Page 18 of Voices in the Stars
The stranger hummed. I whimpered as he pressed the blade harder against my throat, the tip stinging my neck. Warmth trickled down my chest. Then it was gone. Light blinded me as the sack was ripped off my head. I squinted against the sudden assault, waiting for the world to come back into focus.
The man was kneeling to the side of me. Shaggy, black hair hung across his tanned face as he peered down at me. I had a tough time staring at anything besides the two horns that stuck out of the top of his head. Until he grinned, catching my attention with a set of sharp fangs. I sucked in a deep breath as my body tensed. If I wasn’t fighting the urge to run from him, he might’ve been attractive.
“Good girl,” he mumbled with a smirk, reaching a hand out.
I blamed my next actions on the fear coursing through me. My legs pulled back toward my chest before thrusting toward the man. There was a sickening crunch that vibrated through the heel of my foot as it connected with his face. I watched, jaw slack as he yelled, grabbing at his nose as blood streamed from it. Quickly I twisted from him, scrambling to my feet. My tied legs were a problem I hadn’t fully thought through. I took several, very small steps before there was a hand in my hair, ripping me backward. I yelped as he pulled several hairs free.
“You broke my nose,” he growled in my ear.
“You stabbed me!” I yelled back, squinting against the pain that radiated throughout my scalp.
I gasped as I was tugged back again, now with him in front of me. There was a tree pressed against my back and him glaring daggers in front of me. Our noses could’ve touched if one of us breathed deep enough. Though now his had a slight bend that I was certain wasn’t there before. The surrounding skin was turning black from the bruisesalready forming. Time felt like it was at a standstill. We stood there, gazes locked. The only sound was our heavy breathing. I refused to look away from him, even as my heart pounded.
I was pulled out of my thoughts as he tossed me to the ground. He pushed me with his boot until I was looking up at him. The position was already getting tiring. His arms were crossed as he looked down at me.
“There’s another village a few hours away. At the rate you’re going, you’ll never see it.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, flinching as he reached down. He grabbed onto the rope that tied my hands together, using it to pull me up to my feet again. His hold didn’t lessen as he turned away, dragging me down the path behind him, deeper into the woods.
Night blanketed the sky. The moon was large as it worked to illuminate the world with the help of more stars than I could count. All I wanted was to get lost in the way they clustered together. My heart tugged as I realized these constellations looked nothing like the ones I had spent nights memorizing. Their patterns were all wrong. Some false creation my mind made for this nightmare. Though, I would think the stars would be one of the few things it could remember.
A hiss of pain escaped as another rock stabbed into the sole of my foot, but it did nothing to deter him. If anything, my acknowledgement of pain only seemed to fuel him. His pace was almost impossible to keep up with. It seemed like it was a personal mission of his to completely ignore me. He had given up on dragging me with the rope when I kept falling down, trying to catch up to him.
My foot caught on a branch, sending me face first to the ground once again, unable to catch myself. There was a fist-sized rock nestled among the grass in front of me. One throw would be more than enough to wipe that stupid smirk off his face. His cold, brown eyes flashed through my mind.
“Can you slow down?” I called out to him as I tried to stand, rock still on the ground. Standing proved harder than I was expecting. My hands were still tied together which led to me trying to rock my weight back so I could stand. I proved to be greatly overestimating myself as I went flyingback on my butt.
Tears burned as I watched his figure get smaller as he kept walking. Whatever game he was trying to play, I refused to join. My skin was red from the chaffing rope. Every part of me felt like it had been mauled by a large animal, and the grass was looking like the perfect bed. I followed my thoughts and laid on the ground, sighing in relief. My eyes closed as I enjoyed the quiet world.
It only lasted a few minutes before the sound of his footsteps approached where I laid.
“What’re you doing?” he asked, standing above me with his arms crossed.
“Well, you don’t seem to care if I follow, so I decided to just enjoy the view.” I wasn’t sure when I apparently stopped wanting to live. That can be the only explanation for why I was antagonizing the man who had already threatened my life.
“When did that seem like an option?” he asked.
“When you refused to slow down.” It was too late to backdown now.
In the span of a blink, he went from staring down at me to in front of me. Brown eyes peered into mine. I let out a shriek, throwing my hands up in a sad attempt to block his attack. My hands trembled as I waited for the dagger. Instead, I felt one hand on my lower back while an arm slid under my legs right before I was thrown back onto his shoulder.
“Let me down!” I yelled, smacking my fists against his back.
“I tried doing this the easy way,” he remarked. “This is your fault now.”
I relaxed against his hold; any argument would be lost on him. At least I really could enjoy the view now. I’d had dreams that involved the stars before now. They would’ve been brighter than I had ever seen. I would be standing in an open field, staring at the sky as the stars swirled around me, a sensation of missing something pulling at me. It felt like the universe had an inside joke I should’ve been a part of. Here, there were thousands of stars above us, more than I was ever able to see on my rooftop, and that same sensation tugged at me now. There was something here that I was missing.
How much longer could I possibly stay asleep? It had to almost bemorning back in the real world. Soon, someone would come and shake me awake. Then I could be free of this world and this brute of a man. I just had to wait it out.
The world was proving that waiting it out would feel impossible. The moon traveled up the horizon until it was shining directly above us. My eyelids were heavy as the day weighed them down. My nap earlier did nothing to combat the body numbing exhaustion I was feeling. I was about to give in to sleep when he moved me again. He lifted me off his shoulder and set me back on the ground. I wobbled on unsteady legs as I turned away from his glaring face.
We were outside of a town. It wasn’t much compared to the circular one Klyn had taken me through. This one was just a handful of buildings nestled among the trees. It was almost eerily quiet, like the town was holding its breath. Waiting for us to move.
Few of the buildings were facing us. One had an image of a sleeping sheep carved into a sign above the door. There was more writing that I couldn’t understand. I took a step closer, squinting my eyes as I tried to make out any words.
I hobbled to where he stood in front of the sheep labeled building. A wince twisted my features with each step I took. My feet were already throbbing, and the stoney path made sharp pains shoot up to my knee, which wobbled with each step I took until I finally reached him. He just kept glaring, arms crossed.
“That the only expression you make?” I asked as I stood before him.
