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Aria felt the blood pumping through her veins. A hand to the forehead told her she was sweating profusely. She cursed under her breath and pushed forward. Shoving branches out of the way with her hands, feeling brambles tear through her skin. Aria didn't dare look behind her. It wouldn't be a good sight. The winged girl had just escaped, surely it wasn't fair for her to be, once again, hunted. How long would she have to wait to taste food once more and feel water pass her lips?
She heard yelling and laughing as her pursuers rushed towards her. Aria ran faster, ran harder but with a sickening lurch, as she almost tripped, she realised they did not need to run to keep up with her, she was stumbling, crashing through the forest. Barely keeping her balance. It should have been no surprise that they only had to walk to keep her pace. Aria put a hand to her stomach and felt the warm blood covering her hands. They'd shot Aria. Seven times. And she was still standing, that, at least, was something to be proud of. What use was there of clumsily trying to run onwards, wasting any stamina she had left? Fighting was the only option and the only way out. It wouldn't end like this. Aria must go down kicking and punching, to die running would be inescapably shameful, even in death. She stopped to take a deep breath, gather her thoughts and...
Something incredibly heavy slammed into her back before she even had the chance to turn. Aria couldn't hold back a scream as the bones in her wings shattered like sticks. Aria tumbled to the ground. Her face slammed into the dirt and her leg twisted and she felt the bones in that limb snap too. So many broken bones. So many bullets inside her. This wasn't meant to happen. She was meant to be free now. Free. It had been so long since she had owned freedom and freedom had owned her, so long since she had been able to feel the wind on her face. Ruffling the feathers of her wings. She almost laughed in a burst of madness as she thought, if he hadn't made her drink the potion he'd made, Aria would still have her deathly touch and all these people would be dead. But of course that would be too easy.
She was ripped from her thoughts by a presence by her. Someone was knelt next to Aria. A hand gently caressed her hair and she tried to pull away, tried to get up. But the pain was too much and any burning desire to fight was gone. "Please don't try to get away darling, you're in a bad enough situation as it is." A young voice said. Someone as young as her? A boy. "My name is Eric. And I'm going to be taking you with me okay?" He said, as if Aria had a choice. "No" she managed to push the words out from between her lips. That one word caused a coughing fit and she felt the warm liquid dripping from her mouth. Aria licked her lips and tasted the metallic tang of blood. "Well I'm afraid you're in no position to resist me." The boy, Eric murmured. Without warning she felt a sharp pain in her neck and instantly her vision flickered. Black curled across her vision like spilt ink on paper. "Sleep tight. I'll see you soon. I promise." Eric's voice called from somewhere far in the distance, distorted and breaking off at points. The blackness was all Aria could see, her broken body felt as if it was spinning wildly in some place without sound or solid beings apart from her. And then Aria couldn't feel anymore. Everything was still and everything was black.
A/N: Argh so I was NEVER going to start publishing this story on here until a friend persuaded me to...thank youuu Farida <3. I am in no way a genius when it comes to writing (or anything whoops) but I hope some people can enjoy this story + I will try to upload regularly. Chapter 1 may come out later today. Anyway, thanks for reading, even just the Prologue >.<
