No Rest for the Wicked

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Cassidy had no destination in mind. She just kept taking step after step, the evening sun beginning to dip below the horizon as the sky lit up with a vivid orange.

But Cassidy was too focused on the ground to admire the sunset. She had finally stopped crying, but the regret and shame was still fresh in her mind. Her vision was still blurry from all the tears, staring directly at the sidewalk as she continued her destinationless walk of solitude.

Mia was dead, and she was the only one to blame. Cassidy should have never given the evidence to her, never encouraged the poor girl to hunt down such evil. Not to mention she had betrayed her father by doing this and he'd probably never trust her again because of it.

Cassidy had reached the entrance of her neighborhood but kept on walking. She crossed the street, straight being the only way to really go if she wanted to avoid walking on public roads. She found herself walking towards an empty field once she'd crossed, her feet squishing against the soft and grassy dirt as she kept moving.

Her teeth clattered slightly as the sky began to darken, Cassidy instinctively wrapping her arms around herself in a poor attempt to warm herself but didn't turn back. She just needed to be completely and utterly alone right now; she could handle some discomfort for a little longer.

The field soon began to blend along the tree line of a patch of woods, Cassidy not even hesitating to step into the forest. Twigs and branches snapped against her shoes as she struggled to see anything around her, the shadows of the trees mixed with the fresh night sky making it nearly impossible to see.

She was in such a state of depression that she hadn't even realized what she was doing or how long she'd been walking for. It was now almost pitch-black outside, her eyes barely able to even see in front of her due to how dark the woods had gotten.

She was lost and underdressed, now shivering in the cold with majority of her senses being jeopardized due to how dark it was and how emotional she was at the moment. Her nose was stuffed from her sobbing and her vision was practically useless during the night, but at least she still had her hearing...

And that's when she heard it.

A twig snapped, but it wasn't her steps that had caused it. Something else was in these woods with her. Or rather... someone.

Cassidy went completely still, her body stiffening as she heard another loud crunch, the sound of leaves and twigs being ruffled and broken filling her ears.

Whoever was here, they weren't trying to be secretive or discrete. They wanted her to know that they were close.

They wanted her to be afraid.

She wasn't trembling from the cold anymore, that was for certain. Whoever was trying to scare her was having the effect they were looking for and more, her body now shivering with anxiety.

That's when her eyes caught a glimpse of movement, immediately falling to the outline of something big.

The silhouette was definitely human shaped, the mystery figure tall and lean. She couldn't make out a single feature on the person before her courtesy of the shadows and darkness of the night, but from what she could tell he was definitely built well enough to attack a vulnerable girl like her if he so pleased.

The figure stopped not far from her, now standing almost as still as she was aside from his chest rising and falling slowly and steadily. She could hear his breathing, the sound muffled by something on his face that she couldn't quite make out yet.

Cassidy was completely stuck in place no matter how loudly her brain was screaming at her legs to move. It was as if fear had completely taken over her, engulfing her senses and actions as she quivered in complete and utter silence. She was so afraid that her entire body had practically stopped, unable to even hear her own breathing.