Page 21 of A Love of Wrath and Rapture

“Someone brought me here,” I mutter. “And they knew just where to leave me.”

Nausea enwraps its measly grip around my stomach, tightening the dread within me. I fight off the urge to get sick and inhale a deep breath.

But the cold wind makes even breathing painful. I adjust my coat and pull the fabric around my nose and mouth. It does little to stop the cold but I can at least breathe this way.

“How?” I cry, desperate for an answer.

Behind me is a hill, the slope of which is coated with snow. It helps me keep my grip as I make the ascent.

I have to stop to catch my breath. I know for a fact I’m up higher than I’m accustomed to, the lack of oxygen apparent as I fight off a light faintness.

But nothing prepares me for the sight that greets me when I reach the peak of the hill.

“Oh, sweet merciful gods…”

9

EVANGELINE

My cry can’t be stifled. Not even my hand can hold it back as I exclaim in horror. I knew I’d been taken far from the camp, but not this far.

I recognize nothing around me. It’s nothing but an endless abyss of the mountain range, with all of its unforgiving trenches, bottomless chasms, and vertical slopes that spell instant death.

All are lit in full by the sun, its light graciously allowing me to see the efforts of my forced exile.

The wind almost knocks me off my feet, but tumbling down the hills to my end suddenly doesn’t sound so bad.

But my resolve tells me not to give in so easily. I turn around and slide down the hill, returning to the spot where I woke.

“Think,” I tell myself. “I need to make sense of this.”

But thinking proves harder than anticipated. My mind is wracked with confusion about how the villagers brought me out here.

“How did I not hear a thing?”

My nausea worsens, unabated by my attempts to calm down. I lunge forward onto my knees, unable to stop myself from throwing up.

It stings my throat. It seems as though agony is quickly becoming a mainstay in my life.

Amidst the painful experience, I smack my tongue and lips, recognizing a peculiar aftertaste of herbs.

“I didn’t eat any herbs recently,” I whisper, running a finger along my lips.

I realize then and there that I was drugged during my sleep. It’s no wonder why I didn’t wake up during my kidnapping.

“Bastards,” I hiss.

Piece by piece, I figure out their plan. They don’t want me coming back, that’s why they brought me so far. They drugged me so I couldn’t trace the same path back home.

Home.

The word sickens me further than the feeling in my stomach.

The Nature around me is cruel but not by choice. The people in the settlement… they’re a different breed entirely. They willingly chose to put me out here, to take extra measures to ensure I never return.

“Why?” That’s all I can say before I burst out crying once more.

Their cruelty is almost enough to push me to the breaking point. I grapple with feelings of giving up and moving forth.

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