The Living Wife

The Woods

Just a little bit further, Amara begged her aching legs, gathering her dress skirt in her hands as she ran through the woods surrounding the Calthrope manor. She had no idea how further she should go or how far she was from the house. Those creatures were making sure she couldn't head back. She sprinted as fast as the heavy skirt could let her move. She couldn't recall how she first realized she was being chased. She only remembered that she had stepped out of the house once she noticed Ida was out, trying to clear her head, and the next minute, she was running for her life.

Why couldn't she have at least changed into something more freeing before taking this walk? She could hear them gaining on her, the snarls and growls reaching her ears before a clawed paw reached out to grab her dress, ripping the lace skirt off it. She stumbled and fell, rolling immediately to avoid the creature. It reached out for her leg again, but she aimed a kick at its furry head, digging her pump heel into its eye. It howled in pain, moving back.

"Screw you," she hissed, standing to run again. She had to find somewhere to hide at least but the thick canopy of the foliage was blocking her sight. With the skirt gone, she could move easily through the dense floor. Until her leg caught on a fallen branch. She heard the sickening snap before the pain shot up to her head as she fell. Of course, with her kind of fortune, she was just at the edge of a slope. She rolled all the way down, feeling the twigs slice at her skin.

She finally stopped, staring at the gray sky above that was covered by the canopy of trees. Was this how she was going to die? Covered in twigs and sand and being preyed on by some kind of mutant? She laughed softly.

Wasn't it you that came all the way here to die? Crazy bitch.

She raised herself with an effort to get a good look at the animals chasing her. They ran down the slope with ease, surrounding her. Their form was human, to some extent if she didn't consider their grey sallow skin. The faces glaring were batlike, with bluish hungry eyes staring through her and their large canines bared. They really thought they could scare her like this.

She held on to her side, feeling the wetness as she glared back.

"What? Aren't you going to end me already?!" she yelled at them. The creatures looked a bit shaken by her hostility, watching her slowly. She dragged her aching body backwards, resting her back on a tree nearby. Yes, it had been what she wanted anyway. It was probably for the best that she would end up like this. But it didn't stop her from quivering, her hands gripping the dirt.

One of them finally moved forward, growling as it poised to strike. She breathed, steeling herself for the inevitability of her death, her mind going back to Jack and wondering how it must have felt for him to slip away. She closed her eyes in anticipation but as it lunged, her hands instinctively fetched the dirt, sending it straight into its eye and dodging the swipe of its hand. It went for the tree behind her, taking a very good chunk of it with its silver claws. She fell again, coughing at the mindless exertion of her injured body.

What am I doing? she thought, her eyes widening. She was sure, almost positive she had given up. But her body acted on its own, trying to make her fight back. She gritted her teeth. The same feeling had been simmering beneath the surface of her listlessness as she spent her last night with Xelan, but she had chalked it up to nerves.

A clawed hand swung and she shielded herself in vain. But all she heard next was the slash of flesh and bones that was not hers. She looked up to see a silver sword covered in greyish blue substance, held by Xelan whose back faced her. She turned her head unwillingly to see the head and hand of the thing that attacked her on the forest floor, the same fluid that stained the sword gushing out of the area it had been severed from its body. The decapitated body crumpled to the ground, its blood flowing in torrents.