Reaping A Princess

THE BITTERNESS OF BETRAYAL

My breath bloomed in the frigid air as if the man steadily walking toward me was syphoning my heat. When I took one step back prepared to run, he raised a hand.

"Ah-ah," Elijah tutted softly. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

I took another step back regardless and he gestured to what surrounded us.

"There's nothing out here," he said. "Nothing on this mountain for hundreds of miles. You'll succumb to the elements before you reach wherever you're thinking of running to."

My thoughts faltered. He could be lying just to keep me from attempting to leave, but then again, he could be telling the truth.

As we stood in icy silence, I weighed my options quickly: to die by his hands, or mother nature's. To perish under an open sky would be a far better death than whatever he could have in store for me. At least on this mountainside there was hope that I could survive whereas a man's hands had a finality that never budged.

Without a second thought more, I turned and ran. I exploded into such a sprint that my tears ran straight into the hair at my temples. I threw my bag behind me as it only slowed me down. Nothing within it would serve me anyway; I was happy to be at the mercy of the elements.

"Sarah!" Elijah yelled after me.

The tone in his voice was a mixture of alarm and impatience with an edge of ire that spurred me to put as much distance between us as possible.

"SARAH, STOP!"

Thirty more feet of this clearing and then I'd breach the woods. My clothing was always dull in color and texture so I'd have an easier chance of blending in and hiding until I could escape from him for good.

Twenty more feet.

The pounding of his boots on the ground behind me sent waves of adrenaline coursing through me; coiling up within my stomach like a snake ready to strike. My heart pounded painfully within my chest, but I couldn't stop. I wouldn't allow my life to be taken from me.

Ten feet.

My eyes were already scanning for wildlife corridors where a natural path cut into the earth. Something large enough for me to follow but small enough to give Elijah a hard time getting through.

"Please, God, help me," I whispered through ragged breaths.

I raised my hands in front of my face and plunged into the wood line, not slowing as bare, hibernating branches grabbed at me. They snagged my clothing and scratched exposed skin, but the sting reminded me that I was fleeing from a much worse pain.

Elijah burst through the woodland barrier closer than I anticipated and my panic intensified. He was gaining on me, my chance of escape dwindling with the light in the sky.

"SARAH, STOP RIGHT NOW!"

"NO!" I screamed. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Finally, hope filled my chest as I spotted a tiny deer path through dense wild blackberry bushes. Glancing around, the path around it that he would have to take if he didn't plow through them would give me an ample lead.

I turned to the side and began shimmying through. My breath billowed in heaves in front of me in puffs of white, but I stared straight ahead like Mama taught me to.

She lived by the mantra, 'Keep your eyes forward and let your troubles fall behind you.'

Lord, let him fall behind.

"Damnit!" he hissed as he plunged into the thickets.

Foliage crunched beneath his boots loud enough that I didn't have to look back to know he was right behind me. Even knowing it, I still screamed when I felt him grab me.