Anna expected him to apologize for more than just the misreading of the map. Both of them knew what he had done to make Anna as angry as she was. The silence between them grew as Anna expected Gavril to start apologizing for the wrong that he’d previously done.

            “You’re not going to say anything else?” Anna said to break the silence.

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Gavril replied.

            “Yes, you do!” Anna’s shout echoed through the forest. Birds sounded their calls as they flew away from Anna’s scream, trying to escape the ferocity of her shouted words.

            “I still don’t know what you’re talking about…” Gavril insisted. Anna leaned into Gavril as he sat still. Her face was only a few inches away from his. She spoke quietly at first.

            “Yes…you…do!” The last word was shouted from Anna’s mouth. But as soon as she did this, Gavril grabbed Anna by the neck and pinned her up against the wall of the lean-to. Anger poured through his breath and flowed through his blood.

            “I didn’t do anything.” Gavril said. Rage quietly filtered its way through his voice, barely being contained by his limits. Anna choked as her face started to turn red, although, Gavril couldn’t see Anna’s face very well; he could just make out her features, and thought she was devoid of all color.

            Color may have well been absent from Anna when she was in Gavril’s sight. Gavril always ignored who Anna truly was. He never really knew her, and she never really knew him, but they were running away together.

            “Why?” Anna managed to choke out. Gavril released his grip, and Anna gasped for air. Anna pulled out the switchblade she had carried with her since she was a little girl, and rushed at Gavril with it. He managed to see what she was doing, and punched Anna in her right cheek, hurting her badly. The bruise should not have hurt as much, but Anna had been punched in the same exact spot on her face by Gavril so many times, that the bruise amplified the pain of his knuckles as they made contact with her skin and bone. She retracted the blade into the handle, and held the weapon close to her side as she herself retracted into the corner of the lean-to. Anna cried in the corner, thinking about sliding the blade she held across her wrists, so that she could end this all. She looked at Gavril in disgust as he sat where he’d punched her.

            “Why?” Anna said. “Why do you have to be like this to me? What the hell did I ever do to you?”

            Gavril only stared back at Anna without any emotion.

            “When you cheated on me, how was that my fault? You blamed me for infidelity when I caught you and that skank f*****g in the back seat of my car. You punched me in the face for finding you two. And the w***e that you were with was crying. And when I tried to ask her why she was crying, you just pulled me in the car and started to choke me; you choked the both of us while you raped the w***e you were with. She was crying because you had a gun pointed at her head. She didn’t think she was going to live. And I didn’t think I was going to live either.” Anna cried as she talked. “And when you were done with her, you choked her; she couldn’t breathe, and then her heart stopped. You killed her; you f*****g killed her. And you stopped choking me, but put the gun to my head. Then, I remember you making me dump her body in the river. The image of her body breaking on the rocks as she fell down into the waters won’t get out my head. I’m haunted by it, and in the times that I dream, I have a nightmare. That nightmare is always the situation of me being that girl I threw into the river. Then, we were parked by the road, and you put the gun to my head again…and you raped me.”

            “It wasn’t rape with either of you.” Gavril said.

            “I’m 15 and you’re 19; I’m below the age of consent.” Anna replied.         

            “It doesn’t matter…”

            “Yes it does…”

            “The cops never caught us.”

            “But you raped me. I thought I was going to die. You had that gun pointed to my head, and I was scared about what you were going to do. I was scared I was going to turn out like that girl I’d thrown into the river. But then you hatched this idea that we’re stuck in now; this idea that we can run to Maine and get away from this all. But you know...this idea was f*****g stupid! We shouldn’t have done this in the first place. And when the morning comes, I’m going to go to the police and turn your a*s in.”

            “You’re not going to do that, Anna.”

            “You deserve to rot in jail.”

            “Anna, you’re pushing it…”

            “Burn in hell…” Gavril rushed towards Anna across the lean-to, but Anna had expected him to do this. She knew that he left his gun in the car, so his only option of attack was hand-to-hand combat; the advantage he had was gone. She flipped out the blade to her knife and stood up to meet Gavril’s rush. She kept her blade to her side as Gavril ran towards her, and in the last second before he would be able to choke her to death, she thrust up the blade into Gavril’s neck. His trachea became severed in half, and the blade was long enough that it managed to sever Gavril’s spinal cord, due to the speed of his running. As Gavril gasped for breath, and his dying eyes looked at Anna in astonishment, she grinned a grin of satisfaction. She pressed her mouth to Gavril’s ear, and said,

            “I hope the b***h you killed as a switchblade waiting for you.” Then, she twisted her own blade a full, one hundred and eighty degrees, and sheared through the left side Gavril’s neck, severing the veins on that side of his neck. Blood spilled everywhere as Gavril fell to the floor. Anna knelt down to Gavril’s body and wiped the blood on her blade off on Gavril’s shirt. She searched his pockets for the keys to his car, but could not find them. She figured the keys were sitting near the fire, so she went towards the fire. But as she walked, she heard a gunshot, and in the same instance a bullet hit the dirt next to her feet.

            She ran.

 

            By daybreak, she’d been running for too long. All she’d seen were trees, foliage, and searchlights. She’d also only heard the sound of her feet running across the ground, sirens, and the barking of search dogs. She figured that the police had found Gavril, and were looking for her. They must’ve suspected that she was an accomplice to Gavril, so they were hunting her down. She rested by a tree for a minute, trying to regain steady breathing. Her panting was frantic and harsh; her lungs were tired, and her throat was dried out. She didn’t know where else to go. But, as if by hope, when she looked up again to see where to go, she saw an interstate sign that read: “Welcome To Maine!”

            The road was far from where she was, and she could not get to it and she did not want to risk being seen by police. So, she decided to run through the forest and cross into Maine. Somewhere, she would be able to wash the blood away from her, and start again. But, she heard a policeman behind her; and he had seen her. She heard him yell to her to put her hands in the air, but she did not obey his command. Instead, she ran.

            The police officer managed to fire three shots at Anna, only one of which managed to hit Anna in the arm. She let out a cry of pain when the bullet hit, but the adrenaline in her body made the pain not hurt as much. She carried herself at the same speed she had before. But a strange thing happened; a voice in her head said to her, “We’re almost there, just hold on; we’ll be there soon, but watch out for the water…don’t fall into your River, Anna.”

            She didn’t know what the voice meant, but she soon found out. Past the sign that Anna saw, and in the direction she was running, there was a river…

 

            The police later found Anna’s body at the bottom of the small river. The waters in the particular spot she’d fallen to were shallow, and the rocks were plentiful. Undoubtedly, she’d fallen from the cliff thirty feet above the waters to her death. The consensus among the officers was that she’d died on impact.

            Her contorted body lay on the smooth river rocks, the shallow waters washing her blood downstream. Later in the day, a coroner had taken her body to the morgue.

 

            Weeks later, one of the officers had walked to the river that Anna had died in. He liked to come to the part of the river where Anna had died because the waters were so calm and shallow. But now, with the memory of what had happened in the spot he stood, it was difficult to be at peace with the calm.

            He looked down at the waters, and saw something unusual. The sunlight caught on something plastic. The officer figured it was some sort of plastic bottle, so he went over to the spot to pick it up. But it was no bottle; it was Anna’s identification card. He picked it up, and looked at the picture and recognized the girl.

            “This was the girl who died here.” The officer said. He wondered how the coroner had missed seeing this card. The officer looked to see what the name of the girl was.

            “Anna…” He said. Then he pondered the name for a minute, making a connection in his head. He opened his mouth to say:

            “Well, now, I guess this is Anna’s River.”

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

A amazing story. You brought me in with a strong story. I like the situation and the scenery of this story. The girl is strong and I like how she got her revenge. A sad ending for the girl. I like the ending .
"Well, now, I guess this is Anna’s River.”"
A outstanding story. Thank you.
Coyote

[Ravyne Hawke]

Another amazing story Luke. Great characterization, great dialogue, wonderful flow.. and as always a wonderful story from beginning to end.

[Hayley]

This is great! I love the ending. It got to be a fast paced read. Amazing, as usual!

[Lily Mae]

I truely enjoy reading all of your storys.. They have a certain mystery to them.. I love the relationships you always develop.. Another great write..xx

[Lucy Green]

Very intense, it dragged me in and held me the whole time.

[Lilly Negoi]

excellent flow of action! the way you present her inner torment, thoughts, fears and so on is wonderful! and the ending just perfect!