Blood Rose

Chapter Eight: The Capture

Camana took the hand of Ollie and led the way through the river. Lana was not far behind, leading her family just the same as Camana was. Little Remmie slipped on a grimy stone, but she caught onto her mother's hand before she could fall.

Ollie, obsessed with keeping things important to her, immediately went after her bag as soon as it slipped off her shoulder. "Ollie!" Camana yelled out. "Leave it!"

"No!" she protested. "I need it!"

"We need to move!"

Grabbing onto a nearby branch, Ollie stretched her arms and torso. She reached and leaned to follow her bag. It got caught on another branch further downstream. Suddenly, Ollie let out a scream as her foot slipped from under her.

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I struggled against this stranger's grip, attempting to free my tensed body. Who are you? I wanted to ask. And why are you doing this to me? But his hand still had a firm grip over my mouth, preventing me from speaking. Or screaming.

Without making a sound, he dragged me through the stream. I fought with all my might, kicking and thrashing and punching, but his hold on my stomach kept me from doing my worst. I felt the blood encompass greater portions of my skirt, and my hair was loosened from its tight enclosure. I was a fish out of water, held on a hook. I kept struggling until we reached Mrs Adana's former house, when I could tell it was no use.

My captor used his hand that was around my waist to tie a cloth to my head, still keeping me silent. He then grabbed a firm rope and tied it around my hands, the bristles scratching my skin. As he stepped in front of me, I could finally see this man, the one who has been torturing me for the past month. Finally.

He had dark brown hair, so dark it was almost black, hanging like branches over his face. His hazel eyes drew me in, for reasons I can't explain. His eyebrows never seemed to be level with one another, matching the traces of stubble around his jaw and above his lip. He was thin and clean, but still strong and scraggly. His rough voice was too deep for his face, but it somehow seemed fitting. He glanced back at me once more before running uphill, towards the source of the blood stream.

I stood there like an idiot until he ran down the hill again, and set my hands free. The blood started to turn into a slow trickle again, and I realized that this stranger had somehow stopped the flow.

He dragged me along until we were in uncharted forest, and I didn't recognize the path to my home. In the middle of a clearing, he stopped me and took the cloth from behind my teeth. "I'm Lincomb," he said, as though we were meeting through friends in a casual setting. "Evian Davidson sent me."

"Y-you know my brother?"