My feet were pounding into the ground, digging deep dents into the slowly cooling earth. The trees whooshed past me on either side; branches just grazing me and leaving superficial scratches theat would be healed within seconds. In front of me, the forest stretched on endlessly as if I was doomed to run like this for the rest of my life.
But it wasn't my surroundings that mattered, it was what was behind me; what could be and probably was following me, after me to use me. He had fed me lie after lie to sway me to his side. He told me that the golden eyes were evil creatures out to destroy innocent people and that their eye color was from drinking the life of innocents. I was so foolish to believe this; to actually think that someone I knew utterly nothing about was telling the truth.
The truth of course, was the exact opposite. The red eyed people, or vampires as many would call it, were the heartless beasts that killed children and men and families for a drink. He was one of those red eyed people, the people that killed on purpose. Not only that, but he loved the hunt and now I was providing him his finest game.
He of course, was my lover and heart breaker... Roman.
I shook his name from my head and stopped dead in my tracks to listen. The only sound that greeted me was the soft whispering wind and the bellowing of a nearby river. Without even allowing time to process the thought, I bolted and headed toward the river, my mind seeing it as an escape. Roman would be able to find me no matter what if he caught my scent; I just wasn't fast enough to outrun him, smart enough to dodge or lose him or strong enough to fight him off. My only option to avoid that was to swim in order to lose my scent and the river was the closest option of doing so.
When I reached the river I climbed into a tree, digging my nails and shoes into the bark to move quicker. I aimed for the sturdiest branch at the top and soon swung myself up onto it. My plan was to leap into the river from here, but the distance seemed to far and too risky to do. The way I saw it was that even if I broke my leg, it would heal, but most likely not in time for escaping. Instead, I used the branch as a view point to search for pursuit.
The wind gusted a little, causing my branch and self to sway. Holding the side of the tree I drew in a breath of the salty air and turned my head. Twenty miles away there was a vast expanse of water; the pacific ocean if I had to guess. It was there that I saw my true escape.
With a deep breath, I leaped from the tree and used my hand to slow my momentum and decrease the impact. It still jarred my knees a little and made me wince a bit but it was a good pain. Pain, oddly enough, was keeping me going. I knew that whatever pain I was put in, the pain Roman would inflict on me if he found me would be ten times worse.
Even with that thought, I started to run. This time though, I felt off. I could hear the sounds of animals now; animals that usually avoided something like me. Not only that, but the impact of their feet seemed far too heavy to be any normal animal that lived on this continent.
Skidding to a stop, I twisted around and scanned the trees. Silence overwhelmed me after the leftover ringing from the wind whistling in my ears faded. There was no other sound beside my own ragged, fear-quickened breaths. I knew what I heard though and while my mind begged for me to just break for the ocean since there was nothing there, I couldn't obey. Something smart, though an animal, was stalking me.
Returning to my face-forward position, I took off running, this time sailing over the tiny ravine that held the river.
The moment my feet hit the ground I started to run again, but was intercepted by two large forms. Only inches from them, I could smell the forest and the luscious nectar that was blood beneath their skin along with their radiating heat. Scrambling back a few feet, I found myself trapped by two large and rather vicious looking wolves. The two growled the second I moved stopping me dead in my tracks.
Could it be that in avoiding torture and lies I'd found death? Was this going to be my last moment on earth... and more importantly where did I go afterwards?
The taller wolf growled again, fur bristling as he did. Now shaking in fear, I turned my head slightly and found that two other wolves were now on either side of me. The death thoughts starting looking worse when I noticed.
"P-Please... d-don't kill me..." I whimpered. I didn't have the strength or mental capacity to even criticize how idiotic I sounded out loud.
More growls, this time from all for throats. The sound intimidated me and made me take a step back, putting me on the ledge of the ravine. Beneath my feet, the ground shifted a little and then gave way completely, plunging me down the fifteen foot drop.
That wouldn't have been the bad part; I would have even been relieved. Unfortunately though, the started to curve and form a bowl shape at the bottom of the ravine. I hit the curve with my leg, catapulting me into the river and causing me to whack my head against something hard.
After that my vision went black and I gave into the cold darkness that I assumed was death.