Running.
That was all that mattered.
Everything else could wait; I just had to escape.
But how could I escape when I had no damn clue where I was?
The green blur of trees surrounded me in every single direction I ran, their thick trucks spiraling up into wispy branches that pointed up at the night sky. They all looked the same, so as far as I could tell, I had been sprinting in circles this whole time. To make matters even worse, there was a downpour of rain, soaking what was left of my tattered white dress, the temperature of the water chilling me to the bone.
Legs still pumping, I glanced to my left and noticed something familiar. Farther off, slightly peeking out from behind the bushes was a brown dirt path, it's trail worn into the ground from so many people walking down it. This was the path that he took me down. The one that led to the road. This was the path that could possibly lead to freedom: to escaping.
Letting out a quiet cry of joy, my bare feet squished into wet mud as I veered towards the direction of the pathway. With a little more sense of where I was, there shouldn't have been much longer until I reached the edge of the forest.
The problem was, I was absolutely winded from all of this. I could feel every square inch of my lungs burning, almost like a match was being put to them. My breath came in short, heavy pants; a sign that I would eventually have to slow down. All this adrenaline that aided me along the way was noticeably fading at a pace that scared me; I didn't want it to go away. The pounding of my heart in my chest wasn't helping either--and it wasn't just because I was running; it was because of what I was running from. More specifically, who.
A slew of curses escaped my mouth as I finally couldn't take it anymore; I had to stop, otherwise I would collapse. Although I wasn't jogging anymore, I still kept a brisk walking pace. Every step counted. Every step away from him mattered. This wasn't something I could recover from if he caught up to me; this was between life and death.
Which is why I had to push myself even if my leg muscles ached from exertion. Even if my lips were no longer a rosy coral color, but instead a blue hue from the frigid temperatures. None of this mattered--hell, I still wouldn't give up even if I had to escape by crawling on all fours, dragging myself in the mud to just get out.
After a few painstaking moments of just walking it out, gulping in as much air as I could to help regain my composure, I was about to start running again when I heard it.
The sound that my ears picked up on wouldn't have sent a chill down any other person's spine if this was a different situation. It wouldn't cause them to simultaneously whip their head in the direction it came from while beginning to run. Their heart wouldn't feel like it's leaping out of their throat. In fact, most would've just waved it off as no big deal; maybe they wouldn't have even noticed it.
But I did.
It was a sudden sound, and it was over and done with as quick as it had started. With the downpour of rain, it would've been even easier to miss. If my senses weren't going into overdrive, I wouldn't have even noticed. But it was there, and it hung in the air.
It was the distinct sound of a branch snapping. And then another.
I was already gone seconds after it happened, sprinting faster than I had ever run in my entire life. An unintentional sob escaped my lips, and I clamped my hand over my mouth to prevent anymore cries. This was it. He found me and now he was going to have his way with me. I wasn't going to make it.
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runaway | e.d
Fanfiction"sometimes you can't escape the past." Solara knows that this is sometimes true, but she won't allow it for herself. She's worked too hard to escape from such a chaotic past, it almost ended up killing her. Since escaping, there were many risks she...
