The Love of a Thornbush

Run Away - Chapter Ten

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Wind whistled, wooshing through the leaves around me. Boots crunched on salty gravel as I clung to the branches I hid in. My hands gripped the tree trunk in front of me as I listened intensely to the night air and anything that approached.

Normally, I'd be hesitant to be so high up, but with the dark witch on the prowl I wasn't keen on being found.

I heard her sing-song, mockingly sinister voice call out from a few feet away from my tree.

"Come out, pet~"

The melody of her voice did nothing to soothe me. Bellatrix approached, like a cat playing with a mouse.

I hissed as the metal on the gifted collar burned me, gripping harder onto the tree. She was getting angry.

"I SAID COME OUT!" she screamed, rage an inferno in her voice. My breath rattled with fear as she drew closer to my hiding spot.

I caught sight of the luminous light from her wand brightening her pale face in the darkness. Her eyes were wide with madness, nostrils flared and lips pressed firmly together. Rain beat down on her, but I was sheltered by the branches of the mighty tree I cowered in.

She paused, head tilted upward as if she was sniffing the air for my scent. Like a wild animal, or the person who hunts them, a huntress. She turned to face my tree and I felt my stomach drop.

I prayed my clothes kept me camouflaged. She was staring directly up at my hiding spot and unknowingly into my soul.

My heart hammered in my ears, I felt my hands run slick with sweat as I gripped tighter onto the tree bark. Bellatrix's dark eyes were alight in the rain, pale skin sodden and hair a tangled mess in the wind.

A man appeared at her right side, quick as a flash of lightning. I assumed he apparated. He had tan skin and dark, malevolent eyes. Bellatrix broke her eyes from my hiding place and barked an order, the man nodded and marched off in military fashion into the maze of trees around them.

The frustrated witch looked back up to my tree, huffing and gritting her teeth as she stared me down. She couldn't see me, I knew it. But it felt like she knew I was there. Bellatrix stormed off into the rain being blown in her face by fierce winds.

I breathed a sigh of relief through my teeth, slumping into the tree trunk I gripped. The tree branch I stood on creaked under my weight and I knew for a moment before it did that it would break. My split second decision made me jump, thinking while mid-air that they might hear me, before I clattered to the grass below.

My body ached, I'd landed on my shoulder and all my weight had crushed it to the ground. It strained while I pushed myself up, but I ignored the pain to make use of my limited time window.

I limped my way between the trees, scuttling around to find a way out. Bellatrix had never allowed me into the gardens or surrounding forests of the manor, so I had no idea where to go. I headed west in the hope that I'd run into a gate, or a wall to hop over.

I struggled to dodge the tree roots splayed around the ground, it was dark and the rain blurred my vision as I stumbled around. I heard indistinct voices and began to run through the trees, making a mad dash for freedom.