Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Out here, in the woods. I am nothing.
Nothing at all.
I feel my insignificance crashing over me like a wave. I wanted to be stripped of everything that hurt, the life I came from, everything I knew. And it has happened all at once.
They turn toward me, their eyes locked on me.
And that’s when a second realization comes.
In the place I come from, I am the child of those who matter more than almost anybody. I am the apex. Out here? I am prey. I feel it. Deeply. I feel it completely and entirely.
Suddenly, I am a little creature out of place in a forest full of wolves.
They move toward me.
Fast.
Frighteningly fast.
I see eyes and teeth, fangs and hands, one becoming the other in a crashing tidal wave of transformation.
Like something out of a primordial nightmare, I experience the visceral terror that lives inside us, a shadow cast forever in our souls from millennia of living in caves with creatures we did not understand and could tear us to pieces.
I was made for this. Nature made me for escaping this. I follow instinct.
I shriek.
I am being hunted.
I run, leaves slapping me in the face, roots reaching up to trip me. I run track and hurdles at school, and I miss all of them, but in the end that doesn’t matter because I am fleeing on two feet and being chased by beasts on four.
I do my best to flee. I am fast for my age, one of the fastest in my class. None of that means anything here in the forest. I make it maybe twenty feet, and even that feels like a lot before I am pushed to the ground from behind and bitten hard.
Being bitten is a searing, cruel pain. I make a sound like a wounded animal, because I am one. I turn and I scream and I writhe. I am a dying rabbit, furious at the unfairness of being killed.
A large jaw closes over my throat. I close my eyes as a rush of endorphins runs through me. Years from now, I’ll understand that’s a prey response left over from millennia where humans were hunted by animals far more powerful than themselves. For now, I just feel a strange peace. No fear. Just acceptance.
“Stop, Ragnar!” Someone booms the order. “She’s just a baby!”
The jaws leave my neck, and next thing I know, an argument is ensuing.
“She saw us! She saw us shift.”
“Nobody will ever believe her. We’re going to let her go.”
“The law says we kill anybody who sees us. We’ve killed hunters who saw less than she saw. We’ve got to kill her.”
He sounds excited at the prospect. He’s not scared that I saw them. He’s angry that he’s been stopped from bleeding the life out of me. The hazy feeling I had before is starting to fade.
“We’re not killing a girl because the scouts fucked up and the guards didn’t guard. She’s one kid out here on her own. Does she have a phone on her?”
I am rifled through in the dark.
“No.”
“So she hasn’t even recorded it. And even if she did, it wouldn’t matter. How many times have they gotten Bigfoot on film and nobody believes it? Let her go.”
“It’s against the law, Lachlan.”
“I am the law, Ragnar,” the voice says. “I am the law and I say she lives, and I will spill the blood of anybody who tries to hurt her. Melody, Serena, take her to safety. She will need treatment for the bite. The rest of you, get the fuck away from her. Now.”
I feel and hear the others retreat at their leader’s orders. Their desire to kill me is not stronger than their need to follow the orders the man just gave. Lachlan. I’ll remember that name for the rest of my life. He’s the only reason I’m alive.
I lie in the dirt, whimpering. A pair of sympathetic female eyes swims into my vision. I bet they were predatory just like the others a few minutes ago. I bet she would have joined in with tearing into me.
But now she’s going to be nice. Now she’s going to keep me alive. Because Lachlan told her to.
“Here,” the pretty lady says. “Chew this. It will take the edge off the pain.”
I let her stuff the leaf into my mouth, and I do as I am told.
It does take the edge off the pain. It also sends me into the fucking stratosphere. I start to see things. I start to hear things. I stop worrying about the pain because the pain feels like a separate thing right now. It’s not part of me. I’m something different. I’m okay. I’m warm. I’m safe. I’m going home.
I blink and I am back in my fancy bathroom with a man who is looking at me as though I am a victim. Gray. Fucking Gray. I’ve gotten even more sober now. Remembering the most terrifying part of my life, the one that changed my trajectory forever has pushed away all the alcohol haze.