Blue Gumboots

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. We stood behind the cabin, me and the woman

I didn’t twitch; my stomach never fluttered. My face was blank. I did not fidget. No movement or emotion was uncanny about me. My lips froze, and my heart stammered. Goosebumps crawled up my arms like scales. I whispered at first. The blue gumboots were still on my feet and mud squelched beneath them. Then I screamed. There was nothing strange about my voice. Words began to slip from my lips. “I was out for a walk and worried about getting my shoes wet.” A bright light flashed in my eyes. The woman before me fidgeted, her eyes locked on mine. Mud still sloshed beneath the blue gum boots. I could feel water soak my socks and my hand's clench. I felt her warm hand clasp my arm. Her fingers pressed into my skin. I heard her keys jingle and before I could think, I started to run. The blue gumboots splashed in the mud below me and shone as the torch searched for me. Cold mud splattered on my calves. The hairs on my back pricked and I growled with pertness. Dirt rubbed against my skin. I smelt rotten meat and sour fruit. My eyes watered as I blinked dirt from my eyes.

Behind a tree, amongst the leaves and the dirt, I saw him. I saw him wearing the blue gumboots. With hollow eyes, shrunken wrinkled skin and bloated lips. I cried. Tears pricked my eyes as I wailed. I do not regret it. I do not regret it. I remembered when I creeped through the forest, towards the cabin, and found him, wearing his blue gumboots. When the light flickered on and pierced my eyes with a flash. That’s how I found him. When he stomped through the cabin, with blue gumboots on his swollen feet. I found him. I do not regret it.

My stomach churned. I slipped on the wet leaves. I saw a light. My teeth chattered as I stood. I started to think of him again. Him and his blue gumboots. I remembered his scream as my hand writhed beneath his skin. As my fingers slipped between his intestines. And I remembered the watery red blood that dried on my fingertips. I closed my eyes and imagined his limp face. I saw a light again. They were getting closer. I scrambled on the ground. I felt the hand grasp me again, but it was cold. I saw the blue gumboots on his feet. I did not whisper. I screamed. I looked up and saw the limp face. With dead eyes and a slobbering mouth. He had cracked dry skin and purple veins bulging from his face. I struggled from his grasp. I clawed and scratched at my legs, trying to force the blue gumboots off my feet. Blood ran down my legs and over the blue gumboots like thick mud runs down a tunnel wall. They started to slip off and the hand began to turn pink. Their veins disappeared, and their lips became parched. The blue gumboots were gone. She wore a uniform, with a vest and a belt and a gun on her hip. She spoke words I could not understand. I could hear the crackle of a fire and the crunch of the dry leaves beneath my feet. She spoke again in full clarity but still my mind remained blank. Until I felt a pinch on my wrists and a shove forward. I was walking, but as I looked down, my feet were completely bare.