Hunted

Act 16; Stray

She dreamt of a wide plain she shouldn't remember since she was too young when it happened. In the distance, through thin thickets of vegetation, she saw the faint glint of water reflecting the blue sky. A great body of water. The ocean.

She looked back to see the fox she had chased all the way there enter a hole at the side of a rock.

She looked back at the glint of blue. She shouldn't follow the fox. She should just go back to where she came from. She had no idea what was going on, but something in her gut told her to go back.

Her hand trailed at the hem of her shirt, clutching. She took a step back, her eyes on the body of water that seemed to be getting higher, or maybe she was getting smaller, then ran forward, toward the cave and unconsciously toward the luckiest act she's ever done in her life.

Then she woke up in cold sweat, slack-jawed, numb, and sweaty all over.

Ack. The heater must have been cranked up when dawn came along. She looked around to remember where she was.

She laid on a hard bed that made her back sore since she only slept on a thick blanket with no actual mattress. The room had a pastel red and yellow theme. There was a concave, tinted window. A desk. A swivel chair. A wardrobe closet...

She pulled at the collar of her shirt, which stuck to her skin in her own sweat. Gross. She slept in her parka. Where was she going to get a change of clothes now? She couldn't possibility ask Noah for any more trouble than she already had...

Noah.

Noah. DDA. Dormitories. Her friends. Her family. Her suicide attempt.

She muffled a sound from her mouth by covering it in her palms. She almost died last night. Oh God. And she almost went through with it if Jocelyn hadn't reminded her of her mother; of everything she's lived for since she was young.

Oh God, even if she backed out at the last minute, she tripped. She would have been scraped out of the pavement either way. But he saved her, and now she was indebted to him when he helped her hide in his school...

Oh God, she wasn't thinking straight last night. And now she's in a whole new heap of trouble because of it. She had to call her father and tell him-

She lost hold of her cellphone when she almost plummeted to the ground. It was in tiny pieces scattered along the street by now where people were walking all over it as she thought about it.

Oh God, she could've been just like her phone. Once enough time passed, everyone would forget about her, the police tape would be taken down, people could walk down the street again and she'd be nothing more than another broken toy that bit the dust at the prime of its success.

Oh God.

She wiped at her eyes furiously as she bit her lower lip from quivering, then gasped a sharp, vicious breath. A breath that felt like she ran a marathon under thirty gallons of water and wasn't given a chance to breath fresh air until she finished.

But she wasn't finished. At least not yet.

She just started running and the water's only getting deeper as she dragged her feet. She had to finish this. She had to finish this before the water gets too deep and she was drowning. Before her lungs caved in on her. Worse. She was dragging her family down with her. Worst. She still had no idea what she was going to do.

Then a knock came from the door and she had to pull herself together. She panicked.

She had bed hair, was soaked through her underwear in sweat and reeked of lack of shower from the past twelve hours of laborious dancing.