Author's Note:
Hello, hello!
I'm genuinely surprised this story has a little over one-hundred followers (insert shocked emoji)! After being away for so long, I'm honestly grateful that you, the reader, found my story worthy enough to be followed, so Thank You!
Now my response to last chapter's question:
[Out of any of your five senses (sound, sight, touch, smell and taste) which would you give up and why?]
It'll have to be sense of Taste. Ignoring the fact how some senses are interconnected, I believe having no taste wouldn't be a total loss. You would still be able to use your eyes and nose to see if something has gone bad. Plus, only eating because you have to and why not make it all healthy? Taste would definitely be the one I'll be okay with losing x)
Now onto the story!
Chapter 4— Chased
It made our hair stand up in panic fear.
-Sophocles
ƸӜ̨Ʒ ƸӜ̨Ʒ
ƸӜ̨Ʒ
Of the many scenarios that I replayed through my head on my quest to survive, this had been the last thing I expected to ever encounter.
In fact — it had never occurred to me that I could possibly be another victim to my tragic experience of being lost in the wilderness. I considered the possibility of coming across a wild beast or getting hurt by my own fault, but never by the hand of another person. There was no point in pondering on the possible reasons on why I would even fall victim to another person, there were far too many scenarios.
Plus, there was that itty bitty fact that I needed to concentrate on the presence.
Such as the possibility of bodily harm from the man before me.
'I need to control my nerves', I thought to myself as I slowly inhaled and exhaled through my nose. I had to do something and quick, time would not be on my side if I just stood here. I scanned my surrounding for an escape route, considering this was a forest, there were plenty of those around. It was a matter of pushing my body as far as I could to lose myself amongst the trees; I was in no way in tip-top-shape but I was not slow either or so I would like to think so. Without a second glance at the man, I placed all my energies on my legs and sprang to my right in the hope he would not be quick enough to catch me.
Boy, was I terribly wrong.
It could not had been more than a second when I sprang for freedom before I felt the man roughly grasped my upper arm and jerked me back. The sudden force entangled my feet and without warning, I fell hard onto the ground in a half hazard seated position. With no time to dwell on the pain and much less the shock of the action itself, the man grabbed the cloak from my shoulders and dragged me on the ground.
As I struggled and kicked, I tried my best to my abilities to pull myself away from the man's hold on me and it was then that I remembered the knife. Easier said than done, it had taken my hand to twist, turn and tug before I was able to take hold of the knife's handle. Once firmly held, I pulled and aimed blindly where I felt one of the hands grasping the cloak. With a loud unintelligible cry coming from him, he dropped me and I took this chance like a madwoman to get as far away as I could on all fours.
"===========" he stopped mid-sentence once he caught sight of the knife I held as I cautiously moved onto my feel. I noticed him briefly holding onto his bloodied hand before he dropped his arms beside himself. "=========" he hissed.
I aimed the knife at him, holding it firmly between my hands as I stepped back. It was here that I sensed a dull pain that emanated from both my lower back and somewhere deep in my stomach.
Though nervous, I was not about to let my emotions get in the way from my salvation. I had to put my senses into action and my brain to work out a strategy to escape. Having my judgement clouded with fear would not be helpful at all.
That in itself was not an easy thing to do...
"=========" he took a step towards me.
Despite the fact that everything pointed to bodily harm, I couldn't help but think if I was really capable to go through and defend myself. It was as if my subconscious answered when my hands visibly trembled.
The man let out a sharp laugh before he took another step forward, "============"
I clenched my jaw when I took a step back, the knife firmly held between my hands. "Stay the fuck away from me!" I screamed with all that I could muster from within. With an unsavory smirk voicing words I could not comprehend, he lunged at me.
With my body frozen in the spot, I was unable to move from what was coming my way. Whether it was honest to goodness fear itself or something I could not comprehend, but it wasn't until his heavy body crashed hard against my own that time resumed. I had fallen hard on my back as he fell heavily on me, the air literally knocked out of my lungs as the back of my head smashed hard against the ground. Everything had happened so quick, I barely had time to muster a cry from the shock of it all.
It had happened so suddenly... so unexpected... No person was crazy enough to go after someone when the other had a weapon, I slowly realized as I came out of my daze. Just as my thoughts were slowly becoming clearer, so was the pain. I moaned as the back of my head throbbed painfully and as a result, I could feel my eyes start to swell which I instinctively closed. Another painful pressure rested upon my chest as it was becoming harder to breathe. It was here when I realized the man was no longer on me when I gingerly crossed my arms in front of me, resting my hands on my shoulders as I tried to control my breathing. Slowly breathing in and out as I tried to control the trembles that wanted to overtake me. Just as time had paused and restarted, I had not become aware of when he rolled off from me, but surely it happened when I was still in shock. With all the strength I could muster, I carefully turned onto my side and slowly albeit painfully crawled away from where I was brought down. On more than one occasion, I felt vertigo overcome me and I had to stop for a second to close my eyes and let the feeling pass before I continued.
Once I felt the distance was safe enough, I leaned against a tree and took my chance to observe the direction I had come from. It had not taken me long to find his prone body not too far off from where I crawled away. The knife that I once shakily held was embedded into his side. While not as close, I still managed to see that the blade was not visible from where I stood. What could be seen was the dark crimson stain that looked to encircled the handle. I had no recollection of thrusting the knife into him, much less have the strength to do so at the time. It must had happened when he crashed onto me. I thought I seen him stirred so I quickly rubbed my eyes with the heels of my palms and peered at his body again. Again, he moved but unlike the first time, I witnessed as he pulled out the knife with a loud grunt. He flung it in my direction, though this was by chance as he had not bothered to look elsewhere other than on himself. Without giving it a second thought, I sneaked towards it and picked it off from the ground before I scurried back behind the tree.
His abnormally bright red blood covered the blade and to an extent up to the handle which smeared my palms, I noticed. My eyebrows furrowed. I was no doctor but I knew the wound must had been deep when you considered the length of the blade. Best case scenario, he would need some stitch— His scream startled me out of my thoughts, almost dropping the knife when I turned to his direction.
Last I saw him, he was on the ground. Now my eyes widen in shock when I noticed he slowly moved on his feet towards my direction, his bloody hand covering his side as he gave me the foulest glare I had ever seen on someone.
"=======" he growled, his dark eyes piercing daggers at me.
Not waiting another second, I turned and ran as fast as I could physically go. I stumbled at first, my body seemed not wanting to be pushed but I pressed myself as hard as I could. I had to get as far away as possible. By doing so, and likely as a retaliation, my body seemed to duplicate the pain I already felt all over. I could feel my head throbbed as I ran around the trees. My back ached terribly as I pushed my feet hard against the earth, and my fingers had chosen at this time to be prickled by invisible needles. There was no chancing it, I was not going to stop to catch a much needed breath — not when I could still hear him yelling after me. I considered myself not physically fit, but was moderate at best so I should had set some distance between the two of us already. So how the hell was it possible that he could still be chasing me with a wound on his side?!
With my throat parched and lips dried, my legs screamed for me to stop.
Shit... Shit... Shit...
I zigzagged my way around the trees as I pushed off from the tree's trunks as a boost to continue forth. After I rounded a particular large tree, I slowed down considerably when I came upon the one thing I had looked forward to seeing. Up ahead was a clearing that marked a well-used dirt road. As cheesy as it was, I let out a nervous laughter as my heard elated to see such a sight. I had never understood that meaning before but I understood it now as my heart beat hard against my rib cage. This brief stop had made my feet heavy with weariness, so I forced them to take a step as I kept my sight on the road ahead. I knew dirt roads always led to some sort of civilization though at this point I could care less where it lead.
I leaned against my knees as I stood in the middle of the open dirt road. Stopping earlier had made me lose momentum as my body finally caught up to me when I approached the road in such a ridiculous pace. My chest felt tight and sore and I was not sure whether it was due to my breathing or the injury itself. I pulled myself straight up which had relieved some of my pain by a very small percentage. It was then that I realized something. With all the focus on myself, I had not taken notice of the silence. Momentarily, I had forgotten about the man. I whipped my head and faced the trees that I stumbled out from. There was no sight or sound of him. There was that possibility though that he was in hiding. Quickly, more like how fast I could push myself, I crossed to the other side of the road before I found and hid behind a rather large tree with tall shrubs, a natural and temporary hideaway.
I slid against a rather bumpy tree trunk as I dropped the knife that I surprisingly had held onto with my dear life. I felt suffocated and too warm as I dropped my chin against my chest, only to then see I still wore the goddamned cloak. Gee, Ari, what'd ya expect... With a sigh, I took hold of the zipper but stopped and raised my head.
My fingers were still tingling.
It was the same sensation I had felt when I woken up earlier today, which I later blamed on the fact that I had slept on my arms. I brought up my hands to my eye level and once again flexed my fingers. As I did, I realized that I had not harmed them other than a cut prior to the stabbing earlier. Other than my fingers, there was still something that wasn't right.
I was in the middle of a forest. Should I not had heard some wild animals such as birds chirping amongst the tree branches. Where were the squirrels that ran around the forest grounds, like the ones I seen the day before? As much as I hated to admit the thought of the vile man chasing after me, did I really lose him? For crying out loud, he was still after me with that bloody wound on his side earlier. Of course I'd zigzagged my way around the trees, not really paving a straight path to anywhere other than getting away from him.
There was something incredibly unnerving how I easily lost him and the silence that now surrounded me.
Unless I...
I gingerly placed my fingers against the entrance of both my ear canals and felt dryness. I looked down at my fingers again and there was no sight of blood on my fingertips with the exception of the dry flecks of blood that came from the knife. This was a good thing, you see. Had I banged my head hard enough, it would had surely had caused some kind of internal injury that could had potentially left me deaf. Being aware that the silence was not brought on by me but my surrounding was not much comfort.
This silence...
Should a forest really be this silent?
As if the universe responded to my question, I heard something. A noise that I would not had picked up had the forest been alive with its natural ambient noise. I picked up the knife and forced myself to stand. My legs were incredibly sore but there was no way I would be caught sitting down. As I leaned against the tree's trunk, I scanned my surrounding for the source of the noise. No sight of the man or an animal, but I heard it again. Something was on the move, somewhere. That was my cue to start moving. I steadied my footing seeing as my legs still felt weak with weariness. I cannot remember a time in my life where I had to literally force myself to move as my life literally depended on it.
It was by the time I pushed myself off from the seventh tree that I noticed something move out of the corner of my right eye. Despite not seeing what it was exactly, I knew it was something dark in color. A shadow of some kind. Perhaps a bird flying off from a nearby tree? That would account for the quick shadow disappearing when I turned to look at the direction I saw it coming from.
"That couldn't possibly be it..." I muttered to myself as I scanned for the shadow again.
Bird or not, I was not going to stick around and wait to see to confirm it. Once again, I pulled the strength from god-knows-where and darted towards an unknown destination. I wasn't going deeper into the forest but tried my best to align myself in the direction where I last seen the road. I concluded where ever the road leaded, it would come to an end and I would be able to know without having to actually walk on the road. It was then that I heard a loud crashing sound coming from behind me, along with its strange noise. For the briefest moment, I didn't dare to look behind as I pushed myself forward. But curiosity pulled a card on me and I glanced over my shoulder.
A short distance behind me was the subject of the strange noise and what I had seen earlier. Even as I saw it, I could not comprehend what it really was — I never had seen anything like it! Dark and flickering between the colors of white and black, four snake-like things slithered after me. Caught by the sight of these strange monstrosities , I failed to noticed an exposed tree root which my toes caught themselves in.
Last thing I saw was the hard ground that came for me at lightening speed.
Author's Note:
Now what could it possibly be that's now chasing her, hmmmm? X)
Now for the Question:
[What two films would you like to combine into one?}
My response will be shared in my next chapter :)
Last but not least I've started a mini story side project called 'Red String' — a story solely focusing on a Naruto/OC pairing due to the fact that I been wanting to write one for a while and because there aren't that many around either. Not gonna lie, I been wanting to lowkey add that pairing into this story but realized it'll take forever to even get to that phase of the story for obvious reasons, so this new story should tie me up until then, heeeheee... x) So feel free to check it out if you'd like!
Thank you for reading!
