Chapter 3 Run Beatris

  Beatris

  I ran.

  Branches tore at my sleeves and scraped my skin as I pushed through them, leaves snapping under my feet, roots catching at my steps. My breath came in sharp bursts, too fast, too loud, burning in my chest, but I didn't slow down.

  I couldn't.

  The forest pressed in on every side, dark, endless, closing around me the deeper I went. Every path looked the same. Every turn led to more trees, more shadows, more silence.

  I wasn't alone, something followed me. I couldn't hear footsteps. Couldn't see movement, but I felt a weight at my back.

  It felt unhurried, like it didn't need to chase me, like it already knew I couldn't escape.

  My lungs tightened as I forced myself forward, my hands pushing branches aside, my legs threatening to give way beneath me.

  "Eudora."

  The voice slid through the forest, it didn't sound like it came from one place. It stretched, dragged, as if the air itself carried it.

  My chest seized.

  "I'm not her!" I shouted, my voice breaking as I stumbled over a root, catching myself just before I fell. "I don't know you...leave me alone!"

  The trees shifted and closed, turned me back in on myself.

  The deeper I ran, the tighter everything felt, like the forest was bending around me instead of letting me through.

  My steps slowed, not by choice, by force.

  Something inside me knew I wasn't escaping.

  I stopped and  he was there, right in front of me, I hadn't seen him move, Hadn't heard him step.

  But he stood there like he had always been there, waiting for me to stop running.

  My breath caught in my throat.

  He looked the same. His shape was familiar, tall, composed but something beneath it had changed. His eyes weren't just cold anymore. They burned, dark and deep, like something alive had taken root behind them.

  When his lips curved, it wasn't a smile.

  There was no warmth in it, only  something hollow, something that made my stomach twist.

  I stepped back.

  My foot dragged against the ground.

  "Please..." My voice came out smaller than I wanted. "I don't know you."

  "You do," he said.

  The sound of it pressed into my chest, Like something else was trying to come through him.

  "You just don't remember."

  My heel caught on something.

  The ground slipped.

  And I fell.

  The impact knocked the air out of me, pain shooting through my palms and knees as I hit the ground hard. For a second, everything blurred. My body refused to move, my lungs struggling to pull in air.

  I pushed against the ground, but he was already there. I felt him before I saw him.

  That cold presence pressing down on me.

  My head lifted, my breath stuttered.

  His hand rose and  I saw his  fingers shifted.

  Dark and Sharp.

  Something extending from them, slow and unnatural, forming into claws where his nails should have been.

  My body locked, I couldn't move.

  Couldn't breathe.

  "No..." The word barely left my lips.

  Then he struck, Pain exploded through my stomach, Sharp, blinding.

  A scream tore out of me before I could stop it, my back arching as my body reacted, my hands grasping at the air, at nothing. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think, all I felt was him.

  There, above me, watching.

  My vision blurred, the edges darkening as my chest rose and fell unevenly. I tried to move, to push away, but my strength slipped through my fingers like water. He didn't rush, didn't react, he just stood there, like this moment belonged to him.

  "You were always mine," he said quietly.

  Then he pulled his hand back.

  My body shook, my breath broke apart as the pain lingered, sharp and deep, spreading through me. My fingers trembled against the ground, my body refusing to respond the way I needed it to.

  His hand lifted again. I Knew what was coming, I shut my eyes, my body tensed but nothing came.

  Instead something grabbed me.

  My wrist jerked back sharply, a hand wrapping around it, pulling me away with sudden force.

  I gasped.

  The grip was different, rough, urgent, real. 

  "Not yet."

  The voice cut through everything.

  It was Older stronger, not loud but steady in a way that held.

  My eyes snapped open, an old woman stood beside me, her fingers digging into my wrist, pulling me back from him.

  Her face was lined, worn by time, but her presence felt... solid.

  One of her eyes was clouded.

  The other sharp, like it saw straight through me.

  "You shouldn't be here," she said.

  My breath shook. "I... I don't understand..."

  Her grip tightened.

  Pain shot through my wrist.

  "Run," she whispered, leaning closer. "Before he takes what he came for."

  My chest tightened.

  "What do you mean..."

  Her fingers pressed harder into my skin.

  "He has taken the baby," she said, her voice sharp now, cutting through me. "Don't let him take you too."

  My breath caught.

  "What...?"

  "Run."

  Her voice rose, louder, stronger.

  "Run, run, run"

  It echoed through the trees, bouncing back at me from every direction.

  "Run. Run. RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!"