Samaritan

If you like this story, you will probably enjoy my other short fiction, such as Family, Breakdown, and/or Horseman.

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Jonah reined in his horse and climbed down to get a better look at the girl. Her body was lying next to the road. He reached into his saddlebags for a wineskin and pulled the stopper. After a bit of cold water on her face, she jerked awake and tried to crawl away from him.

He tried to settle her down as he said, "Just hold on there, lass. I'm not gonna hurt ya. My name's Jonah, what's yours?"

Her eyes were wide with fear, and she whispered through a bone-dry throat, "I'm Marissa. I was being chased by a gang of men when I fell. I was just too tired to get up."

Jonah stood up and looked around. He could see a group of horsemen with torches coming their way, and he made his decision.

He mounted the horse and held out a hand.

"Come on, Marissa, there's a mob o' crazies comin' down the road, and I wouldn't want to leave you here alone."

She smiled gratefully and took his hand, climbing onto the horse behind him.

She put her hands around his waist as he kicked the horse into a trot.

"Thank you for helping me, Jonah, but you really should have kept on riding."

He was puzzled for a moment, but the truth suddenly came crashing down on him. He tried to turn in the saddle to force her off the horse, but her hands locked into an iron grip around his waist, forcing the air from his lungs. A moment later he felt her teeth tear into his neck, and he knew nothing more.

Marissa threw the mangled corpse into the road and forced the horse into a gallop. She had a lot of ground to cover to get to the next town.