“If Only” kept running through my head as I ran through the forest. What is it that follows me, that torments me? I catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye, but it escapes me as I cry. I looked up at the top of the evergreen canopy, nothing. I looked down at the carpet of pine needles beneath my feet, nothing. There's that familiar sound again, a distant laugh as if mocking my every effort. "Where are you?" I screamed, but the trees silenced my plea once again. I ran as if my life depended on every step I took until I reached the river. On the shore I could see a giant rock as lonely as I was. Wading through the freezing cold water I called out to the stone, my long lost friend. I lifted myself onto its water-slicked surface and lay there as I gasped for air. I was grateful, grateful for what I wasn't sure of, but grateful all the same. Minutes passed, or it could have been hours I didn't know and didn't care, I just lay there listening to the song of the river singing just for me. The midday sun peeked through the evergreen peaks and the forest came to life once again. The thrill coursing through my veins warmed as I watched the light dance across the water in an effervescent parade. The leaves sound like a chorus as they sway, and the river dances with joy as it passes each rock. “Listen to my secret,” he sang his song to me. Memories flooded my body, the unpleasant ones I thought I'd buried too long to surface, the reasons I'd fled. “I'm lost,” I thought and stood there sobbing as my body began to wreak havoc revealing the pain. Screamed obscenities rang in my ear, “make it stop,” I sobbed through tears. The night that brought me here was over, yet it echoed in the distance of my heart... in the middle of the paper... like a forked tongue. Passing past me from both sides, the teeth came together to form an arrow and with the speed of an expert marksman they pierced the heart of my shadow. The shadow shattered into what seemed to be a million grains of black sand, and in the barrage, I could feel the dark evil and terror in each tiny piece as they flew. The air filled with an eerie sound as the giant whirlwind smothered the shadow in deathly silence. In a flash, the water billowed upward once more, then plunged back into the river with such force that my rock and I staggered. We stood there watching the river wash him away until we heard his last remaining moan subside. A quiescent silence filled the forest and I granted ourselves freedom and much needed rest. A soothing sensation pervaded my body and wrapped my soul in a warm embrace. As I stand here on my rock, I am free.