Broken

Chapter 32: Exploring (Charlotte)

Running in a breathless state of desperation, I ran and ran until my body could not bare to take anymore. I was utterly horrible with direction, and at the current point in time I had been without food or drink for more than ten hours. Plopping down by a nearby tree, I took this as time to rest. With broken breaths and a fastened heartbeat, I couldn't help but wonder why I decided to leave. Was all of this really worth not being changed? Should I just have let Shizuka have her way?

    Slowly, yet painfully, a wail erupted from the very depths of my stomach all the way outward into the forest. What have I done? Trembling within the empty forest, sobs began to escape from my body and echo through the darkness of the trees. Radiating throughout the empty atmosphere, I sat and wallowed in my own pain and fear. Sadness seeping through my veins and exhaustion coursing through my body, my cries slowly led me into a state of unconsciousness.

~~~~~

Opening my eyes, the horizon laid out a portrait of orange, red, and fluorescent yellows. Moving my muscles, a few of my joints popped and a soreness shot through my back. Standing up, I took advantage of the moment and watched the sunrise. It was a quite marvelous sight to witness, as sights like these are quite rare to watch.

While watching the rare sight unfold beneath my eyes, I was absolutely enamored by the rich, vibrant color of the rising sun. Never had I ever seen something so beautiful in nature occur so naturally. Wishing to have someone by my side at the moment, my mind flashed back to Nicco. A knot of guilt formed in my stomach just at the thought of his name. Should I have gave him another sign? Perhaps I should have told him that I was leaving in person versus just leaving him a note. However, if I would've wasted anymore time just hanging around, I could've been turned into some kind of mechanic monster! Who in their right mind would ever think or such a horrid thing to do to other humans? That woman was a monster, a creature of her own insanity.

A tear trickled down my face at the thought of him. Believe it or not, I missed him. I never knew it was possible to get attached to someone with only knowing them for a few days and being quite honest with myself, I knew I had to get a grip on my emotions. It wasn't possible to grow feelings for someone that you barely even knew and here I am after knowing him for a short amount of time, contemplating whether I could make it out of here without him. My head shook as I realized how weak and vulnerable I sounded. Being honest with myself, I sounded absolutely pathetic. Get a grip of yourself Charlotte.

After watching the sun rise, I continued aimlessly hiking through the trees. Where was I to go from here? I don't even remember enough about my past to even make it back home, and that was if I even had one.

Being careful not to prick myself with tree branches, I did my best to avoid the foreign looking insects that swarmed within the forest. My journey through the forest prolonged for a few more dreadful hours before I began to hear a rustling coming from the trees behind me. Suspicious, I did my best not to make any noise and I made sure to check my surroundings before proceeding onward. An eerie feeling overtook me, like I was being watched.

Cautiously and quietly, I took light steps throughout the forest. There was no place to hide in broad daylight so if I was being watched, I had a pretty high chance of being spotted. Looking at my surroundings once more, I heard another rustling noise coming from behind me. At this moment in time, I was pretty much ready to run. My heartbeat went wild as I tried to come up with a quick survival strategy. As I was about to run away, an arrow whizzed straight past my head. Someone was hunting me.

As realization hit me, I knew that Shizuka was behind this. Even more shocking was how she managed to hunt down my exact location in such a short amount of time. I can't believe this!