(COMPLETED) The Lunar Chronicles - Winter's Summer

Part 29

Twelve times.

She stabbed him in the chest twelve times.

It was only after the knife went in a fourth time did Wynn seem to register it. His face contorted in pain, and he started to release a deafening howl, before Scarlet shoved the knife back in.

There was blood flowing down from his chest, pooling on the covers she was lying on and warming the parts of her skin that it made contact with. She felt a thin but steady trickle of blood start falling on her face, but she merely wiped it away and kept working.

She took pleasure in killing Wynn. And maybe she shouldn't have. But he shouldn't have taken pleasure in kidnapping and trying to rape her.

Wynn slumped on top of her, just a dead weight pressing down on her chest. She used all of her force to try to push him off of her, and ended up leaving him face up on the bed, his eyes conveying hatred and disgust. "You bitch," he croaked out, a thin stream of blood coming from the side of his mouth. She flashed a smile at him.

The knife was warm and sticky in her hand. As she stood, she dropped it, letting it clatter on the floor. She scanned the floor for where Wynn had dropped his shirt, and upon finding, scooped it up and put it on.

While she hated being near anything even remotely related to Wynn, (besides Wolf) she had no choice but to put on the shirt. The dress was destroyed. And she couldn't be running from Lunar soldiers in nothing but her undergarments.

While the black shirt was a good start, she still needed some other clothes pieces. She went to the closet and opened it, seeing her dirty jeans in a pile on the floor.

She eagerly slipped them on, and the effect was immediate. She felt like more of a person. Less of an object, or a slave. Scarlet guessed that that was the exact way Wynn had wanted her to feel when he handed her the dress. He wanted her to feel like she was his.

The tennis shoes she currently had on since before her kidnapping were ruined, soaked in blood. Not just Wynn's. There seemed to be blood all around the house.

She took them off, leaving them alone on the floor, not caring about where they ended up. She searched for another pair, but in the closet all she found was a pair of four inch stilettos. And Scarlet didn't consider those real shoes.

Still she grabbed them, thinking the heels could be possible defensive tools. She gagged at the thought of picking up the bloody knife again. As for shoes, she decided to go without them. Her socks would be enough to protect against the elements.

Speaking of, she didn't have any idea what the conditions were outside. All of the windows had thick black curtains over them, so Scarlet never got a clear shot of the outside world. She didn't know what to expect.

With no available resources, Scarlet decided that what she had on would have to be enough. It had to be.

Now the only question remaining was what to do. She could wait for Wolf, lock the door and stay hidden until he came to rescue her.

But that could take too long. Or one of the wolves would find her before Wolf did.

The other option she had was leaving. Either climb out of a window, or sneak down the stairs.

Scarlet didn't think it really mattered. Either way, she knew there was nothing in the world to keep Wolf and Scarlet from trying to find each other. One of the options got them together faster, but there was a very good chance she would be found before Wolf got there. After all, she didn't even know where he was.

She had just settled on the decision that staying here would be the best plan for now, when she heard footsteps coming from up the stairs.

Spades! She couldn't let anyone find Wynn until Wolf had come for her or she was far, far away. She crept silently to the door, then pressed the entirety of her weight against it.

She didn't want to lock it while someone was right next to the door, because it was obnoxiously loud, and would do nothing to protect her should anyone decide that they want to come in.

Having her blocking the door would be inconsequential if someone tried to open it, but it made her feel safer, and it allowed her to hear the chatter outside the door a little better.

There wasn't a lot. The person who had come up the stairs had come up alone, and so only faint conversations from downstairs could be heard. Scarlet caught the word 'Ze'ev' several times, which made her frustrated that that was all she could hear. If they were talking about Wolf, Scarlet wanted to know!

She heard heavy footsteps pacing up and down the hallway, which only stopped when another person came up the stairs. "Charin," they said, gruff and low. "What are you doing?"

"I need Wynn to give confirmation on our position, but he's still in there with Z's mate. I don't know what to do. These need to be ready by morning, so I only have a couple hours before Troya needs them."

"Then wait for an hour, then knock. I mean, there is a distinct possibility he'll kill you, but I'll take that risk."

There was a sound of a dull thud. Scarlet assumed that Charin had hit the pack member he was talking to. The man only chuckled. "Really, it's no wonder you're Omega."

"We can go any time, Beta."

"I look forward to it." Scarlet heard more laughter. So while these men spoke like enemies, they were really friends. After the laughter faded, then Scarlet started hearing their footstep walking in the opposite direction, back down the stairs.

She peeled herself off the door, feeling a renewed fire at the deadline. She had an hour before anyone would come into the room. If that was the case and she was being forced out, there was no point in staying around longer than necessary.

Scarlet turned to the small window on the other side of the room from the door. It had thick black curtains over it that Wynn had instructed her not to touch. She walked over, then tried opening the window. Pushing it up with both hands, Scarlet heaved a sigh of relief at the feeling of a cool breeze brushing her face and sweeping away her curls.

She hoisted one leg onto the window sill and pushed herself out of the room, tumbling out onto roof. The wind that had been a cool breeze inside tore at Scarlet's baggy shirt and hair, freezing her from the inside out.

She was at least four stories up on a slanted roof. She peered over the edge to see that only hard concrete waited at the bottom, nothing suitable for a landing that would leave her relatively unscathed.

It was too late to go back in there. If she did, she'd be too scared to ever come back out.

Scarlet couldn't see any more buildings nearby, just a long gray driveway heading over a multitude of hills and a few points of skyscrapers in the distance. She was completely alone.

There was no where to go from here. She was stuck.

Scarlet sat down, then curled her knees up to her chest, letting her head rest on them. She had just sentenced herself to death.

Silent tears slipped off the tip of her nose. There was nothing she could do except for wait.

And she didn't have to wait long.

It was barely three minutes since she had climbed out the window, and she could already see the Rampion streaking across the sky towards her.