The North Star | COMPLETED ✔️

Chapter 53~ Lost

Enjoy! I thought this one got heated, but turns out it's the next 😁 Anyway! I'm still early lol

Chapter 53

All my life, the only thing I'd seemed to excel at  at was fucking up. But I'd outdone myself. Never in all my twenty-six years of existence had I made as colossal a mistake as taking off into the woods, at night, in nothing but a wet bikini and no real direction.

I want to keep you.

He always wanted to keep them.

It dug into my brain and wouldn't leave. Every word he'd ever said to me, everything he'd ever done, replayed in my mind in a new perspective, and I couldn't take it. It triggered instincts that had gone dormant since he came along to... protect me.

I ran.

I just needed to get as far away as I could. But it wasn't something I could run from, and a sanctuary didn't exist to protect me from the truth. Still, I ran anyway, desperately and aimlessly through the trees. I ignored each stab of the twigs and rocks beneath my feet. I welcomed the scratch of a tree limbs. Branches reached out to slap me in the face as if Mother Nature herself was trying to stop me, but I didn't even slow. It was better. For a split moment it took me away from the ache inside my chest. My heart had been so full, for the first time in my life, and to have all that joy sucked away at once felt like torture.

I slid to a stop, heaved lungful after lungful of burning air, and the chill my racing had kept at bay took its chance to settle across my skin.

I rubbed my arms and looked around. The trees seemed more dense in the night. They formed a canopy above my head and blocked out the sky.

I'm lost.

I trudged forward, face turned upwards. But when the trees finally broke apart, clouds took their place. No stars to guide me. Just silvery black, and the occasional peek at the moon.

I wrapped my arms around myself and took a long look around. "Fuck." A shiver echoed down my spine, and the moment it started, it wouldn't stop. I pivoted on my heel and rushed to retrace my steps. If I could just go the way I'd came, I could make it back to camp. My ears stayed primed for the sound of the stream, but all I heard was rustling leaves, and the hoots of a distant owl.

The further I went, the more lost I felt. Endless trees. Empty sky. Unfamiliar.

I wasn't built for this.

I didn't have survival skills when it came to the wilderness. All the street smarts I'd acquired meant nothing out here. I walked for hours at a steady pace, thankful that it at least kept me warm, but my legs objected the task. They grew heavier with each step, until the pain through my thighs was too much. I dropped down beside a tree, and pulled my knees into my chest.

I'm so fucked. As if in answer, the cold hugged tighter. It sunk down to my bones.

I grabbed whatever I could. Leaves, Moss, dirt, anything and everything within reach, I piled onto myself. It barely helped.

I let my head fall back against the tree. Of all the ways I'd thought I'd die, freezing to death on a mountain definitely wasn't one of them.

It could be worst, inner Jessie called, and I had to agree with her. This wasn't so bad in comparison to what I'd thought would take me. There'd be no torture. Drake wouldn't get the satisfaction, and this place... I looked around and my heart clenched again.