I had hidden in a small store-room until I had made sure that no one had been following me.

My stomach hurt. I had cramps in my lower abdomen and felt them spreading, they dispersed through my body as shooting pain.

I gritted my teeth and pressed my hands against my back.

It hurt... it just wouldn't stop hurting.
Koschei must have done something to me by increasing the pressure on my abdomen. I tried envisioning the consequences if Koschei had managed to disrupt the tumour in my abdomen and how it would rupture, leading to a fast but painful end as I would bleed to death due to being internally injured.

I breathed in deeply and closed my eyes, trying to concentrate and calm down.

I wouldn't die. I wouldn't die, right here, right now.

I pressed my hands against my chest and checked my pulse nervously.
My hearts wouldn't stop racing. I couldn't find a rhythm in them anymore; my heartbeat was nothing more but a constant humming.
I was scared.

But I knew that I had to stay in the store-room until no one was looking for me anymore.
If someone was looking for me...

The scorching twinge in my lower abdomen worsened and spread even further. I winced in pain and curled up in a foetal position, burying my face in my hands while whimpering like a hurt and scared animal.

It wouldn't be long, I talked myself into believing this, it would stop soon. And soon I would be able to get out of here, to return to my room, to have a good night's rest, after all these weeks of bad sleep, of terrible nightmares, of Koschei haunting me night and day I would finally be back to sleep, I would finally sleep...

I rolled over to one side and opened my eyes after shutting them closed for a moment.

The pain in my back had been getting better. In fact it had nearly disappeared...

I sat up slowly rubbing my eyes. They hurt. And they felt sticky.

I turned my head aside. My lower abdomen was tensed up again. But that was nothing new. Nothing new after all.
The light, which had been protruding from under the door had vanished by now. I pressed my ear against the wood and listened nervously. Either there was someone standing right in front of it or the sunlight had faded away...

I picked myself up once more and reached for the door handle, pushing the creaking door open until it was slightly ajar.

Deafening silence welcomed me from the outside.

Irritated I stepped out of the store-room and looked around, darkness surrounding me.

The pain in my lower abdomen started to spread again, but I was too nervous to care about it, not now.

I walked through an empty corridor to find lights flickering and caught distant flannelly noises. Someone was talking and a small stream of light escaped through a half-closed door.

As I walked past a window I felt the stars staring back at me.

The stars.

I pressed my hand against my forehead and looked around irritated.

I must have slept hours curled up in the small room. No wonder my back was killing me.

Footsteps were approaching and a slender shadow fled from the darkness to flash past me hurriedly. I pressed my back against the cold wall, probably realizing for the first time ever how far my stomach was now protruding.

After the shadow had vanished I felt myself reaching for it with trembling hands.
It felt swollen... it felt hard, so unbelievably hard and braced.

The skin above my lower abdomen was stretched and dry; by the mere touch of it I started worrying about it ripping instantly.

I opened the window without giving it much thought, without thinking about the possible consequences of disobeying the rules and not being in my own room at night.

I breathed in the cool and refreshing air of a beautiful velvet night.

I closed my eyes.

It wouldn't make the pain go away, it wouldn't chase away my worries. But it made it a lot easier to bear.

I felt locked up. I felt caged in.

I knew that I needed to run. I could sense it; I could feel it in my bones; in my soul.

My muscles felt twitchy and no matter how hard I tried to control myself: Soon I had to run.

Soon I had to flee.

I refilled my lungs with the relieving darkness once more before closing the window quietly.

I turned around to listen carefully, but it seemed as if no one had noticed me so far, standing in an empty corridor and smelling a peaceful night's air.

I sneaked through the great hall and skulked towards my room, always moving in the shadows, never to be seen. I wouldn't need that kind of trouble again. My last meeting with Ms Reprics was something I wouldn't forget soon... thought I sure wanted to.

Unintentionally I reached for my swollen stomach. The pain intensified by the mere thought of Ms Reprics torturing my diseased body. It wouldn't stop hurting.

The pain was rising again, tensing my muscles, affecting my legs, causing them to cramp and stop all of a sudden as I was only three doors away from a good night's rest...

Just three more doors, I told myself, three more doors and I could go to bed, I could find some peace, I could sleep, I could finally sleep again in a bed without crying throughout the night, without worrying about my increasing abdominal girth, about my stomach that looked as if it was about to pop...

I held my breath in order to suppress an oncoming scream.

My spine was as hard as a pipe and consisted of metal filings... at least it felt like this when the stinging pain in my back arose. My hands clutched onto my lower abdomen and I dug my nails into my skin.

I was about to pop... the tumour must have grown over the hours I had slept.

I rested my back against a wall and bended my knees, biting down on my lower lip until I tasted blood.

I mustn't cry, I told myself, I mustn't cry.

Just three doors, I told myself, just three more doors and I could sleep... just three doors.

I took a deep breath and tried maintaining a cool head.

Agony was rising in my mind. And soon madness was to follow.

In a few moments I wouldn't be able to even stand upright anymore due to the pain in my back and my stomach, I reassured myself.

I couldn't take it anymore.

I knew that it had to end.

I knew that I had t stop it.

It had to stop.

I pushed my hands against my lower abdomen with increasing force.

I felt it.

I knew it.

I simply knew it.

I turned around, three doors away from my desired destination I turned around to face the other way.

I couldn't stay here.

Not tonight. Probably not ever again.

I had to go.

No.

I had to run.

I had to flee, I had to get away.

I started moving, slowly at the beginning. I wasn't used to running anymore. And my swollen and billowing abdomen wasn't much of a help. But I needed to run. I needed to get away from here.

From Koschei, from Ms Reprics.

I needed to be as far away from them as possible, I needed to be alone.

I knew that there was something to happen tonight –

I didn't know what and I didn't know where.

But I knew that it was something they mustn't know about.

And as I rushed through the door I found myself internalizing that I wasn't probably ever coming back;
that I wasn't probably going to survive this beautiful in dark velvet covered night.

But I had to make a run for it.