Page 13 of Forever Bound

And then the storm comes. Rain and sleet pour from the sky like bullets meant to kill or maim their target. This isn't a docile Christmas scene one might envision Santa Claus in. This is more like what Santa's evil twin would travel in.

Winter has come, indeed.

I chuckle at the reference despite myself.

Let's just hope George RR Martin isn't writing my story, or I'm unlikely to live through it.

Huddling under the largest tree I can find, pulling the cloak Vara gave me tightly around my shoulders, I close my eyes and pray to gods I don't believe in that I'll make it through the night.

When I hear the inhumane sound of a fierce beast, I know my prayers have not been heard.

I don't see the creature.

But I hear him.

Lurking.

Hunting.

Stalking.

I try to stay still. To calm my breathing. To hold my fear deep within lest it betray me.

Why would the man who saved me the night before want to kill me tonight?

Because I escaped? Because I disobeyed his orders to stay inside?

He warned me, and I didn't listen.

Story of my life.

I never see him. He is only ever the air around me, whooshing past. The breath on my neck. The nightmare of my dreams.

Except nothing he can do can compete with my actual nightmares. That's the part he doesn't understand. How can I fear the monster he is, when I already live with a much worse monster every day of my life?

So I stand and I cry out into the night. I scream and I cry and I challenge the beast to come and get me.

"You want to kill me?" I scream. "Then do it. Do it! I'm ready. I've been ready for six long years. End my life right now, you piece of shit. You'd be doing me a favor."

The wind steals my voice and carries it far and wide, and I feel a lightening of my soul at finally saying what I've been too afraid to acknowledge before.

It should have been me who died.

And now it will be.

I'm already resigned to my death when I feel him close by, his presence no longer the weirdly familiar feeling I had in the cave. Now he feels all monster, and I'm ready for him.

He comes from behind, and I don't turn around.

Something sharp slashes across my back.

I fall to the ground, already close to unconsciousness when he pulls me to my feet and digs his fangs into the flesh of my neck.

Searing pain floods me.

I strain to see his face, to look into his eyes and force him to watch me die.

But that moment never comes.

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