Chapter 159: No More Monsters
- RORY -
I have to move. I know I have to move, but I’m frozen. I can’t just stay here behind this tree, though. Whatever is taking him so long to come after me is eventually going to relent, and then my luck is going to run out.
I’ve already lost too much time. I could have been further away by now... wherever that might be. Further probably just means deeper in this forest.
I’m not sure if running further is actually the best idea now that I think about it. It could create more problems. I could become lost—well, more lost. Exposed to the elements. Potentially further from civilization rather than closer.
All of these potential issues flip through my brain, keeping me rooted in place. Then I hear him behind me—cursing to himself. Not even trying to keep quiet. The tears that had sprung into my eyes that I didn’t even realize were there fall, and I wipe them away now that my time has run out.
Slowly, I rise to my feet as quietly as possible and press myself against the rough tree trunk. I have to figure out how to outsmart him. I probably can’t outrun him barefoot even if he is injured. The pain in my foot spikes up my leg, making it so that I can’t put my full weight on it even now. How am I supposed to run?
God, if I had my purse, there is pepper spray in there. There’s a hair pin that can be used as a weapon. But none of those things are with me. None of those precautions have paid off.
When his footfalls sound closer, I go completely still—barely even breathing. Maybe he’ll walk right past and I can run back up to the house.
The childhood fantasy of being so small and quiet that I might actually be invisible flashes through my mind. But I’m wearing black—probably one of the easiest colors to spot out in nature. I don’t think I’ll be able to blend in with my surroundings today.
One, two more foot falls sound and then I know he is right next to the tree—right upon me. One more step and he’ll realize I’m just within arm’s reach.
My hands ball into fists, eyes sharpening to take in every detail, mind slowing down time, and then my heart is all I can hear, its bass thumping in my ears like it’s making me painfully aware that I need it—that it’s my heart I’m protecting. It’s my life I’m trying to keep.
When the monster emerges next to me, I slam my fist into his face. He doesn’t even see it coming. There are no widened eyes of surprise, no flinch of anticipation for when my fist lands. There are just his hands reflexively rising to his face, and I don’t wait to see what the rest of his instincts do. I turn and round the other side of the tree, running back up the hill toward the house.
This time he is following me. It’s not just my imagination. I can hear him growling, and he has the benefit of longer legs and shoes to protect his feet whereas I’m limping on the one I have injured.
A string of curse words and names follow me before he leaps, shoving me to the earth with his full weight. The wind is knocked out of me, and I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe as he’s grabbing for my arms and twisting them behind my back. I can’t breathe when he takes my wrists in one hand to retrieve something with his other one.
But then my lungs kick back to life like an old rusty engine, and I suck in a long, desperate, painful gasp of air.
"Get off me!" I scream on my first exhale and kick wildly and sound nothing like myself.
A wild animal desperate to survive has emerged from deep within, and I welcome her. Whoever she is, whatever she is capable of, whatever she has available to help me—even if it is only her voice. Her loud, screeching voice like a tormented soul from the other side promising the worst for those who harm her.
I scream so wildly, I’m positive my voice will be gone afterward. But it’s my last defense.
I won’t let this man live peacefully for whatever he intends to do. My screams will haunt him. Even if he kills me, they will haunt him. I vow it. I will haunt him until his life is nothing but torment and he wishes it was him who died instead of me.
"Shut up!" He roars.
And then the impact comes—sharp and fast to the back of my skull. My screams are gone and replaced with ringing and a new confusion that rises now that everything is jangling in my vision.
So I don’t understand why my arms that were twisted behind me are suddenly released. I don’t understand why the monster’s heavy weight suddenly falls off while his legs remain awkwardly draped over my back. I don’t know whose arms I’m carefully lifted into.
The crown of the world has fallen off its spinning top, and now it’s tumbling around like a runaway ball, taking me with it and making me dizzy. Green and sunlight and dark, worried eyes compete for my attention, so I have to squeeze my eyes shut and press my head against the firm, warm ground that has somehow saved me.
"I got you," someone says—deep. So deep. Familiar somehow, but I don’t know why. "I got you, baby. You’re going to be okay."
I moan with the pain in my head, allowed now to be vulnerable. Saved. The monster is gone. My fingers curl softly into fabric, wanting to hide and burrow and never be exposed to the monsters again. No more monsters.
"It hurts, doesn’t it?" the voice says. It’s deep but gentle. I hate that it belongs to yet another man, but he’s not hurting me. Instead, a kiss lands, pressed into my hair. "We’re going to fix it. You’re safe, Rory. I swear on my life. No one is ever going to hurt you again."
