I only climb to the main floor.
Then, despite every reasonable concern about stamina or preparation or survival planning, I don’t stop.
I’m electrified with adrenaline and terror and something else I can’t name.
My transformed legs carry me racing through the castle’s ground level at speeds I never imagined possible.
Anything to distance myself from those nightmarish creatures that are only a broken chain away from pursuing me.
I’m completely naked as I burst into the snow. It’s absolutely reckless, but I’m beyond caring about wisdom right now.
I’d planned to find or fashion some kind of footwear before any escape attempt. I have calluses from my previous walking pattern, but only on the outer edges of my feet. I barely registerthe snow’s brutal cold—my feet are already numb from days in the unheated castle.
Am I already experiencing frostbite?
These questions blaze through my mind at lightning speed as I sprint away from everything I thought I knew.
Sunlight reflects blindingly off the snow as I head toward the lake, making conditions even more treacherous. Snow-blindness is a real danger, and I’m sweating despite the arctic wind slicing through my exposed skin.
This is incredibly unwise.
Then again, so is every single decision I’ve made recently.
The voice in my head laughs bitterly.So is every choice you’ve made since seeking miracles and finding devils instead in a house of demons.
Still, I run. I reach the lake and begin following its frozen perimeter toward that distant glint I desperately hope wasn’t a hallucination.
I’m shocked I’m not already exhausted.
Just days ago, I was winded on the stairs, and building endurance takes weeks of training, not a few days of castle exploring.
If anything, I should be a mass of strained muscles today.
Especially after last night’s... intensity.
But thinking about last night while fleeing for my life might literally make my head explode.
So I focus on placing one foot in front of the other. Pumping my arms in motions I’ve observed others perform my entire life, rather than from personal experience.
I’ve never run full-out like this before. Ever.
A wild exhilaration hits me.
I’m giddy while running for my life.
I feel like I could leap straight off the ground and take flight myself.
This is either runner’s high, adrenaline flooding from witnessing that horror, a combination of both, or my life flashing before my eyes before my heart explodes from overexertion and I collapse dead in the snow.
Regardless, I keep pumping my arms and driving my legs forward, my numb feet digging into the snow with each determined step.
The lake’s bank is mercifully clear of undergrowth.
So I run.
And run and run.
My racing heart somehow keeps beating as I push myself beyond any limits I thought my body possessed. Especially this body that was broken for so long.
