The Only One

Chapter Three

    Isabo was sprinting through the murky greenery she thought was a forest. Her bare feet crunched over twigs and dried pine needles covered in frost. She felt so cold it hurt to breathe. Every ragged breath taken was as if a knife was being plunged into her abdomen, her throat, her head.

She had to keep running. Her life depended on it. But she couldn't remember why. All she knew was this sickening fear in the back of her head that told her to keep moving, no matter how cold she was or how much her feet grew sore and bloodied from the sharper pieces of bark and icy shards that she couldn't avoid.

It was almost pitch black, Isabo could barely see her arms pumping to the beat of her heart out on either side of her. She could feel herself moving though, every painful step had her wincing in unbelievable pain. She kept running. She had to, there was no other choice. She tried to remember why she felt the need to run away, that was in fact what she was doing wasn't it? Why else would she be out in the cold night without a jacket or shoes?

At that moment, she wished she had just excepted that she was running, and not focused on the 'why' portion because the answer hit her like a train barreling down the tracks. She was running away from him. Isabo pumped her arms harder, forcing her feet to propel her forward. Faster. She had to move faster and further away from what she knew was coming. He was after her and she had to escape. There was no other option. She focused hard on not falling, knowing that if she stumbled or tripped that would be the end of her. She could survive this as long as she kept moving. She would survive this.

Isabo heard something large crashing through the brush behind her. Faint at first, then louder and more present in her ear. She grew frantic, gasping for air and looking around her to see if there was a light in a house she could run to and ask for help or maybe a tall tree with low enough branches she could climb up and hide in. There was nothing, no one that could help her escape what she was desperately trying to avoid.

The crashing was more apparent now, seemingly directly behind her. Isabo crashed into the tree to her right, slamming into it so hard and fast that she smacked her head against it's thick middle.  She was reeling, becoming dizzy from the pain that was landed to the side of her head. She was distracted by a different pain however, down towards her left thigh. Isabo grew confused and tried to blink away her bleariness. How did she run into a tree when she could have sworn it was several feet away? She quickly wiped away the dark substance that had slid into her right eye and gripped the tree truck that she had run into. The thought of running away was still in the back of her head as she struggled to lift herself up.

Isabo used the tree to steady herself and went to take her first step away from the cover of the tree before screaming out in pain and once again dropping into the frost covered pine needles. She panted, feeling sweat bead across her forehead, mixing with the substance she had wiped away moments before. Breathing deeply she scanned her body, trying to identify what exactly was preventing her from moving and creating this unbearable pain coursing through her body.

She looked towards her left thigh, squinting in the darkness. Was that..an arrow? Who uses a bow and arrow to shoot someone? Robin Hood? She wasn't running through the pages of a storybook so why did someone shoot her with an arrow of all things? She quickly grew grateful of the sharp object protruding out of her skin. It wasn't a bullet. She wouldn't be able to fix herself if it was a bullet.

Isabo, taking a deep breath, went to snap the end of the arrow off so she could pull it out. It seemed like the most logical thing to do. Snap the end, pull it out, wrap the wound. She could do that. It would definitely hurt like a motherfucking bitch but she could do it, to survive she could. Just as she touched the first end of the piece of dull wood, a boot slammed against her shoulder, throwing her down into the earth so hard her head spun.