Chapter 2: The Blackwood Run
1597 Words
Aera's pov :
My room was tiny, but for years, it had been my only safe place. Tonight, it felt like a cage.
I locked the thin wooden door behind me, my hands shaking so badly that I could barely hold on to the doorknob. My chest hurt. Deep, hollow pain that made it hard to breathe.
Martha had sold me.
The woman who used to put bandages on my scraped knees, the woman who called me 'sweetheart' just hours ago, was actually selling me to human traffickers. I didn't want to cry. Crying was useless. But tears slipped down my cheek anyway. I angrily wiped it away with the back of my hand.
No more, I told myself. No more hoping they will love you.
I moved quickly and quietly. I grabbed my old winter coat and pushed my arms into the sleeves. I put on my boots and tied the laces tight. Finally, I grabbed a metal flashlight from my desk. I didn't turn it on. I just held it tightly in my fist like a weapon.
My bedroom window was painted shut from the outside. That meant I had to use the back kitchen door to get out into the yard. I had to walk right past the living room where Arthur, Martha, Derrick, and Caleb were sitting.
I took a deep breath, pushed my glasses up my nose, and slowly opened my bedroom door.
The hallway was dark. Outside, the winter storm was roaring. Heavy rain hit the roof like tiny stones, and thunder shook the floorboards. The noise was good. It would hide my footsteps.
I stepped into the hall. I walked on my tiptoes, placing my feet only on the edges of the floorboards so they wouldn't creak. My heart was beating so fast and loud that I was terrified the men in the living room would hear it.
I made it past the bathroom. I made it past the closet.
I was only five steps away from the kitchen.
Suddenly, a bright flash of lightning lit up the entire house through the windows, immediately followed by a massive crack of thunder.
I flinched badly. My shoulder jerked backward in the dark.
My elbow hit the wooden table in the hallway.
Time seemed to slow down completely. On top of that table was Martha’s favorite ceramic vase. I watched in horror as the tall vase tilted. I dropped my flashlight and reached out to catch it, my fingers brushing the smooth surface.
But I was too late.
The heavy vase hit the wooden floor.
CRASH.
The sound was deafening. It shattered into a hundred pieces, sounding like a bomb going off in the quiet house.
My blood ran completely cold. I stopped breathing.
For one terrifying second, the house was completely silent. The voices in the living room stopped instantly.
"What the hell was that?" Arthur’s rough voice yelled.
Heavy footsteps pounded across the living room floor. The door swung open violently, spilling yellow light into the dark hallway. Arthur stood there, his eyes wide. Derrick and Caleb appeared right behind him.
Arthur looked at the broken vase on the floor, and then his angry eyes locked onto me. He saw my winter coat. He saw my boots.
"She’s trying to run!" Arthur roared, his face turning red with sudden fury.
Pure, blind panic took over my body.
I didn't think. I just turned and ran.
"Grab her!" Derrick shouted, his boots shaking the floor as he lunged into the hallway.
I sprinted into the kitchen, my boots slipping slightly on the wet floor I had just cleaned. I grabbed the handle of the back door, fumbling with the lock. My fingers were clumsy with terror. I could hear Derrick breathing heavily right behind me. His hand reached out, his fingers grazing the back of my coat.
I unlocked it. I threw the door open and threw myself out into the freezing night.
The winter storm hit me like a wall of ice. Rain immediately soaked my hair and blinded my thick glasses, but I didn't stop. I ran wildly across the muddy backyard toward the forest edge.
"Don't let her get into the trees!" Caleb yelled from the porch. "Get the dogs!"
The dogs.
The thought made me want to throw up. Arthur kept three massive, half-starved hunting dogs in the shed. They were trained to track and tear.
I forced my burning legs to move faster. The cold mud sucked at my boots, trying to pull me down. I reached the tall, rusted chain-link fence at the end of the yard. I jumped, grabbing the wet metal. The sharp wire cut into the palms of my hands, but the pain didn't matter.
Behind me, the shed door slammed open. The terrifying, aggressive barking of the hounds filled the night.
I threw my leg over the top of the fence just as the dogs reached the bottom, snapping their teeth at my boots. I let go and fell hard into the wet grass on the other side.
I was out of the yard. Ahead of me was the Blackwood.
Locals said the Blackwood forest was cursed and full of monsters. But right now, the real monsters were the human men standing in my backyard. I got up and ran straight into the pitch-black trees.
The forest was a nightmare. I couldn't see anything. Branches whipped across my face, scratching my cheeks. Thorns tore at my jeans. I tripped over hidden roots, stumbling in the dark, but I forced myself to keep running. Every breath burned my lungs. My legs felt like lead.
Behind me, the hounds were off their chains. I could hear them crashing through the bushes. They were following my scent. They were faster than me.
Just keep going, I told myself, tears mixing with the rain on my face. Just hide.
I looked back over my shoulder for just one second to see the flashlight beams cutting through the trees.
That was my mistake.
My foot stepped on a thick, slick patch of moss at the edge of a drop-off.
The ground completely disappeared.
A scream ripped out of my throat as I fell forward into the empty dark. I tumbled down a steep, rocky ravine. My body smashed against hard rocks and loose dirt. The fall was violent and endless.
Then, a sharp, terrible snap echoed in my left leg.
My glasses flew off my face, lost in the dark.
I hit the muddy bottom of the gorge with a sickening thud. The air was completely knocked out of my lungs. For a long moment, I just lay there in the freezing mud, unable to move, unable to breathe.
When the air finally rushed back into my lungs, agony exploded in my left leg. It was brokenand and my ribs hurt.
Without my glasses, the world was a blurry, useless smear of shadows. I couldn't see the trees. I couldn't see the sky. I could only hear the dogs pacing at the top of the cliff, seventy feet above me, barking like crazy.
I struggled to lift myself onto my elbows, but my muscles wouldn't obey. My entire body trembled uncontrollably. Panic clawed at my chest. I was trapped.
But then... the dogs stopped barking.
It happened all at once. The loud, angry barks turned into scared, pathetic whimpers. I heard the dogs scrambling backward, running away from the edge of the cliff.
The freezing wind suddenly stopped. The air in the ravine felt heavy and hot. The smell of the rain was instantly replaced by a deep, powerful scent of pine, cedar.
A huge shadows stepped out from the trees near me. Even with my vision swimming, I could make out their huge forms.
But the man standing in front of them was impossible to ignore.
He wore nothing but dark pants. Rain streamed down his bare chest and carved muscles, making them glisten beneath the flashes of lightning. He looked less like a man and more like something dangerous pulled straight from a nightmare.
The overwhelming power rolling off him made every instinct inside me scream and made my broken ribs ache.
I gripped my metal flashlight tightly in my shaking hand. I was terrified, but I wasn't going to give up.
"Help," I whispered weakly. A wave of dizziness washed over me, and my vision blurred. Every part of me wanted to give in to the darkness, but I forced myself to stay awake. I wanted to see what he would do.
The giant man stopped moving completely.
The scary, dangerous feeling around him suddenly broke. A deep, vibrating growl came from his chest—a sound so deep it made the muddy ground shake beneath me.
He took a step closer, dropped down in the mud right beside me, and spoke a single word.
"Mate."
The word barely registered in my mind.
Everything around me started to fade. The rain, the voices, even the pain in my broken body seemed to drift farther and farther away.
My eyelids grew unbearably heavy.
The last thing I saw was the giant man reaching for me.
Then darkness swallowed me whole.
- Writer
