Jacob Seed x Reader

Forty-Seven

Panting and breathing heavily, you made your way through the forest. Your legs ran as if by themselves, it felt as if you were no longer part of your own body.

Your own breath echoed in your ears.

The blade of Jacob's knife trembled in your hand. You didn't know where to go, everything looked the same, dark, ghostly and threatening.

The world was cold and wet. So cold that it felt like the water on your skin was freezing. Your clothes were so heavily soaked that it felt like weight pressing down on your shoulders.

The rain poured down on the forest, shaking the leaves and turning the ground to mud.

Hastily you slithered down a slope. The ground under your feet was so muddy that you lost your footing. Your heart skipped a beat as you fell.

In the process, you dropped the knife. With a dull sound it fell into the dirt and disappeared.

"No!", you gasped, digging in the mud with trembling hands as tears welled up in your eyes. "I can't lose it... Jacob... I can't lose it, it's Jacob's!"

As you searched for the knife in the mud, so frightened, you kept glancing over your shoulder. The hairs on the back of your neck stood up and a shiver crept down your spine.

You were afraid.

You were afraid that someone might jump out of the shadows and drag you back to hell with them.

"Jacob.", you whispered and continued to search.

For a moment, you were so careless that you reached into the middle of the sharp blade. A burning pain stabbed your hand, flesh tore apart and the feeling of a foreign body pressed into you.

Hot tears ran down your face.

Hastily you pressed a hand onto your mouth to suppress a scream. The taste of dirt and rainwater wetted your lips.
Shaking, you raised your injured hand.

Thick, velvet red mixed with the brown of the earth. In small rivers it dripped down your arm, wetting your fingers and the ground. The cut was not deep, but it was wide, and the serrated blade had torn it in a sloppy way.

The mud had already seeped into the wound.

The hand had to be cleaned as soon as possible or it would become infected.

Or worse.

The pain hardly allowed you to close your injured hand properly. The more you squeezed it, the more the cut opened up and more blood poured out. A tingling sensation was already spreading through the fingers, slowly they even went numb.

"Shit!", you cursed and grabbed the knife with your other hand. "Water. I need clean water. Although... there might be bacteria in it... but I need to clean the wound minimally."

With shaky legs, you stood up and kept walking.

The sound of splashing rain echoed in the emptiness of the forest. Not even the sounds of animals filled the silence. The world seemed dead.

Again and again you stumbled, had to support yourself with one hand on the trees. Doing so, you left bloody prints on the bark.

Your lungs felt as if fire was burning in them. Everything felt so strange, your own body was like a prison, not completely yours but still under your control, like a tool.

Suddenly something reached your ears. The sound of water falling on water. A lake. There had to be a lake somewhere.

How far did you walk already?

In that moment it didn't matter.

A few more steps and the forest opened up and a clearing appeared.

The lake opened in front of you, but it was not the same one in which you had swum with Jacob earlier. This lake was smaller and its water was gray like the sky.

When you took a look at the dancing surface you could see small fish swimming around in it. Green plants grew on the shore. Some even had flowers.

Your knowledge of nature was limited, but it was obvious that plants did not grow in polluted waters and fish could not survive in dirty surroundings.

Without thinking about it a second time, you put your hands into the water. The dirt dissolved immediately, turning the water brown.

The fish swam away, startled by the sudden movements on the surface.

The water was cold. So cold that the wound began to burn and it felt as if a thousand knives were piercing the flesh. Slowly the brown of the mud began to mix with the red of your blood.

With shaky breath you began to rub the areas around the open flesh. Tears ran down your cheeks.

It all hurt.

The adrenaline in your body slowly decreased and exhaustion hit you all at once.

"Shit.", you gasped and had to brace yourself not to fall into the pond. "Not now. Too soon."

You lost your footing, almost tipped forward, and just managed not to drown. Falling on your back, you remained lying on the shore.

The rain pelted down on you, the drops shattered on your skin like beads of glass, ran down your body and gave you goose bumps.

That very feeling was the only thing you could feel at that moment. Everything else was numb, as if you were trapped in a bubble and the world outside was nothing but a dream.

Everything was so dull, so far, far away.

You couldn't even hear properly anymore. Instead, it was just strange sounds, like the singing of whales.

Slowly, very slowly, a trembling breath left your lips.

"Where am I?", you asked, reading your eyes wandering through the forest. "Why... am I here? How... did I... end up in this... mess?"

Your eyes closed and darkness engulfed the world with everything. Even the sounds fell silent, the feelings faded away. All that remained was nothing. Only silence and darkness.

For a long moment, you let yourself fall into that darkness, not resisting. It felt like flying. And at the same time, you could feel the life escaping your body.

But suddenly, the sound of gunshots tore everything apart.
Your heart started beating like crazy.

Struck by life, you tore your eyes wide open. The world returned all at once. Sounds filled your ears, the feeling of raindrops returned and the cold washed over you like a wave that crashed against the shore.

"Jacob.", you gasped. "Is that you?"