The Red Queen

Chapter - 4

Reine’s POV

“don’t come any closer.” I warned. He stopped again.

My heart was literally palpitating in my chest with fear. There was no saying what this man, or creature might do.

Gripping my backpack to my chest, I stood up and backed away, keeping my eyes on his. “You will stay here, do not f*****g follow me."

He growled throatily, as if the command physically pained him. I speed walked to the gap and got out as fast as I could. Once out, I ran, I ran until I was near the car. It was daytime, that only meant one thing, I was unconscious all night.

My phone was blowing up with notifications. Huffing and puffing, I sat inside and sped out of there, fearing he might chase me. Once at a considerable distance from the forest, I pulled over and called aunt Marissa.

“Reine!” she exclaimed in the phone angrily. “I have been trying to call you whole night, where the hell were you?!” she exploded.

I breathed. “I was camping, didn’t get any signal in the forest.” I spoke. “I am sorry, I got signal when I drove away.”

“I was worried sick rei, so was Anastasia. Your parents couldn’t get through you either, so they called me.”

I sighed. “I will call them right now.”

“You better. And when are you getting home, are you alright?”

“I am fine aunty. Just tired from hiking.” I lied.

“Alright. I will see you when you get here.” She said and cut the call.

I tossed the phone on the other seat and looked at my dried wound. The blood was dried and it looked nasty. I cleaned the wound with water, hissing and grunting and wrapped it up in a gauze.

I called my parents; it took half an hour to calm them both down. I was dead tired and still felt like I was living a dream. The gravity of situation had not hit me yet, it will probably fall upon me when I got to bed at night. I can hardly believe that a f*****g statue came to life.

I drove back in daze. Aunt was waiting for me in the patio. I exited the car and the lady ran to me.

“Oh, thank god.” She said, hugging me.

I rolled my eyes. “I am fine. See.” I said pulling away and motioning to myself.

“Why do you look so shabby?” she asked.

“It is a forest aunty; my clothes were bound to get dirty.”

“Yea but you did take extra clothes, right? So why didn’t you change?!”

I frowned, feeling extremely bad for lying. “I didn’t find a place to change, there were more people staying overnight than I expected, plus I had to cut my trip short too.”

“Oh yes, you were going to stay for one more day.”

“Yea, but I remembered that I have a deadline coming in two days, I have to work on that.”

“Oh alright, come on in. change and freshen up, I will serve lunch.”

I nodded and we both walked inside.

There was this weird restlessness inside me that I couldn’t describe. I felt weird, the bad type of weird, like a desperate longing. Dismissing the feeling, I went up to my room, and dumped the backpack in the corner and went straight into the shower.

Aunt Marissa had served dinner by the time I came down. I shot her a thankful smile and sat on the table, immediately digging into the chicken fried rice.

“Slow down girl, the food ain t going nowhere,” she said, looking at me in amusement.

“I am sorry, I was just so hungry.” I said, gulping the mouthful of rice.

“I can see that. Here, take some more.” She said served me more of her amazing rice.

I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I ate the first spoonful. I guess all the adrenaline and denial made me forget the hunger. I ate until my stomach was about to explode with food. I kept the spoon back in the empty plate and got up. Rounding the table, I kissed aunt’s cheek.

“The food was delicious. Thank you.” I smiled and excused myself.

I went back to the room and closed the door; my min instantly went back to that strange man. He looked like he could snap my neck with just squeezing it with his bare hands, then why the hell did he listen to everything I said like an obedient little servant? There were so many questions lingering in my mind. The most important being, who the hell was he? He was a bloody statue before he literally woke up and chose violence.

I shook my head. That cant be real right? All this was not real, I had an illusion, a very realistic illusion. That’s what it was. With that thought in my mind, I decided to take a nap.

Those eyes, those set of dangerous yet alluring red eyes watched me, more like stared at me intensely. It was kind of a stare that you can feel on every inch of your body, you can physically fell it on your skin. They got bigger, bigger and bigger until they were right in front of me. Whoever they belonged to stood in front of me, masked in a dark shadow, concealing his real identity apart from his eyes.

Slowly, half of the man’s face was revealed, including unusually sharp, pearly white canines, lips curled in a dangerous, feral smirk. His fleshy, pink tongue ran over his lips, as If he was going to eat me next.

In next moment, he pounced on me.

A scream torn through my throat as I was startled awake, aunt rushed in, looked scared and worried.

“What happened?” she asked, looking around frantically.

“I had a nightmare.” I sighed rubbing my face, I was sweating profusely.

She exhaled. “I thought something happened to you. Want to talk about it?”

I shook my head. “No, I am fine. It was just a stupid nightmare, sorry for scaring you.” I said sheepishly.

She waved her hands. “It is fine. I am heading to the store with our neighbour. I wont eb back till seven. Will you be fine by yourself?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Aunt, I am twenty three year old adult, I can handle empty, I am sure.”

“Just making sure.” She spoke.

“You can leave without any worry.” I said waving my hand in dismissal.

“Alright. Call me if you need something from the store. I will see you.”

I nodded. She left, closing the door. I sighed loudly and went back to sleep but failed. Those eyes kept haunting me, more like begging e to come back, there was this pull that was so hard to resist. I felt like I just had to go, I didn’t know why but I had to, I needed to.

Huffing, threw the covers back and hopped out of the bed. I had to go, I had to go now, I didn’t care if it was night anymore. I called aunt.

“Hey, me and rose are going to a club, I won’t eb back till late.” I spoke.

“Alright sweetheart, take care of yourselves and don’t drink too much.”

“We won’t.” I said and hung up.

Next, I called rose.

“Hey.”

“Hey, I need your help rose.”

“What is it? And aren’t you supposed to eb on a hike right now?”

“I cut it short due to an emergency. That’s not important right now, where are you?”

“At Bethany’s. we are pulling an all-nighter.”

“Excellent. If my aunt asks you tomorrow that where were you, you will say we were at some club.”

“o..kay, but why do I need to lie though, and where are you going?”

“I cannot tell you right now, I will tell you tomorrow.”

“You are acting kinda sus right now but fine. I will cover for your ass.”

“Thanks. I love you loads.” I said and hung up.