run,

She had always dreamed of a simple life. Of a white picket fence out in the country. Of rolling hills of crops and grass. Of friendly neighbors who knew her name. Of a life far, far away from Faline and her torturous politics.

She had always dreamed of the life her family mocked, keeping such fantasies close to her chest each time she had to accompany her mother to tea. Or her brothers to a job. Or her father to a shrine. She would pretend that she was there, though, bare feet in the grass.

Anytime she saw blood, she had imagined it to be wildflowers. They would blossom in the street, wet crimson, and remind her of those rolling hills. Until one of them would yell at her to stop daydreaming and pick up the gun. She always had to pick up the gun. She could still feel its cold steel pressed against her palm, the gentle calm his coaxing gave her, if for only a moment.

It was easy, partially healing that mage. It was easy, getting away from him. It was easy, disappearing into the woods. It was easy to run, run, run.
But that was where the ease ended and the hardships began.

She didn’t know how to clean her wounds or find fresh water or find real food. She didn’t know which direction civilization was. She didn’t even know which way she had come. She picked a direction, and it was the incorrect one, exhaustion looming by the time the sun rose on the horizon.

Was this the fourth sunrise she’d seen? Or perhaps the fifth… maybe even more. She was not sure how long she had been wandering before she stumbled upon it; the very life of her fantasies. White fences, little farmhouses, rolling fields. It was almost too good to be true.

She could hear the sound of a dog barking in the distance, and children laughing and playing, and she followed it, bare feet leaving bloody prints in the soil. Those prints are soon to fade out, however, becoming more and more faint as they are followed. It was as if she merely ceased to exist. It’s unknown if she ever reached the picket fences at all, but one thing is all too heartbreakingly clear:

Mairyn Varlette has gone missing, and there is very little hope for her return.