Page 62 of Tender Heart

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My heavy, heaving breaths burn, and I slow. Only a little.

I look over my shoulder. Everything’s a blur.

My foot stubs into something hard, and I fly face-first into the soaked forest floor.

“Ah, fuck,” I sob.

Rolling over, I lay on my back and let despair wash through me. Let it wring my exhausted body out until the remnants of the fire I’ve found these last few months is all that’s left. The world seems to slow as I lie here, mesmerized by the chaotic canopy above me. For the first time in hours, I take a long, deep lungful of air.

I let my eyes flutter shut, curling my fingers into the soft, mossy ground underneath me with both hands.

Both hands.

My phone.

“Fuck,” I groan.

Now, even if it worked, I have no way of reaching anyone. I must have dropped it in my hysterics.

God, you idiot, Evie.My exhales echo in the air above me. I listen to each one against the storm’s grumble. It’s almost soft. Poetic, for sure.

A twig snaps mere feet away.

Whimpering, I hesitate before I scurry to my feet and get my bearings. Something hits the tree to my left and I scream, sprinting south. I think.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck, fuck . . .

No . . .

I don’t know how long I’ve been running when my aching legs start to tremble. Lightning flashes, the thunder roaring a split second later.

I glance back, knowing it’s a risk.

Trees move. Something moves between the great timbers.

The smell of wood-burning smoke drifts on the wild air around me.

Callum.

“Callum!”

I push faster. Heat prickles its way down my spine when I reach a small clearing to find a waterhole. But no fishing hut.

Nobody.

“Shit!” I take off again. Sweat trickles down my chest, and I wrangle the coat from my shoulders and lose it to the ground, going as fast as I can.

“Callum!”

Tears burn my eyes again, and every breath is laced with a choppy sob.

I can’t stop.

I don’t know what’s behind me.

I run.

Andrun.

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