Page 10 of Shadow's Sinner
I shake my head, shrinking back from her. I shouldn’t have opened my mouth.
“We can’t just leave her out there,” Emma says, pulling Samantha's attention back. I let out the breath I’d been holding when Lacey turned around and stepped towards them.
“You’re right, we should go and try to find her.” Alicia sighs.
“Come on,” Emma says, stepping over the small bush. I shake my head as I watch one after the other go deeper into the woods, not caring that they don’t have a plan and oblivious to the fact that we have no idea where we’re at. So while my fear of the dark is rearing its ugly head, I follow them anyway. Samantha might have been mean, but she doesn’t deserve to be lost and scared.
“Samantha,” one of the girls calls out.
The moon shines down, barely giving us any light as the temperature starts to drop. The woods grow murky the further in we head in. I know we should head back but I can’t bring myself to tell them. The girls all hate me, and I don’t understandwhy. It’s not surprising given I’m different from the normal crowd, but I can’t be that much off.
It’s like people forget those who are different still have feelings.
But no one cares. Not the students at the prep school. Not my family. And not that hazel-eyed figure that scared me in the hallway.
“Samantha!” They cry out again. My fingernails dig into my palm as the trees begin to block out the little light we have, making it impossible to see two feet in front of me.
“Did anyone bring a flashlight?” I finally dare to ask.
Lacey, who stands in front of me, stops and glances at each of us, confirming that no one except me has thought about it until now.
“We should head back,” Emma’s voice squeals as a branch to our left breaks. My head snaps to the side, heart pounding in my chest. The hairs on the back of my neck stand as I sense someone watching us. I can’t explain it. I can feel their eyes burning into my skull. I’ve had this nerve-wracking pressure on me before. I can’t explain or process fully what it means before a figure steps into my line of sight.
One by one the girls swing their head around, staring at what I already see.
“Oh, fuck no!” I’m not sure which girl curses before two of them take off. I glance to my left just as the other two run off, following. I swallow the lump in my throat, meeting the stranger’s eyes. Or where I assume their eyes to be because I can’t see into their hood but can feel the intensity of their stare. They tilt their head at me, fiddling with something in their pocket. I glance down and squint my eyes before I see the glint of something shining in the moonlight. My eyes widen as it slowly sinks in what this shadow man has in his hand.This can’t be real; this can’t be happening.
But it is and I don’t comprehend what’s fully going to happen until they take a step closer, black jeweled knife firmly placed in their hand. I shake my head as if they understand and will magically not come after me.
It takes me longer to move than I’d ever admit. My knees buckle as I back up, fear licking up my spine. Air gets trapped in my lungs as it dawns on me that I’m about to die.
“Ah!” I squeak, falling backwards into a bush. My back hits something squishy yet hard and before I can stop myself, I’m glancing down. Bile rises in my throat as my hands feel the warm metallic scent seeping into my skin. My vision blurs as I take in Samantha’s body lying underneath me, her throat slashed, eyes blown wide as if she didn’t realize she was going to die when she had.
I struggle to my feet unsteadily, the deep chuckle from the shadow man echoing through the trees, settling in my ears. A shiver runs down my spine, and my knee twitches before it dawns on me that I need to run. I twist around, picking up the hem of my dress, and take off.
The trees blend together making it difficult for me to see clearly in front of me. Panic curls in my gut and my heart pounds against my chest. My breath comes in ragged and the blood rushes to my head. A branch snags on the arm of my blue dress, I hiss under my breath. Tears pool in my eyes. Between the fear ripping my heart apart and the pain in my arm, I want to stop. But the little voice in the back of my head tells me to keep going.
Tree branches and shrubs snag along the bottom of my dress, threatening to rip it to shreds. Leaves crunch beneath my feet, and anxiety clutches to me as I hear the hooded figure behind me.
I’m unsure how long I can keep running until I finally spot a clearing in the wooded area. My lip tips up in a smile, only to fall the moment my foot catches on a tree root. My heart dropsto my stomach as I tumble over a branch. I do my best to wrap my arms around myself, bracing as gravity gets the best of me. Twigs and sharp rocks rip into me as I roll downhill. My eyes slam closed just as my body plummets into the murky water at the bottom. I don’t get the chance to close my mouth before water begins pouring in. My blood turns to ice as darkness wraps around me like a cold blanket.
My head snaps up out of the water, coughing and spitting in an effort to get it out. My entire body burning with pain, I blink furiously to force both eyes open and try to gather my surroundings, searching for the hooded figure that was chasing me.
Only it’s cut off as something—rather someone—grabs the back of my hair plunging my head back under the water.
Chapter Seven
Cold droplets of water plaster my face and drench my cloak as I push the thrashing girl's body harder into the stream, pressing her deep into the mud and rocks beneath her. She almost manages to buck me off of her, but I hold fast, gripping her hair harder, and using all of my weight to hold her under the water. Her body starts to still beneath me before I yank her up towards me. She splutters gasping for air, spit mixing with the water on my face, fingers clawing at my hands still around her throat. Her eyelids flutter open, and the emerald-green orbs glow back at me under the moonlight. The look in her eyes makes me groan with delight. Fear mixing with something else that I can’t quite decipher.
We stare at each other in the darkness, the only sound our mixed heavy breathing. I let her catch her breath before I dunk her back under the water, stealing everything from her lungs again. Instead of clawing at my hands this time, she clutches them to her, holding on for dear life. I feel her trembling like a leaf from the cold water, but she’s not thrashing like she was earlier. Her lack of fight, acceptance of her fate, makes my cock hard in my pants, pressing against my zipper and almost too uncomfortable to bear. When her hands start to slip from their hold on mine, I rip her out of the water. Her head lolls back towards the sky, arms limp at her sides. I give her a harsh shake, but she still sits there limply in my hold. Slapping her cheek, her head swings to the side, a red mark blooming on her skin. A deep cough rushes out of her mouth, water and spit splashing my face again. Those gemstone eyes look up at me with a glazed expression, glittering with tears as they trail down her face.
She reaches up gripping my hand with hers while she struggles to catch her breath. I hold her there for a moment, contemplating what to do next. I’ve never been this intimately close to a girl before. Touching like this, hands clasped tightly. Her skin is warm under my fingertips, even after being in the cold water for so long. Her hair is plastered to her head, and although she resembles a drowned rat right now, there’s still something about her that makes my cock twitch. Her breath fans my face, pulse going haywire under my hand still wrapped around her neck. She’s shaking from the cold, lips starting to tinge a light blue, the color of them making a smile pull at my lips.
Pushing to my feet, I straddle her thin legs, looking down at her quivering in the cold water. She stares up at me, tilting her head to the side like she’s waiting patiently for what I might do next. There’s no screaming, no anything, just quiet as we look at each other. Crouching down I reach over and hold her facebetween my hands, almost dwarfing her head inside of them. I pull her face towards me and lean over to her ear. Breathing in her scent, musky but sweet at the same time, nuzzling my nose in the hair by the side of her head. My lips caress her ear as I whisper into the silence of the forest surrounding us, “Run, Little Shadow, because if I catch you, I will ruin you.”
We sit there with each other for a few seconds, and I worry that she is hard of hearing. Before I can repeat myself she pushes me away, thrashing through the water like a hurricane, darting across the stream away from me. A smile spreads across my face as I watch as she weaves her way through the trees and bushes. Giving her a decent head start before I run after her. Pushing tree limbs aside as they catch on my cloak, scratching the skin beneath, the pain eggs me on. Running faster to catch up with her, watching as her red hair whips around her in the wind. Her soaked dress weighs her down as she tries to jump over a log and trips, sending her face-first into the forest floor.
She rolls a few feet along the leaves and fallen twigs on the ground. I pull myself to a stop on the other side of the log. I’m not ready for this chase to be over yet. My cock is throbbing in my pants, reminding me that it’s still here. It makes me growl with irritation which gets her attention. She looks up at me looming on the other side of the log and leaps to her feet before continuing on her way. She’s much slower now than she was before, exhausted from the chase and almost being drowned in the stream. I walk behind her waiting for her to give up already. She won’t make it out of these woods either way.