No, psychotic asshole, I'm not just running, I'm surviving you. There's a huge difference. I'm not just fleeing from you, I'm fighting to stay alive, and I won't let you win. My defiance is my strength.
I wait until they crash past, going the wrong direction, and I slip out from behind the thick grouping of eastern white pine trees, silent as I can be on the wet leaves. My skin stings from the coarse and sharp branches cutting into me, and Ican feel scrapes dripping blood along my back and thighs. The remainder of the drug in my system swirls in my head again, trying to pull me back under. My vision blurs, and I feel my knees buckle.No. Not now. Not again.
I bite my lip hard enough to taste iron, and the immediate pain cuts through the haze just enough to push it back, and allow me to get back to my feet. I move as quickly as my shaking legs will allow, heading toward a thicker part of the forest with denser underbrush, thorny brambles, and uneven ground. A place that will slow them more than me. I can slip through tighter spaces. I'm smaller, lighter, and terrified enough to be inventive. My strategic thinking is my weapon.
Behind me, Cross roars, an actual roar like a wounded animal, and it causes sleeping birds to rise in a panic from the trees, and take to the air for their own safety. "She doubled back! Bitch doubled back! She's fucking with us!"
His fury pushes me to move faster, and I slide down a slope, mud slick under my feet. I catch myself on a sharp branch that scratches my palm open, but I don't care. I scramble forward on hands and knees as the slope flattens, and then I wedge myself between two thick boulders with just enough space for my body to fit if I breathe shallowly. The stones are freezing, and rough against my already chilled skin, and I almost change my mind about where I've wedged myself. My only comfort is knowing that none of them will fit in here to retrieve me. I reach forward and grab handfuls of mud, coating my limbs in their slimy, cool texture to further disguise me from the moonlight, and my captors’ eyes.
I hear them again, closer this time as Damon crashes down the slope, slipping and swearing as his knees break his fall. "This mud, fuck, it's cold, where'd she go?!"
"Quiet," River snaps from above with irritation. "She's close." My heartbeat spikes with the sound of his voice, and it doessomething horrible to my spine. I can't see him from my position, but in my mind's eye, I picture him searching all of the shadows for me, with a look of deep concentration on his angelic features.
Then Cross's voice breaks through the night air, ragged and livid as it booms across the trees. "Olivia! You're making this worse for yourself!"
Good. Let it get worse. Let him lose control.I won't submit willingly to him, or anyone. The fragile girl, who once would have surrendered, died that night years ago at the hands of a monster, and I was reborn. I'm no longer fragile like a flower; now I'm destructive like a bomb, and willing to take everyone down with me. I press my body deeper between the stones, pulling in my arms and legs, making myself small and invisible, as they move closer to my hiding spot.
Cross barrels down the slope next, and with amusement, I hear him slip, fall, and slam against a tree, and his yell of frustration almost makes me smile. "She's fucking with me," he spits. "She's doing it on purpose. When I catch that bitch, I'm going to tie her to one of these trees and fuck her raw, until she's bleeding from all her holes, before I let the animals at her."
River's voice is low and firm, and I can't tell if he's actually upset that I'm managing to evade them, or if he's enjoying the chase and hopes I get away. "She's not doing it on purpose. She's surviving. She's not weak, and you should have realized that from the beginning. You won't be able to bend her to your will, Cross."
River's words cause a fluttering in my chest. He sees me, the real me. He understands that I would rather die than surrender. It both exhilarates, and disturbs, me that he's managed to read me so profoundly. I need to snap out of it and not romanticize him, though. If he catches me, he won't be any more forgivingthan the other two. He's a monster just like they are, and he participated in drugging and kidnapping me.
They get too close, and I feel their shadows across my hiding spot, causing a trickle of cold sweat to slide down my back. My skin feels too tight and itchy with the caked mud, and my chest is demanding air, as I hold my breath until my vision goes white. My muscles cramp with the effort, protesting the tight space I've wedged myself into. A branch cracks behind me, too close, too fucking close, and for a horrifying second, I think Cross is reaching in to yank me out. I have to press my palm against my lips to silence a whimper of fear. After moments that feel like an eternity, they move on.Slow. Searching. Predators who don't like being denied.
The moment they're far enough away, I force myself out of the crevice and bolt again, deeper into the forest where the trees bend low, and the ground dips sharply. Cross howls behind me with wrath in his deep voice. "I swear to God, when I find you..." I don't hear the rest, because I'm not stopping, or bothering to look backward.
Not for the pain, or the cold that invades every part of my body.
Not for the drug crawling through my blood like poison, and trying to cripple my survival attempt.
Not for the fear tearing holes in my lungs, and forcing my heart to gallop in my chest.
The forest is a deep labyrinth, but I'm learning it one rushed step at a time. I'm finding its angles and hiding places, its sharp edges that I can use to my advantage against my captors. I'm not just running or fleeing anymore, no, now I'm hunting for the places where they can't follow, and I'm strategizing. I'm planning my escape, finding the weak spots in their pursuit. I'm hunting for a way out, and for revenge. For the first time since waking, something fierce and bright cuts through the terror.
They thought I'd be easy prey. They were wrong.
CHAPTER 32
OLLY
I've managed to gain some distance between them and me, after running and hiding for hours, and the dark night sky is about to give way to deep purples, and hints of dark orange. It would be beautiful to stare up at it if I weren't so exhausted, and being hunted. The forest blurs, one moment, the trees are solid, black pillars around me… and the next, they sway like they're made of bending glass. My body begs for rest as the ground tilts under my feet, and I stumble hard, catching myself on a trunk slick with cold moss, my fingers slipping from my terrified, precarious perch.No, not now, I have to keep going.
I blink, but my eyelids feel heavy, glued down by whatever's left of the poison they forced into me, and the adrenaline that is beginning to wane, and causing massive exhaustion to weigh me down. The fatigue hits like a wave sliding over me, cold, thick, dizzying, and dragging me into the abyss, as it whispers at me to just lie down, and let darkness swallow me. My body, aching and trembling, is a testament to the brutality of their pursuit. They won't let me go, but I'm desperate to survive, and I can't let them win.
My trembling knees buckle, and I can't seem to stop them. My vision pulses in and out, the forest disappearing and reappearing before me. My racing heart staggers in my chest, painful and sharp, as if it wants to crawl out of its cavity and flee, leaving me behind in these woods to my fate. I struggle with desperation to inhale much-needed oxygen, as if my body can't even seem to regulate that on its own.
"No... no... stay awake," I whisper-gasp, gripping the tree with desperation, until my nails rip and I feel a cold tear slide down my cheek. I've almost made it. The sun is rising, and I'm so close to getting out of here. I force my tired legs to take another step, heading in what I hope is the right direction toward civilization. My head spins again, and my numb, bare feet tangle in a hidden root, causing me to stumble forward. My reflexes are not quick enough to prevent my landing, and my head hits the base of a large tree trunk. I inhale the stench of earth and rotting vegetation, as I try to force myself to get back to my feet. The exhaustion, what's left of the drug, and fear swamping me, are all conspiring against me, pulling me toward the comforting embrace of unconsciousness. I'll just rest here for a quick moment. I've gained enough ground against them that it should be fine.
A shout splits the remaining night, bringing me back to awareness, and panic engulfs me. I raise my weary head and look around with terror.How long have I been out? It had to be just a few minutes, right?Dread fills my stomach as I gaze upon the sky, and realize it's much lighter than when I last looked at it. Shit, I've been out cold for who knows how long, and by the sounds quickly heading my way, they've caught up to me.Stupid, stupid fucking mistake, Olly,I chastise myself.
I stagger to my feet, my legs feeling like they're made out of spaghetti, as I stumble toward a copse of trees to hide myself in. My ankle aches even through the numbness, letting me know myfall must have caused damage. I force air through my lungs even though my ribs ache, and after taking a quick glimpse down at my mud-caked body, I realize I must have slammed harder into the ground than I thought. One side of my abdomen is already turning an ugly shade of red. Fuck, here's hoping I haven't broken anything. I take another step and then another, my will to survive stronger than my body's demand for rest, but I'm now moving much slower, the pain rising inside of me, until I have to grit my teeth to smother the cries that are trying to escape me.Hide,my brain shrieks, as the sound of rustling tree limbs gets louder and louder.
"There!" Damon's voice is close and sharp, giving me a last little boost of energy. I have to get away from him; he's a predator that will tear me apart without a moment's hesitation.
He must have spied me, and is watching with victory, as I wobble like a defeated animal. I force my legs to move, but they feel as if they're underwater. My body lags behind my brain, to my horror, denying my urgent need to escape this nightmare. My aching feet drag through the leaves, unsteady and clumsy, as branches snap behind me and hurried footsteps pound the earth.Fuck, he's running toward me. I have to get out of here.I lurch forward, slipping down a shallow embankment, catching myself on roots that scrape the remainder of my palms bloody, and scratch my shins. Terror fogs everything, forcing the edges of my consciousness to be mushy, and sounds to warp, and the forest spins like a nightmare I can't claw out of. Dizziness assails me once more, forcing me to slow further, and I feel myself about to collapse.No, I can't let it end like this. I can't let them hurt me.
"Don't fight it, unhinged princess!" Damon calls, his voice so close it makes the hairs at my nape stand on end, and I try to force my vision to clear enough to see him in his pink fucked up mask. "Just stop. You're gonna fall..."
