* * *

The tree branches didn’t sway. The bull rushes didn’t twitch. The smoke from the deserted campfire floated upwards slowly in a straight line. The wind itself seemed to have taken off and left this place. The embers lining the fire’s pit had almost burnt themselves out, except for the few bright pulses of colour—from red to orange to deep yellow. It’s as though the dying flames had a weakened heart beating at its centre, ready to extinguish itself in a matter of seconds.

I switched my gaze from the fire to study the slow-moving river about twenty feet in front of me. The reflection of the warm hues cast by the setting sun turned the surface of the darkened water into a slick flowing mixture of black, grey, blue, orange and red rippling liquid.

As I approached the riverbank, the movements of my feet shifted the loose and shallow gravel of the narrow beach. I caught sight of a startled frog hopping toward the tall grasses, followed by a barely-audible plop as it disappeared.

A few seconds later, I stood knee-deep in the cold water without even bothering to remove my socks and shoes. I lifted my hands, palms facing toward me. The streaks of blood no longer looked red, but a blackened purple. Bending over at the waist, just enough to submerge my hands in the river, I rubbed them against each other as if I had covered them with a thick layer of liquid soap.

Walking back toward the fire pit, I listened for any kind of movement—any tell-tale sign that my unsavoury activities had been discovered. My arms stung where the sapling branches had whipped my bare skin as I had run through the twilight forest. Hands lowered, shaped into fists, I kept thinking to myself, if only they hadn’t dared me to do it. They had taunted me, only half-believing I’d be capable of such a thing. When I had finished recounting my past incident in detail, their disbelief had recognized the truth, then undergone a massive mental metamorphosis. An unshakeable fear took its place. A heart-stopping-why-bother-running kind of fear.

They had thought me their prey until I became the predator.