Lunaticus

10

Thump. Thump. Thump.

My heart seemed to beating in my head. I was shaking like a leave, teeth chattering like coins. I was trapped. It was either I jumped into the falls and broke my spine or became an appetizer for my mate. Either way, it was a leap of fate.

I squeezed my eyes shut tighter as if that would save me. My sub-consciousness crawled into the past, ripping apart all the ropes I had ever so carefully used to bind the shipments of pain. Seeking comfort, any strength I could.

His sniffing was closing in. I opened my eyes and breathed haggardly into the air before me. Once again, it was time for me to decide. And time was running dry, fast.

Momma?

Chloe, honey, why haven't you gone to sleep?

I'm scared momma.

Nonsense. There's nothing to be scared of.

But momma, the white man would come to eat me. He lives under my bed.

The only thing that's under your bed is dust rabbits. Remember Chloe, you're stronger than your imagination. If anything, it should be the monster that should be scared of you.

I gulped and tried to calm my breathing. The fear would only rile him further. Slowly, I turned my body around to face him.

He was easy enough to spot. Under the light streaming from the moon, the pale creature was too striking to miss. He was my height, but only because he was half bent at the knees, his arms dangling in the front.

His snout was dark, just like his nails, but that was just about anything that wasn't white. His gaze, like the bright blood of a slaughtered deer, bored into mine.

"Lyell," My voice was steady, foreign to my trembling body. "Lyell. It's me, Chloe. Your mate. You wouldn't hurt me, would you?"

I took a step back from the growl that erupted from his chest. I bit my quivering lip and tried again. "Lyell, baby, you wouldn't hurt me. I'm your other half. Your soulmate. Remember how you told me how you'd like to eat me?"

I choked on my spit. Slipping off the rocks was better right now than that tongue slip.

"I m-mean, how you expressed you liked me? You promised you'd give me the chance to choose, and for that, I have to be alive right?"

He took a step forward, one that seemed to shake the ground. I barely bit back the scream. "N-now, you told me I was a good person, a kind person, didn't you? You wouldn't hurt a good person, would you Lyell? A good person that lo- that likes you as much as I do?"

Somehow my frantic word-wheeling didn't seem to have the effect I had wanted to have on him. He still stepped closer, ears to the sky and tail swishing ever so slightly. The more I looked at his canine, easily as big as my hands, the more I wanted to pee my pants.

He was close enough to touch his snout to my extended palm if he wanted or rip me apart. Either of the two. I gulped.

"D-d-don't h-hurt me, p-please." Tears welled in my eyes. "I don't. I don't wanna die. Not like this."

Don't run Chloe. Don't run, please. He'll catch me in seconds.

Run little Chloe. His voice. The taunting words, the lechery, and leisure in his mock grin. Because if I catch you, I'd ruin you.

I tried to, I did, even now. But Lyell was too fast. I couldn't even take two steps before he was right in my face, his jaw quivering with the snarls in his chest. I froze as his canines scraped my neck. A slight snap, and I would be nothing but dead meat for the vultures tomorrow.

RIP Chloe. No funeral, no grave. What a sad way to die.

I took a deep breath. "I know you're in there, Lyell. And I know you won't let anything happen to me. If I ever meant anything to you, if you ever intended to love me, then you'd save me.

"You won't let me die Lyell."

Swallowing every instinct that told me I was crazy, don't do it, its suicide, I turned and leaped. The world froze, the trees a canvas of moonlight and the water glittering like diamonds.

Then I fell.