Trembling With Fear 02/06/2022

Charlotte by Gareth Rees

Charlotte ran, faster than she’d ever run before.

Ahead of her was a vast expanse of land, with nothing in view but a cluster of mountains, off in the distance. Salvation? Maybe.

She adjusted her course and pushed on, now heading for the only cover she could see. She felt the rumble through her feet as the giant followed her, every step bringing him closer, one of his giant paces the equivalent of a hundred of her own scampering steps. She was lucky he hadn’t spotted her earlier or he might already have caught her. She’d waited until nightfall before she’d entered this arid wasteland with the intention of crossing to find food. Her children would be awake soon and they would be ravenous. Their father had died, shortly after Charlotte had fallen pregnant and she was the only one left to provide. 

Steeling herself for the long, dangerous trek, Charlotte had set off. Things had gone well for the first half of her journey; she’d made good time and seen nothing.

But then, when she was a little short of halfway to her goal, she’d heard a colossal booming sound. Suddenly her world had exploded into light, more powerful seemingly than a thousand burning suns.

Charlotte had stopped dead, blinking against the blinding light and praying that whatever had made that deafening noise wouldn’t see her.

No such luck.

She’d heard a roar of anger and, against every instinct in her body, had turned back to see.

The giant was enormous, easily a thousand times bigger than Charlotte. His huge eyes, each one three times as big as Charlotte’s whole body, were directly fixed on her. His huge brow furrowed beneath a bald head and his mouth turned into a snarl under his grey shaggy beard. Each dirty yellow tooth in that mouth was as big as Charlotte. She had visions of herself disappearing into that void, the blackness enveloping her and the teeth crunching together, ending any hope of escape.

She ran.

As soon as she moved she heard another boom as the giant started after her. She would have screamed if she could but all of her attention was on running, pumping her legs as fast as she could, powering herself towards what she hoped was safety.

Time seemed to slow down. All there was in her universe was those mountains, the burning in her legs and the occasional thump of the giants’ feet hitting the floor.

She was so close now, maybe only two hundred steps away. The giants’ foot came down so close to her that her own feet left the floor. For a second she was hovering, flying even, then her soles reconnected with the ground and she lurched forwards.

She made it.

They weren’t mountains, their size had been an illusion, warped into a greater height by the absence of anything around them, but they were big enough.

Charlotte slipped into a crack, barely wide enough for her body and undoubtedly too small for the giant. Through the gap she could see his foot come down, so close to where she now hid. She breathed herself a sigh of relief. She was safe.

Charlotte took a moment to survey her surroundings. The structures she’d taken for mountains were huge monuments, stacked on top of one another. Each one was probably four times her size at least. Most of them were a dull grey but Charlotte noticed now that some were a beautiful shade of green. She gasped, almost forgetting the giant who’d chased her and moved closer to one. It was vaguely reflective, showing Charlotte a dimly distorted version of herself. She stared into her own eyes, enraptured by the beautiful colour.

Then the world was ripped away from her.

The giant stood over her, holding the interconnected monuments in one hand and glaring at her furiously. She saw now that he was holding a huge tree trunk in his other hand, long enough and wide enough to crush Charlotte twenty times over.

Her relief was gone, fear once more taking over. She ran again, fleeing this awful creature that was strong enough to rip huge monuments from the ground. Beyond what she’d taken for mountains, visible now that they were gone, was a grass ocean, tall enough to hide her. She could lose the giant there, lie flat beneath the grass and be invisible. It was her only chance and she went for it wholeheartedly.

The ocean was only a hundred steps or so away but the giant was right above her. She forced herself to run, faster and faster, fifty steps, now thirty, now only ten.

A shadow appeared above her, blotting out the light.

“No,” Charlotte thought, “I’m so clo…”

Her existence ended with a crushing blow, flattening her and sending one of her legs careering almost into the grass ocean she had strived to reach.

Gordon Pratt lifted the rolled-up newspaper and allowed himself a grin.

“Got you, you little bastard,” he whispered happily. He’d only come downstairs for a glass of water when he’d seen the creature. He couldn’t let it go, couldn’t risk the wife seeing it. She’d scream like no tomorrow and he’d never hear the end of it. Hell, she’d probably even refuse to walk on the floor for two weeks; she’d done that before. No, better to deal with it now. 

It had almost gotten away though, hiding itself between the bricks of the Duplo house his five-year-old daughter had built the previous afternoon, then almost under the rug too, but his newspaper had done the trick.

He looked down at the mess he’d left.

“I’ll clean it up in the morning,” he said, before putting the newspaper under his arm, pouring himself a drink from the kitchen and heading back to bed.

As he flicked the light switch Charlotte’s remains were once more thrown into darkness.

“What was that noise?” Gordons wife asked sleepily.

“Just a spider,” he replied, “Goodnight.”