Page 45 of Torment

Despite the storm, the air surrounding me was warm and humid as I stepped outside and turned to my left. There was a deck spreading out across the whole side of the house, and beyond that was the lake I’d spent the last several weeks submerged in.

“Fuck you,” I hissed, sticking my middle finger up at the lake.

Then I began to run.

Mason definitely wasn’t here, but I knew it was possible that he might check my location from my tracking chip every so often out of sheer paranoia. If that happened, he’d know I was gone right away. That meant I needed to put as much distance between myself and this lake house as possible, and I needed to do it fast.

All around me, thrashing trees clawed the air with branches that had darkened in the rain from light brown to brown-black. Gray clouds swirled in the air above, bucketing down more and more rain with every minute that passed. For a while it was so heavy that I could barely see beyond my own nose, but I kept going.

I wouldn’t be safe until I made it to another person who could call the police for me.

I turned and headed toward a swampy area about a hundred yards away. In the distance beyond that was a thick patch of forest, and I was willing to bet that was one of the borders of this property. On the other side, there could be a house filled with people willing to help me, or at the very least, there could be a proper road. The swamp and woodland would also provide better cover than the line of trees and shrubs on the side of the driveway, in case Mason happened to come back in the next hour or so for any reason.

When I reached the swamp, I had to slow down. My lungs were burning from the exertion, and it wasn’t safe to run in a place like this anyway. One wrong step and I could put a foot right through a deceptive patch of moss, twisting my ankle from the sudden drop, or I could slip in the mud near the brackish water and knock myself out when I hit the ground. I still went as fast as I could, though. Each painful breath seemed to fuel my determination like oxygen feeding a fire.

When I was deep in the heart of the swamp, I froze in my tracks and turned, suddenly overcome by a sense of impending doom. I half expected to see Mason behind me, quietly following with a smug grin on his face, but there was no one there. Nothing stalking me with lethal purpose. The only moving things were reeds and branches swishing in the wind.

I stepped forward.

A rattling sound suddenly pierced the air from one side. My eyes fell to the left, and my surroundings instantly vanished from my mind, every part of my brain focusing on the viscerally horrifying sight before me. A canebrake rattlesnake was coiled only a couple of feet away, slowly rising from the undergrowth. Its beady gaze was fixed on me, dark tongue flitting into the air every few seconds.

Pure, distilled panic washed over me. I wasn’t expecting to see a snake out here. Not today. It was winter, and they usually weren’t around as frequently during these colder months. Then again, it was still quite warm and humid in the area despite all the stormy conditions. Perhaps the snakes were changing their patterns along with the weather.

For two whole minutes, I didn’t move. I just stood there, heart skittering erratically in my chest, cheeks hot and flushed with a wave of fear. Finally, keeping my eyes on the light brown reptile, I took a few careful steps back. I knew most snakes only attacked humans if they felt threatened. As long as I remained calm and quiet as I retreated, it would probably observe me for a minute and then slither away.

I kept taking slow steps back, my mouth pinched shut. I didn’t even let myself breathe.

All of a sudden, I tripped over a branch. A reflexive scream tore from my throat as I fell backwards, right into a mixture of mud, dead reeds and shallow water. Another rattling sound echoed in the air around me, and before I even saw it coming, a piercing pain shot through my left arm as the frightened snake’s fangs sank into it.

It slithered off almost immediately afterward, disappearing into the reeds. I lay in my spot, gasping as pain seared through my arm. When the sheer shock of the attack subsided a moment later, I tried to get up and walk again, more determined than ever to make it to safety. Within minutes my vision began to blur and my lips turned numb, followed by my arms and legs.

I sank down to my knees, overcome with nauseating dizziness. Before I collapsed all the way to the ground again, I let out a defeated sob. I was so close to getting away… so close to making it home. So close to living a real life after finally realizing how much that was worth to me.

Now I was going to die here in a swamp instead, alone and soaked to the bone, and my last memory would be of how I failed yet again.

Finally, mercifully, everything went black.

---