I turn my head to the side, looking over my shoulder, even though I can’t see fuck all.
A few trees away, there’s an abnormal hunch at the bottom of one, just sticking out slightly. I squint, willing my eyes to adjust to the silhouettes of the trunks.
I crouch down and approach in silence, footsteps soundless and featherlight.
When I get a couple of feet away from the trunk, the hunchback disappears fully behind it.
I take a deep breath, knowing I have her. I can smell her. I can feel her. Her energy is unique to anyone I’ve ever met. It’s light but heavy. Bright but dark. A weight of pressure to be strong, to be fearless, but it’s overpowered by her natural instinct to fear, to survive. It’s like a bouquet of flowers wrapped in barbed wire.
I get to the other side of the trunk and inch round, completely silent, unless she can hear the blood roaring in my ears.
As I round the tree, I come up empty. She’s gone.
I straighten up and as I whip my head round at a rustle behind me, something crashes into my stomach and sends me crumbling to the ground, winded and erupting in pain.
My vision’s whited out by pure agony, my insides screeching in a fire I can’t even fathom. What the fuck was that? A fucking branch or her foot? Whatever it was, it’s folded me up like a piece of paper. I see her little silhouette scurry off into the darkness. I force myself to my feet, wincing and clutching my stomach that’s now thrumming in pain. She won’t get far from me. No need to rush, I know I have her now.
Ballsy, I’ll admit. She played into my weakness after all. There’s no way she connected to the stab wound that perfectly by accident. She knows exactly where it is, she’s the one that sewed it back together. Again, that irritating reminder. What am I even supposed to do with that information? I said thank you the best way I knew how, I guess. I don’t know, all this relationship bullshit is new to me, I don’t know how to be with a woman. I don’t know what they want. And I get lumped with a woman who’s probably just as violent and evil as I am. What did I do to deserve that?
Getting back on track, I follow in the direction she darted off. I couldn’t really believe she’d willingly save my life, gun to her head or not. It’s hard to imagine her that close to my body, delicate fingers working to sew the vessel for my black soul back together. It could have been a turning point for us. But I guess she just wanted to save my life so she could continue to make it hell. I mean, seriously, she rode me straight after. Who does that? She either wanted me so badly she couldn’t control herself, or she really is as psychotic as we heard her to be. Or she actually wanted to make me come to ruin the whole cleanse. That last possibility makes my blood boil.
When I catch her, which will be soon as I can see her running now, what am I supposed to do with her? I’m not an idiotthinking she’ll just comply, so it’ll take a miracle – or a lot of time and energy – to beat her into shape. I don’t want to do that. It’s not even about all the time I’ll waste on her. It’s the fact that I genuinely don’t want to. I gave her so many chances to behave, and she fought back every single time. And to my utter disdain, if I shove the pride away for a split second, I’d say I was impressed. I could say that I actually enjoy it. A little. Not a lot.
Whatever happens next, it’s not my fault. She made the choice.
I’m close enough to smell her now. The light floral scent that always invades my body with a foreign warmth, floats back to me and makes my bones ache with the need to get my hands on her.
“Elodie, you may as well give it up now.”
She doesn’t even respond to me. She just keeps running.
I chuckle at her silhouette. “You can run, but you can’t hide from me, Elodie. You’re mine now.”
I’m close enough to hear her laboured breaths. To taste that trail of delicious fear floating behind her.
She keeps running.
I have to get back soon. I imagine from the lack of screams now that all five subjects have been caught.
Sighing, I close the distance even more. “It’s over, Elodie, come on. Stop running.” I’m giving her another chance, one last chance.
“Fuck you!”
I can hear the tears of terror in her voice already, the panic setting in now she knows her fate is sealed.
“If you stop running now, I won’t hurt you. I’ll take you back to the house unscathed.”
“No you won’t!”
Oh, fuck this. I take a couple of long strides and catch her by her hair, yanking her to the floor. She cries and thrashes around,so I let her hair go and come round to the front, dropping to my knees and mounting her.
It’s too dark to make out any of her features, but her fear is almost palpable.
Her fists come up to my chest and stomach, one hit getting too close to my stitches for my liking, so I pin her arms above her head and come closer to her body.
“Listen to me, the game’s over. You lost. I’m sick of giving you chance after chance. You’re going to come with me willingly, and you’ll go back into the house while I finish the rest out here. Got it?”
“No!”
