Enchanted Hearts

Chapter 5

Skylar

"Delilah!" Mahogany screamed. She was crying as she climbed over to me. "Come on, we have to jump. Now!"

Delilah was gone. We needed to jump into the river to get away from this Moxie and see if she was okay, but for some reason I was struggling. I wanted to kill him for what he did to Delilah, but he looked so innocent. I thought Moxie were feral. This one didn't look feral though, he looked decent, maybe even cute. No! That isn't possible. I don't really know why I was so hypnotized by this creature. He tried to kill Delilah, which meant he could try to kill me or Mahogany too. Holy Cow. I had to move. Mahogany jumped out of the tree and into the river below. Just as she was resurfacing, I jumped out. We could have gotten Delilah and swam down the river back to safety if I had've made it out of that tree then. But I didn't. The Moxie grabbed my arm and a scream escaped my mouth. If I dropped now I would hit solid ground, just like Delilah did. My life was in the hands of this Moxie.

"Let me help you get out of this tree," he ordered, looking straight into my eyes.

I did as I was told and let him help me down out of the tree. As soon as my feet touched the forest floor he grabbed my arm and held on so tight it hurt. He started walking me towards the Moxie camp, but he walked right past it without a second glance. When I looked back I saw another Moxie walking towards a lifeless Virago with blonde hair laying by the river.

Delilah

It felt like I was out for hours, but only a couple of minutes had passed. It felt like being asleep only I couldn't dream. I opened my eyes and saw Mahogany swimming towards the river's shore, towards me. She was a good and fast swimmer. But then she started to slow down and then completely stopped.

"Delilah, I am so sorry," she said only just loud enough for me to hear. I wanted to get up and tell her it's okay, but she turned and swam back down the river.

My head was dizzy and it took me a while to remember what had happened. I looked up and saw the tree we had climbed. The same tree that the Moxie had thrown me out of and where he had Skylar cornered. Skylar! Where was she? I looked back to the forest and saw Skylar. Phew, she was alive. Too bad we were going to die anyway. Skye was being dragged along by the blue-eyed Moxie, who had her arm gripped tightly. He was walking her along the river past their camp. Strange. A pair of snazzy brown lace-up shoes were suddenly right in front of my face, blocking my view of Skylar. What on earth? I didn't even bother looking up. I started to back away as fast as I could. When my hand hit the cold water of the river I turned around and dived into the water. It was a little murky but still good for swimming in. I was a weak swimmer so I didn't bother trying to get to the other side. I knew I wouldn't have made it through the water if I couldn't touch the bottom, so I swam downstream hoping the current would push me along.

I heard a splash followed by a disembodied laugh behind me. I wanted to look back and see where Skylar went, but I was too afraid of the Moxie. Two in one day, that's unheard of. I didn't really think I would be able to get away, but that wasn't going to stop me from trying. I was literally running through the water, kicking off rocks and anything I could place my feet on. As the Moxie got closer the water got rougher which made it hard to swallow air when you're totally surrounded by water. I must have been swimming too close to the centre of the river because when I put my foot down there was nothing to push off. I struggled to swim up for a breath. Then a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me up. Relief flooded through me as I took a large gulp of air. I tried to keep swimming but the strong hand was still around my arm. The Moxie was pulling me towards the shore. I tried to rip his hand off but he only held on tighter. I tried kicking him, but he was like a brick wall.

The Moxie pulled me up out of the water onto the grassy bank. I just lay flat on my back with my eyes closed. I was shivering, my head was spinning and I could hardly breathe. I hoped the Moxie would think I was dead and just leave me alone, but that was so not going to happen, not in a million years.

"We have to keep going," said the Moxie in his sweet voice. I didn't move. "You don't want them to catch you." Catch me, hadn't he already caught me. He gently grabbed my arm, his hand was so warm considering we'd just been in the lake. I finally opened my eyes at his touch. The first thing I saw were his eyes which were a soft brown colour. Then the wet flicky caramel hair that was almost to his shoulders and matched his eyes perfectly. He had a muscular figure with broad shoulders. I stood up and he released his hand. Then I took in my surroundings, I only got about 150 metres from the bottom of the oak tree. He started to walk back up the river, expecting me to follow. When he realised I wasn't behind him he turned to face me.

"I'll drag you if I have to," he said. I bolted into the forest. I was so tired, but I wasn't going down without a fight. I didn't care if I was only wasting my energy. I was going to die anyway. Why would they come after us if not to kill us? We are their mortal enemy after all.

I was faster than him, but I was losing momentum. I stopped for a breath and the Moxie was right in front of me. This was so not my day. I charged at him. He wasn't expecting it, so the element of surprise was on my side. I barrelled him to the ground. Then I started throwing punches at him. I felt like a mental psychopath, but I didn't want to die, not like this. Just when I thought I had defeated him, with a punch to his previously unscathed face. He rolled us over, so now I was on the ground and he was on top. He had my arms pinned down beside my face. I tried to kick him off, but I couldn't move my legs. This is it, the short sweet life of Delilah.