Her muscles burned as she pushed herself to run further and further away from what she had done. This was all her fault. If only she had never left, if only she had just sucked it up and stayed with him, this would have never happened. He would have never tried to pursue her and no one would have ever gotten hurt. She had run away and now she paid the price.
She felt her ears, hidden underneath her bow, twitch as she heard the clanging of the train in the near distance. Increasing her speed even more, she burst out of the Forever Fall Forest and leaped onto the passing train, thankful that she had been lucky enough to land safely inside one of the carts. She wouldn't have cared if she had gotten hurt though, she probably deserved it. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but part of her wished that she did.
Sitting down with her back to the cart's door, Blake laid her head in her hands, her breath ragged as she fought to regain it once more. Exhausted, she couldn't help but think of everything that had happened a mere couple hours earlier. The Grimm, the White Fang, Adam, and . . . She stopped herself there. She didn't even deserve to think of her, not after what she had done.
Her breath hers once more, Blake turned around so that she faced the cart's opening. She watched as the train flew past the trees, making them seem nothing more than a reddish-orange blur. What was out there, in the darkened forest, she didn't know. But that wasn't her destination. Though she didn't really know where she was going to begin with, Blake knew for a fact that whatever the train ended up being, it was as far away from the Forever Fall as she could get. As far away from Vale as she could get. As far away from her as she could get. Letting her exhaustion take over, Blake drifted off to sleep, the sound of the train. the wind, and her own thoughts filling her head.
Waking with a start, Blake's eyes went straight to the cart's door. It was daytime, but instead of the red-orange color of the Forever Fall, the leaves were black and grey. Immediately Blake knew where the train had taken her. She was now in the Outlands, the place of despair that lay outside all of the kingdoms' borders. The forest that Blake had trained in so many times with Adam while she was in the White Fang.
Ignoring the protest from her muscles, Blake stood up and walked to the cart's opening. Looking out into the dark-colored forest, Blake began to question whether or not this was what she really wanted. Did she really want to go back to that place? Back to the forest that was filled with the Creatures of Grimm and despair? No, of course not. But what other choice did she have?
She couldn't help but let her mind wander to the three girls she had left behind. Three people that she cared dearly for. There she stood, right beside them, smiling and laughing at some joke. She turned her head to the left, watching as two of the girls, one dressed in red and the other dressed in white, interacted. They were arguing, the one in white calling the one in red a dolt, harsh but affectionate. It was easy to tell that the cold girl cared deeply for the child in red. And the girl in red felt the same.
Turning her head the right, Blake's amber eyes locked with lilac ones. Giving Blake a blinding smile, Blake felt the girl wrap her left arm around her shoulder, her right arm hanging loosely at her side. Slowly, but surely, Blake could feel the loving warmth of the girl spread throughout her body. Blake closed her eyes as she relished in this feeling, soaking in the laughter of the lilac-eyed girl as it filled the air, her voice bringing a smile to Blake's face.
But then, everything went cold. The air became still as the laughter ceased as Blake's perfect world was thrown into one of silence. Opening her eyes again, Blake's amber eyes no longer were met with lilac, but with red. The owner's left arm was still wrapped around Blake's shoulder with her other one still at her side. But her right arm was no longer there, instead replaced with a bleeding stump of what remained.
"This is your fault," Blake shivered as her voice rang through her ears, sweet yet bitter.
"I-I didn't mean for this to happen," She stepped away as the girl let out a quick, harsh laugh, her amber eyes never leaving the red ones. It was still the same voice, still the same laughter that she had heard just moments before, but it seemed almost like a different person.
"Oh? But didn't you?" Breaking her amber eyes away from the red, Blake faced the man who now stood beside her. He stood there, his face covered with a white mask covered with red markings, exactly like the creatures of grimm. His red hair seemed to burn as his lips twisted up into a sinister smirk.
"I didn't!" Blake cried out, but her voice seemed to be lost as the air became filled with the sickeningly sweet laughter of the red-eyed girl. She could hear it, in the back of her mind, she could hear a smaller voice saying But you did, didn't you?
"That's what you believe, but in reality, you were hoping this would happen." As he spoke, the voice of those red eyes joined with his, taunting her with words laced with honey and arsenic.
"No I didn't!" But the little voice in the back of her head became louder and the laughter drowned her out once more.
"Yes, you did!" More voices began to join in. The voices of those that were once her comrades, her friends, before she betrayed them and left them behind.
"No!" Her voice was gone. They were screaming now, she couldn't breath.
"You can't even speak our names! You're just running away!" It's your fault!
"That's all I know how to do!" Louder and louder it grew, becoming unbearable.
"Then run." Silence. Blake's mind was racing, her breath ragged.
The voices had stopped. It was quiet. There was nothing but silence.
This was all her fault, they were right. She was a horrible person, hell she wasn't even human. She was a monster.
At that moment, one word rang in her head. A word that she had heard so many times before, a word that commanded her every move.
RUN.
With a jolt of pain, Blake woke up from the strange nightmare she had been in to find that she had leaped from the train and into the forest. Forcing herself to stand once more, she began to walk, ignoring the fact that she had probably sprained her ankle. Where was she going? She didn't know nor did she care. She was simply running. Because that's all she could do.