Chapter 2 Running

Luna POV

Tear came to my face and I ran through the forest. My white dress got hooked on every bush and root and tore with each step. I didn't care; I kept running. Footsteps and shouts I heard behind me. Naturally they were in pursuit of me.

"Stop her!" someone shouted. It was the voice of my stepfather. My legs were going faster because of his voice. I lacked a plan, money and I did not know where to go. I only knew that I could not go back. I would prefer that I should die in this forest than get married to Kieran Baron.

The trees seemed endless. I was living in Pine Ridge, but had never travelled this far into the woods. My lungs were burning with running. My feet were bleeding in the place of my heels. Still, I kept going. Pain was familiar. I could live with pain.

A clearing opened up. I came pouring out of the woods onto a road. An actual roadway and cars and a yellow line. The bus station was in a mile or so. I recalled that I had witnessed it during the few occasions, when my stepfather took me to town. The bus station was the way out, freedom.

I didn't look back. I ran to the road, with my tearing dress trailing behind me like a remnant of my former life. It felt as though my heart was thumping; it felt like it was going to break. Every breath hurt. Every step was agony. But I was alive. I was free.

the bus station was small and silent as I arrived. Behind a counter was an old fellow reading a newspaper. As I entered he looked up at me with wide eyes. I must have looked insane. My dress was destroyed. My hair was unruly and loaded with leaves. My face was bleeding. I was crying.

"I need a ticket," I gasped. "Anywhere. I don't care where. Just anywhere away from here."

The old man slowly laid aside his newspaper. He examined my face like he was attempting to discover whether I was real or not. "You okay, miss?" he asked. His voice was kind. Such a pleasant voice I had never heard before.

I shook my head. I didn't have time to explain. I had no time to tell him about my step father, the wedding, and the man with green eyes who had ruined me without even uttering a word to me. "Please," I said. What do you charge to get into town?

He told me the price. My hands were trembling, as I reached out my wallet. I had long saved the money (3 years), and I had it somewhere without the notice of my stepfather. It was only a hundred and forty dollars, but it was something--barely.

One ticket to the city, said the old man, and gave me a paper. "The bus leaves in ten minutes."

Ten minutes. Before I was lost to a world that I did not understand and before all of this, I had ten minutes before the bus would carry me out of Pine Ridge forever before I had been lost.

I bought my ticket and headed to the waiting bay. I was so shaky about my legs that I could hardly stand. I sat up on a plastic chair and made attempts to breathe. The window gave me the view of the road I was on. Any moment, they would find me. My stepfather would appear through that door. And Kieran would enter that door. They would send me back, and I would have to stand what I had done.

But I wouldn't go back. I couldn't go back. I would not go back to such life even in case they dragged me or hurt me.

A sound outside made me jump. A car was coming. My heart stopped. Was it them? Had they found me already?

The vehicle zoomed in front of the bus station. I gave a breath that I had suppressed. It wasn't them. Not yet, anyway.

After five minutes the bus arrived. It was large and gray, and had dark windows, which I could not see through. The door hissed open on air. This was it. This was my chance. Once I had stepped on that bus there was no turning back.

One of the women was standing at the bus door where they were checking the tickets. She was, perhaps, sixty, and had gray hair in a bun. She didn't seem to care much. She hardly paused to look at my ticket as she boarded me into the bus.

I got on shaking legs and walked to the door. The elderly man on the counter shouted, "Grants graciously, miss. I wanted to cry once more with his words, and I had no time to cry.

I boarded the bus and got a seat in the rear by the window. I leaned my face up against the glass and Pine Ridge was behind us diminishing. The bakery that I used to work my entire life. The church that I came to as a kid. The mountains in which I was born. It was all getting smaller.

The bus made a turn and Pine Ridge had disappeared.

I was finally free.

But sitting in the back by myself and looking at the world go by I realized something and my stomach sunk. I had fled Kieran Baron and my step Fernando. I had run away the wedding and life that they had envisioned. But I had never gotten out of the fact about the green-eyed man.

Because now, no matter where I ran, I would spend the rest of my life wondering who he was and why, when our eyes met for just a second, I felt like my soul had recognized him.

And somewhere, in the town I'd just left behind, I wondered if he was running too.