Page 7 of My Dark Obsession
By raced I mean I ran as fast as I could.
By fast as I could I mean I flayed about and got whipped in the face by a bunch of branches. I had never been the most athletic and my lack of nutrition didn’t help.
“I’m no’ going to hurt ye’! Please wait!” He called behind me.
Now it could have been the many bangs to the head I had received recently but I had this odd urge to stop and listen. The urgency in his voice pulled at me in a strange way.
I ran faster.
I panted as I ran further into the forest. What were barren twigs were now tall, glorious trees full of leaves and foliage. I jumped over fallen logs and branches, cut through thorny bushes and still I didn’t stop.
I’d be damned if I was going to let some giant lumberjack kidnap me and chop me up, even if he was a little bit yummy. Because that’s what kidnappers do these days right?
Tripping over another fallen branch I would have smashed my face into the lush greenery beneath me, but his large hand yet again gripped my forearm.
Turning me to him he removed his hands and backed away, showing his hands in a way of friendly surrender.
I glared at him and panted; I was seriously unfit.
“I’m no’ going to hurt ye’.” He nodded at me as if that cleared it up.
“Then why are you chasing me!” I said as I tried my hardest not to show how much I was out of breath.
“Ye’ was the one running!” He rumbled with raised eyebrows, his red eyes bright and slightly glowing in the darkening forest.
“Your eyes are red!”
“Uh, yeah, and ye’re my Circle Mate Wee one, ye’ felt tha’ right?” Lowering his hands, he reached back and rested his hand on his lower back.
Had he hurt his back chasing me? Maybe I wasn’t the only one seriously unfit. I also had no idea what the hell he meant by Circle Mate; was it some kind of kidnapping term?
I ignored the small itch at my lower back and growled “You’re going to have to find someone else to chop up!”
Exasperated, he threw his hands in the air, “what the hell are ye’ on about!” Bending to eye level he spoke slowly, as if speaking to a child.
“I’m not going to hurt you. You are mine.” He pronounced each word carefully, so to make me understand.
Welp, I didn’t. and I was getting pissed off at red eyes. So I lifted my scuffed shoe and slammed it down onto his massive foot, making sure to grind my heel right into his toes. His face turned a deep red as he jumped back in shock, giving me a head start to race away into the forest.
Except I got about two metres away before I looked back behind me to check on his approach and I slammed straight into a large tree. My head bounced off the bark and I flew backwards to the grounds where my head then bounced off a rock with a crack.
Just before everything went black, I could have sworn I saw that damn bird, that stalking crow, staring back at me from the branch above, the black mist behind it swirling away.
***
I led on clouds; I had to be. Whatever was beneath me was soft and plump. It was warm and my body had sunk deep within its cocoon as I hummed in contentment. I don’t think I had ever been so warm, so comfortable in my entire life. And the smell, God it was intoxicating. Warm cake and firewood. It surrounded me, wrapped around my senses and made my mouth water.
Something was very wrong.
I wasn’t injured, I knew that much. No throbbing burning pain pulsed through my body like it usually did when I woke up. Lifting my eyelids just slightly, I peaked through my thick lashes…yup definitely had my lashes back. But I’d have to pop a pin in that because I was not in the darkened forest where I stupidly knocked myself out.
I was in a dark bedroom, where thick dark curtains were pulled mostly shut over a window showing it was now night.
Fuck. More time lost.
A large dresser sat next to a stupidly big, overstuffed armchair where the red eye man sat, with his tree trunk legs spread and his elbows resting on the arms of the chair. He watched me intently, his glowing red eyes shining in the dark room.
I couldn’t decide if my heart rate increased from waking up in a strange dark room with a giant stranger or the fact that something about his glowing red eyes intrigued me.
