Glass Walls

Chapter 1 (Nova)

When you see someone up in the trees of a forest at midnight, what do you do? Do you ask them what they're doing? Do you try to climb up there with them? Do you call the firefighters or police for help?

I wish I had someone with me right now to tell me what to do. Maybe they would suggest I wait for the person to come down and then question them. He was staring at me, his eyes that illuminating the night with a bright amber glow. I was transfixed, unable to move while he held my gaze.

I would have been a goner if a slight breeze hadn't blown some of my crazy hair into my eyes, blocking my vision and causing me to snap out of whatever trance I had been in. Instead of anything anyone could have suggested for me to do, I ran for it. When you saw someone up in the trees of a forest at midnight, you ran away.

My breaths were short and quick, and it took all of my willpower to not look back. I tried not to think of the eyes as I sprinted away. I could hear the man running behind me, his feet heavy and his breathing hard.

Trees whizzed past me and I could feel him getting nearer, I could feel his presence behind me. It was as if I had suddenly grown a pair of eyes in the back of my head, able to watch him get closer and closer.

I could hear him breathing, as if he was perched right on my shoulder. Shuddery, deep breaths emerged from his obviously gaping mouth. He wasn't even tired – I was sure of that – but I definitely was. I was never a runner.

My converse splashed in small puddles and my ankles were growing wet. The shrubbery was more dense in this area, and it was growing increasingly hard for me to not trip. If I tripped, it would all be over. He would get me.

And then what would happen? Would he spare me? Would the story end? Would everything be over just like that?

My heartbeat pounded loud and quick in my head and my vision was blurring. Everything started spinning, and the already pitch black sky somehow seemed to be turning blacker. The familiar smell of alcohol filled my nose and I almost choked. It was as if I was surrounded in a fog of the stuff. I started coughing and wheezing, my lungs feeling like they were turning into small, wrinkled, dried out raisins.

And then, it was gone. The smell, the ache, the darkness. It was all gone.

I felt my feet fly out from under me as I tripped on a small plant, my face crashing into the wet leaves of the ground. A throbbing ache almost immediately settled itself into my chest and nose and I let out a yelp of agony. That wouldn't look pretty later.

I laid there, waiting for the man to jump over and start attacking me in whatever savage way he was planning out. Do whatever you have to do, just make it fast. I don't want to hurt any more. I waited for a few minutes, but the man never came.

I sat up, confused. He was just chasing after me a second ago. I could hear him, smell him, feel his presence. He couldn't have just disappeared, could he? What happened?

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain shoot through my hand and I sucked in a deep breath. I had to tear my eyes away from the trees before me. I still felt like he was going to pop out from behind one of the trunks and start to maul me, but I had to see if I was injured.

A breath caught in my throat at the sight of what I thought was my left hand. Now, looking at it, I could barely tell that it was a part of my body. The skin was dyed a shade of dark rouge and large gashes were openly bleeding a sticky ooze that made me feel sick. My fingers were a mangled mess of bones sticking out and nails broken. How the hell did this happen to me?

I checked the rest of myself for injuries, but everything else felt fine. I shakily looked to the ground around me and saw something I didn't even notice when I landed on it.