Frost Fire

Chapter Two

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                                                                           Chapter Two 

Pine trees flashed by, the pattern of their bark blurring in the corner of her eye. Allai gasped in air and kept her eyes focused on the ground, trying not to trip. Sometimes she loved the private location of the Manor; it was deep in rural New York State, and located on an old pine-tree plantation. But the forest terrain also made her morning runs a living nightmare.

She skirted around boulders and fallen branches that marked her running path. Leap there, dodge here, bound over there. The pattern of path was ingrained in her mind from years of daily running. But today it felt more challenging, like it was more of an obstacle course than a running path. That was probably because she’d gotten a grand total of four hours of sleep the night before. And the rain wasn’t helping as it drizzled down on her, muddying the path and her Converse shoes.

She knew she shouldn’t run in Converse, but she looked dorky in running shoes. They always looked way too big on her. Of course, her dad wouldn’t care about that; he’d just see the brand new, muddy Converse and launch into a lecture. 

She groaned at the thought, but only got halfway through the complaint before having to pull some air into her lungs. That sent a little sting of surprise to her numb mind. Because she was in better shape than that, after running this course for three years. Every morning she woke up, drove to the Manor’s border, and took off running. And, today… Hell, she’d only been running for ten minutes, so she shouldn’t be tired. Maybe her mind was just playing tricks on her; it seemed to love to do that. With a deep breath, she pushed her legs on, forcing them faster down the forest trail.

Her eyelids felt heavy, and she closed them halfway for a few moments. The forest blurred into hazy images. She vaguely registered a tree, a boulder, a fern.

A shriek.

She almost tripped as she stumbled to a halt. Then she spun on her heel and sprinted the other way, back toward her truck. Toward safety.

She knew that shriek. Harsh, high, rasping. She’d heard it once, and only once, from Luke. It had been the one time she’d seen him angry beyond reason and ready to kill. Her spinning mind couldn’t even remember when that time had been, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that Luke had gone into the city earlier. He wasn’t here. The shriek wasn’t his. And that meant it belonged to another Persequor, one that would only shriek for a single reason.

It was on the hunt.

Allai gritted her teeth and then sucked in a breath. “Get away from me!” she shouted into the trees. She took her eyes away from the ground for just a moment, looking around and searching for the Persequor. It was a moment too long. Her foot struck a fallen branch, yanking her ankle at an angle and tearing a panicked scream from her.  

Searing pain constricted her ankle. Allai did her best to ignore it, running forward and trying not to cry out with each step. She couldn’t hear anything over her pounding heart and heaving breaths. But she screamed again, this time trying to form words that would bring help. 

Guards always patrolled the Manor borders, and they’d been even more vigilant since the event. The guards would hear her. They had to. Unless they were changing shifts…

Damn it. They probably were. They always switched shifts around this time, leaving the Manor unprotected for little more than a minute. But it would be enough time for a Persequor to catch her.

She stumbled forward faster, and winced as the shriek pierced the air again. It was higher in pitch this time, as if it were more eager. The shriek sounded like it came from her left, but she didn’t take time to pinpoint its location. There was no point in that. Running was all she could do now, just run and hope the shriek was farther away than it sounded.