Chapter 3
1144 Words
Seraphina
I should have left faster.
That was the first thought that came to mind the moment the forest swallowed him.
Not walked. Not hesitated. Not stood there like an i***t staring at the space he had just disappeared into. I should have left. Immediately. Without thinking twice.
Instead, I was still there.
Still standing on the ridge.
Still thinking about him.
I let out a breath and dragged a hand through my hair, frustrated with myself. “Get it together,” I muttered under my breath.
It was just some arrogant stranger who thought he owned the forest.
That was all.
And yet…
***
Third-Person(Writer) POV
Her fingers curled slightly at her sides as she replayed it. The way he had moved. Quiet. Controlled. Like he belonged there in a way she didn’t. Like the ground itself made space for him.
Annoying.
Everything about him was annoying.
The way he spoke like he already knew better. The way he looked at her like she was a problem he had not decided how to deal with yet. The way he kept stepping in without being asked.
Her jaw tightened.
And still, he had caught her. Twice.
She exhaled sharply, almost like she could push the thought out of her head.
That didn’t mean anything.
It didn’t.
People reacted. Instinct. Reflex. That was all it was. It wasn’t like he cared. He had made that very clear.
“I don’t.”
She scoffed softly, mimicking him under her breath. “Yeah. Sure.”
The worst part was that she believed him.
Not fully. But enough.
Because if he really didn’t care, he would have left. He would not have followed her halfway through the forest like she was some responsibility he didn’t want but couldn’t ignore.
And that was what bothered her.
Not him.
Not his attitude.
That.
Seraphina shifted her weight and glanced back toward the trees, even though she knew he was long gone. There was nothing there. Just darkness and the quiet hum of the night settling back into place.
Good.
That was how it should be.
No interruptions. No strange, intense strangers appearing out of nowhere and acting like—
She stopped the thought before it finished.
“Acting like what?” she muttered.
Like he knew something.
She frowned.
That was stupid.
He didn’t know anything about her. He had made that very clear too. Didn’t even bother pretending otherwise. Just looked at her, decided what he thought, and stuck with it.
Arrogant.
She kicked a loose stone near her foot, watching it tumble down the slope.
And yet, he hadn’t been wrong.
Her movements earlier had been off. Too fast. Too distracted. She had felt it too, that restlessness sitting under her skin, pushing her forward without giving her a reason.
That had started before him.
Before she even entered this part of the forest.
Her expression shifted slightly.
That was the part she hadn’t figured out yet.
Why she had come this far out.
Why it felt like something was pulling her, even when she told herself to turn back.
Seraphina wrapped her arms loosely around herself, more out of habit than cold.
It didn’t feel like danger.
That was the strange part.
If anything, it felt… unfinished.
Like she had missed something.
She shook her head quickly.
“No,” she said out loud this time. “You’re overthinking.”
That was exactly how people got into trouble. Start imagining things that weren’t there. Start following instincts that didn’t make sense.
She turned away from the ridge.
Time to go.
For real this time.
The descent was quieter. Slower. Not because she was scared, but because she was thinking. Too much, probably.
Her boots pressed into the dirt with more care now. She noticed things she had brushed past earlier. The uneven ground. The low branches. The slight shifts in the wind.
And underneath all of that…
Nothing.
No presence.
No sign of him.
She didn’t know why that bothered her.
It shouldn’t.
She had wanted him gone.
Hadn’t she?
Seraphina exhaled through her nose, annoyed at the direction her thoughts were going again.
This was exactly why she preferred being alone.
No distractions. No unnecessary complications. No people showing up and throwing everything off balance for no reason.
She ducked under a branch, stepping into a narrower path she barely recognized.
Wait.
She slowed.
Brows pulling together slightly.
This wasn’t the way she came.
She turned halfway, scanning the trees behind her. Everything looked the same. Too similar. Shadows blending into shadows, the ground uneven in ways that made it hard to track your own steps if you weren’t paying attention.
“Great,” she muttered.
She had been distracted.
Of course she had.
Seraphina took a slow breath, forcing herself to focus.
Panic wouldn’t help. It never did.
She crouched slightly, eyes scanning the ground. Her own tracks were there, faint but visible if you knew what to look for. The problem was they crossed over each other too much from earlier.
Messy.
She clicked her tongue softly.
“Nice one.”
For a moment, she considered going back the way she came anyway.
Then she straightened.
No.
She wasn’t going to second guess every step just because she had one off moment.
She picked a direction and moved.
Slower this time. More careful.
The forest felt different now.
Not dangerous. Just… unfamiliar in a way it hadn’t before.
And she couldn’t tell if that was because she had lost her way, or because she was still thinking about him.
“Stop,” she said under her breath.
It came out sharper than she expected.
She needed to focus.
Not on him. Not on whatever that weird tension was. Just on getting out of here.
A branch snapped somewhere behind her.
She froze.
Every muscle in her body went still, her senses sharpening instantly.
That was not her.
She turned slowly, eyes scanning the darkness.
Nothing.
Just trees. Shadows. Silence.
Her heart picked up slightly, not out of fear, but awareness.
“Probably nothing,” she whispered.
But she didn’t move right away.
She listened.
Waited.
There it was again.
Soft. Controlled.
Not random.
Her jaw tightened.
Someone was there.
And for one brief, completely unexplainable second, her mind went straight to him.
Then she shook it off.
No.
This felt different.
Not careless. Not obvious.
Whoever it was, they were trying not to be heard.
Seraphina straightened slowly, every instinct now fully awake.
“Alright,” she muttered under her breath, more to steady herself than anything else.
She adjusted her stance slightly, grounding herself.
If someone was watching, she wasn’t going to make it easy.
Another sound. Closer this time.
Her gaze snapped toward it.
“Come out,” she said, voice steady despite the tension building in her chest.
Silence.
Then,
Movement.
- Writer
