Midnight Run


    **


    Elena


    My heart caught in my chest and I froze. I could sense someone behind me, feel the sounds of their footsteps on the floor of the forest.


    I didn’t know who it was, but the presence didn’t feel familiar. It didn’t feel weing. It felt as alien and harsh as the terrible hole in front of me.


    I took a deep breath and didn’t turn around. My heart was thundering, and it was all I could hear, but I held my breath and took a step. I heard a sound behind me.


    Someone exhaled.


    And I ran.


    I didn’t wait for anyone to make their move first.


    I just ran.


    I ran like my life depended on it. I ran like someone was chasing me through the forest, because I didn’t know if they were going to follow me or not.


    I was living in a kingdom full of dragons. It had been stupid to run, to leave the protection that Dracul offered.


    He might beplex. My feelings for him might have been a mess, but I knew that I had protection from him. And even he had been hiding me from his people.


    I didn’t stop to turn and look around. I didn’t want to take the chance of tripping and falling, or worse.


    I just had to keep going, had to keep moving, had to keep pressing onwards.


    I didn’t know if anyone was on my heels and I wasn’t going to turn around and find out. I was running for my life and I knew that this was serious.


    If this was a dragon, anyone other than someone working for Dracul, I was dead.


    They didn’t know I was under the protection of their ruler. They didn’t know. And I was fair game.


    A human wandering through their homes, through their forests. No wonder they were stalking me. I was being hunted.


    My breathing came in short, rugged, rapid gasps as ran.


    My feet pounded on the ground and I focused on nothing but what was ahead of me.


    If I kept looking forwards, if I kept focusing on what was ahead… maybe I had a chance.


    Maybe, just maybe, I had a chance.


    I ducked and weaved through the trees, grabbing onto branches and throwing them on the ground behind me. If anyone was after me, I wanted to slow them down.


    My father had taught me that, in the event that anything ever happened to me, as a princess.


    But I had walked straight into this one. I was all but asking for trouble now. I had walked into the lion’s den and it was no one else’s fault but my own if they decided to chase me.


    And then I heard it. I heard footsteps behind me, the sound of voices. Not just one person. More. Two at least.


    I felt sick. I didn’t know how I was supposed to outrun two people. I didn’t know how I was supposed to get out of this situation.


    I had wandered into the woods. And I had gotten lost.


    My emotions had gotten the best of me and I was going to get myself killed.


    Just like in this castle, but these guys had no need to keep me alive. For all they knew, I was just some stupid girl who was in the wrong ce at the wrong time.


    They would be right about that, I supposed. That was exactly what I was. A stupid girl who had made a terribly dangerous choice.


    I wanted to call for  Dracul, but I had no idea if he could hear me. Maybe he didn’t even want to save me. I didn’t know.


    I had walked out on him, had run away. Sure, he had left the room, but I had let my heart win instead of my head. I could have stayed put.


    Sure, I was angry, but I could have stayed put.


    I gasped as I ran, my lungs burning, everything aching as I rushed through the forest. I couldn’t see anything familiar up ahead. I didn’t know if I was even running in the right direction.


    But I had to try. I had to try and make it. I couldn’t just lie down and die.


    I could hear the footsteps gaining on me, with every thud of my own shoes. They were getting closer. They could have probably caught me already.


    I knew that they were toying with me.


    I knew that I should just stop and save myself the trouble. But I just couldn’t stomach it. I couldn’t give up. I couldn’t give in.


    I hade so far. I had stayed alive when I thought I was destined to die, and I couldn’t ept that I was destined to die tonight.


    Not because of a stupid mistake.


    My legs were going to give out, but I tried to keep going. My body protested, but I pushed it. I should have stopped, but I wasn’t giving in without a fight. Maybe, if I just got a little bit closer. Maybe, if I just moved a little more…


    Maybe, if I found the edge of the forest, Someone would hear me, someone would find me. Maybe I had a chance. I gave up now, it was already over. I couldn’t do that.


    I stumbled and crashed into the earth.


    My ankle ached where it mmed into a tree and I yelled as I hit the ground.


    My hands broke my fall and the dirt scraped into them.


    I scrambled to my feet, my ankle screaming in protest, my dress ruined from the mud and the brambles that covered much of the earth here.


    “Took you long enough.” A voiceughed from behind me, cruel and ugly.


    He was close. He was so, so close.


    I stumbled up, pulling myself to my feet and taking a step. My ankle threatened to give out on me, and I bit my lip, holding back another yell.


    I frantically looked around.Text ? owned by N?velDrama.Org.


    My hands found a tree branch and I grabbed it, gripping it tight between both hands, feeling the blood pumping through my veins. I braced myself against a tree.


    I couldn’t run. My ankle was throbbing, and they were faster than me anyway. But I wasn’t going down without a fight. I would go down kicking and screaming.


    I told myself to stay strong, even though the panic was blurring my vision.


    In the darkness, I saw the sickly yellow eyes glow back at me. Two pairs. Just like at the castle. I was repeating my own stupid mistakes and this time, it was going to be too much.


    This time, I didn’t think I was going to make it out alive.


    I thought of Dracul, of his hands on my skin and his kisses on my lips. I thought of the way his eyes softened when he looked at me.


    I thought about how confused I was about everything,  how lost and scared and upset. I never should have run, but I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know who to trust, to turn to.


    I wanted Dracul to wrap his arms around me and tell me he actually cared that this was more than just a one-night thing, that he actually needed me here.


    I wanted to know that I was here and helping him and my people at the same time. I wanted to know that my life here wasn’t meaningless.


    And now, it didn’t look like I was ever going to be able to find that out.


    “What do we have here?” The voice echoed through the darkness.


    I shivered and held the branch as tightly as I could.


    “Human, that’s not going to do anything against someone like me.” He said, and I could almost see him baring his teeth at me.


    There was something different about him. There was a wildness to him. I didn’t know if he could be reasoned with. He was close, and I kept the branch held up in front of me.


    “Don’t.” I said, my voiceing out shakily, “You don’t know what you’re doing.”


    I didn’t sound like royalty. I just sounded scared.


    I bit my lip, never taking my eyes off the two shadowy figures.


    “Oh, but I think we do.” The other said, low and hungry.


    I shuddered at the sound of his voice.


    “What we’re doing? We’re hunting.” He said, a smile spreading across his dark features.


    I felt sick to my stomach as I stared into the eyes of the men who were going to end my life.


    “And when catch your prey, you know what you do with them.” He said slowly.


    I leaned against the tree, watching them both, my blood freezing in my veins.


    Heughed and it was a low and ugly sound, “you kill them, sweetheart. And you make it nice and slow.”