Page 20 of Buried Souls
Moonlight bleeds through the canopy in narrow streaks, casting long, skeletal shadows across the forest floor. Branches like gnarled fingers claw at the sky, black against the pitch-darkheavens. A sharp wind hisses through the trees—not a breeze, but something colder. Intelligent. Searching.
I fly through the forest, the branches nicking me. My shirt, once a light gray, is now tattered and soaked in both rain and mud, snagging on brambles that seem to reach for me with malicious intent. My breath comes in ragged gasps, each inhale cutting my throat like broken glass.
The longer I run, the more the trees close in, forming a cathedral of decay around me, bark split and weeping tar, like old wounds that never heal.
My fear takes over, fueling my muscles as I run like a woman possessed for safety.
I glance back.
A tall, dark form shrouded in shadows stands between the trees, observing me. Its outline is vaguely human, but stretched in places where no body should bend—too long in the arms, too narrow in the shoulders, its head tilted at an angle that defies balance.
I stop dead in my tracks, my curiosity getting the better of me.
It stands among the trees—motionless, wrong. The air around it pulses with a quiet, invisible pressure that makes the ground seem to hum. Shadows cling to it, drawn like smoke toward fire, and the faint scent of decay now hangs heavy in the cold. Even the darkness seems afraid, pulling back from the figure where it stands.
Turning towards it, I feel a ripple of energy hit my chest, one that makes me recoil back in pain. Malice radiates from the slender form, attacking me in extreme waves of greed and hate. Agony rips through my soul, my heart on the verge of being split in two from the sorrow and despair that is wreaking havoc on it.
In the flash of an eye, the shape lunges forward, flying at me with impossible speed, and I balk, not knowing what to do as my muscles lock up and refuse to function.
Come on, come on.
Move, Elena!
Eyes wide, I retreat, not daring to take my sights off of the ominous shadow. Stumbling, I catch myself against a tree whose bark peels back beneath my palm like burned skin.
My heart pounds, threatening to explode.
Behind me, the sound of wet breath.
This isn’t happening.
This isn’t real.
This—
Fingers grab me from behind.
I scream, clasping my lids together as my hands fly out, hitting their target with relentless speed and determination.
“Calm the fuck down!”
Chest heaving, I dare to open one eye. Hunter’s annoyed face stares back at me, a deep frown etched into his youthful features.
“What is the matter with you?”
Wheezing while I grip my middle, I double over, my stomach’s contents emptying all over the forest floor as I vomit.
“For fuck’s sake, here.” He extends a handkerchief. “What, in the ever loving hell, are you doing in the middle of the forest, at this time of night?”
I take it, not bothering to look at the man that’s indirectly the cause of my current state.
“I’m going for a midnight stroll.” Sarcasm brews in me as I begin to resent my current position. It’s all my fault that I’m in this mess to begin with. If only I had stayed in the goddamn cab—
“I see,” Hunter interrupts my raging thoughts. “You’re one of those bitter women—” He pulls me up into a standing position. “—that think the world is to blame for everything that doesn’t go the way they expect it to.”
My face contorts into a mask of disgust as the last word leaveshis mouth.
Asshole.
