Locksleigh

Chapter Three

I ran then.

Faster than I had run from the Imperials. I pushed my legs as fast as they could go, discarding my pack on the way. It didn’t help me much and only slowed me down. I couldn’t afford to be caught. I couldn’t end up like my sister. I just couldn’t.

I was barrelling over a fallen eucalyptus tree when a weight crashed into me from behind and I fell to the ground. I tried to move, tried to fight the body off me but I couldn’t. He was too strong. I was trapped a like mouse trapped by a lion. In that moment I have never been more afraid in my entire life. Panic took the leading role in my body and I felt like I was hyperventilating. s**t!

“Get off me!”

His laugh was low and hearty and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. “Yes, because I’ll let you go because you told me to. Might want to try asking nicely.”

“Please get off me.”

“I said you could ask but not that it would change anything.” His hand was at the back of my neck, keeping my cheek on the dirt carpet of the forest. A voice as soft as silk and smooth as butter met my rapid heartbeat as he lowered his face to my ear. “Talk.”

“W-what?”

“Who the f**k are you? Who sent you?” My head was pushed harder into the dirt and I cringed, my neck twisting at an odd angle.

“No one! I’m no one! Please let me go.” There was a loud smack that echoed through the forest and a pain in my ass accompanied it. He actually spanked me! I was too shocked to make a sound.

“You’re that little minx who lives in that van.” He cooed softly, almost sounding loving and friendly. “Oh yes. I’ve been watching you. What made you decide to bust our ambush?”

“What? No! I didn’t know!” Watching me? I didn’t even think they knew I existed. I thought I had made myself invisible. After Edith, I wanted nothing to do with the bandits. Nothing but to steer clear of them as far as humanly possible. It seemed I had failed so miserably.

“Of course you knew.”

To my surprise I begged him. I burst into tears and I begged like a coward. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I was a coward, I was a thief after all, but in that moment, I was ashamed of who I was in front of this man. “Please don’t kill me.” I sobbed and cursed myself for my own weakness. Or stupidity. I wasn’t sure which yet.

He howled with laughter. “I’m not going to kill you, little Rabbit. I think you can repay me in another way for the thousands you just cost me.” My blood chilled. I knew what he wanted. It wasn’t a secret that women had no place next to men in the communities outside of the Imperial. In fact, not even in the Imperial did women stand a chance against a man. Chances were that if you called for help, people you thought your saviours would join in on the fun. I knew enough girls who suffered this fate to know it was terrible. Even if I was never even touched by a man. Not until now, it seemed. I knew what was going to happen eventually if I didn’t get away from him. In fact, I knew it was going to happen if I stayed long enough in the capital too. It wasn’t long a woman could go without being claimed by a man. Sooner or later, all women were either sold by their parents or taken by force. There were rare occasions that people married for love, but it was something I never held my breath for. It seemed like a fairy tale too good to be true. I was right to dismiss it as much. But I didn’t want to be remembered as being taken without a fight. I was going out like Edith. Kicking and f*****g screaming.

My courage gained a second wind and I fought against his grip once more. To my surprise I managed to wriggle myself out of his hold. He swore colourfully and for a second I thought he was cussing in another language before I realised it was still English. It was apparent that his fowl vocabulary far exceeded my own.

I dug my nails into the soil of the damp forest floor and pulled myself away from him. When I was a fair enough distance away so I could turn around, I kicked him in the chest. He staggered for only a second before catching my ankle and twisting it painfully and scowling at me. I whimpered in pain as he pulled me closer to him again.

“Would you f*****g stop that?” He growled, putting more force into his words than I had heard him use so far.

“Never.” I hissed. “ I will never stop fighting until the day I die.”

Footsteps and voices approached and my heart sank to my stomach. The voices quieted down when they approached, probably eyeing the spectacle in front of them. I prayed to every god imaginable that they were going to make it quick.

“Trust me little Rabbit, you’ll feel dead inside soon enough.”