“She wouldn’t have,” I say, shaking my head. “Not Oriah. She wouldn’t have left me if she didn’t have to.”
He leans his head back against the log and takes a long exhale into the night. “I hope you’re right.”
I hope I am too.
***
My mind splinters into a hundred restless realities as I drift inand out of sleep. Every sound drags my eyes open; the whisper of leaves, the tremor of wings as birds burst from the trees, the faint hum of insects creeping too close to my skin.
Each time, I jolt awake.
Yet exhaustion anchors me; my legs throb with the promise of betrayal if I rise too quickly, and my once-translucent eyelids have turned to lead; heavy, aching, unyielding. My muscles curse at me as I turn over, hoping a different position will somehow send the annoyances away, but my body stiffens again with the brush of a nearby bramble. Like a deer in headlights, it appears a pair of eyes are alight with an amber glaze. I stare at them, unwaivering, as if my unrelenting gaze will scare whoever owns those eyes away. But like mine, their observing does not falter. My hands immediately scramble to wake up Ryder, but are met with moss and mud. Through the low orange glaze of the fire, I can see that my friends are no longer with me.
“Ryder?” I call out into the onyx air, but my voice just repeats itself, echoing off the trees as if the forest itself is mimicking me. My heart drums against my chest in an uneven rhythm. “Nala…River?” My cries barely disturb the still air.
And the eyes. The eyes are still watching me, creeping. closer. closer.
My body trembles as I slowly stand, my gaze unwavering from the eyes. I have heard stories about the predators in this forest. I will not be the mouse—I will not be the prey.
I run—run as fast as my legs can carry me, through the curling dark. Branches tear at my sleeves, slap my face and snag in my hair.
But I don’t stop.
I can’t.
Something is chasing me.
My breath burns in my throat, escaping my lips in short, ragged gasps that fog the cold air before vanishing into the dark.I hear the crack of twigs snapping in every direction, each one making my heart flee. Then, like a phantom wall, something appears in front of me, as if dissipating from the shadows themselves.
It’s a man.
My body slams into his chest, sending me on a quick descent, and my fingers scramble through the dirt, my legs shuffling me backwards away from his towering figure. His presence is warning and dangerous. I can’t work out whether he is real or just a nightmarish mirage.
“Asha, where did you go? We’ve been looking for you.” his voice is like water in the desert. My heart lulls, my lungs relaxing in an instant.
“Ryder?” I question, as the shadows drift away from his face, so that I can see him clearly. It’s him… It’s really him.
“You just ran off.” He says with worry, before a small smile curves at his lips. “You can’t get away from me that easily.” his eyes narrow into slits and make me go cold, the purple rings reclaiming his eyes like an indigo flame. And suddenly I can’t move.
“Y-your eyes…” I stutter, lungs clawing for air as I try to push myself upright. My legs tremble so violently that it feels like the ground is shaking with me—they buckle before my feet can even touch the earth.
His figure looms over me, unblinking.
“Pretty, aren’t they?” he smiles a twisted smile, showing far too many teeth, and stretching far too wide on his face. “Why aren’t you running… I like it when you run.”
My body jerks and turns like a reflex, and I am running again.
Running away from him.
The ache in my legs is dulled by the adrenaline, but my chest feels like it may split open.
The ground is a trap of roots and rocks, each step a risk. I stumble but quickly catch myself on a tree, internally wincing as a splinter of bark embeds itself into my palm, and I push off again.
Only to be met by him once more.
Slipping out of the shadows like a serpent.
His hands are on my throat. Squeezing, tight—too tight.
