I let out a short sigh of relief and relaxed my shoulders, and that much needed action had my whole body drooping down like a sack of potatoes. Tears of hope came flowing down my hot cheeks, painted seemingly ages ago with terrible emotions and already held a stained path. I melted to the bottom of the forest, moulding myself in with the dirt from the earth, the same way caramel would on top of ice cream.

Ice cream would be so good right now.

The guy behind me, however, noticed how I went from rigid and stiff to as bendable as elastic. But, he was so consumed by his food, aka blood, fueled drive that he just didn't think anything of it. Instead, he just pulled my easily transportable body closer into his own, which wasn't much of a difference, but then he rested his pointy chin on the top of my head and successfully dribbled his disgusting mix of spit and blood into my hair. I could picture the hearts fly around his head, circling around as he watched the girl with a look in his eyes so intense and unlike any foodie I've ever seen possess before. And, uh, his prey, uh, his supper, was decaying at the rate of a snail on a mission, as in slowly, but surely.

Not to speak ill of the dead, but the scent of her being blown towards me by the moving trees made me want to hurl.

Painfully thin, freezing, practically frostbite for fingers dug into my arms, squeezing me tightly as the man let out yet another surprisingly high-pitched squeal of pure happiness. I flinched at the odd sound, in some creepy, unsettling way he reminded me of a scary Halloween clown. Of course, a clown that was badly traumatized and now hated the world with a passion as strong as cologne that's been drenched all over a piece of clothing. An insane, gone mad, deranged man. You know, the usual. He was completely out of his mind. Nothing about him was normal, nothing at all.

Thinking as hard as I could possibly do, I studied the way he talked, the way he looked, the way he acted, and tried to understand what he could be. I searched desperately for the much needed answer, just any distinguishing trait that could lead me towards the right direction, but there was no use. Everything I've ever learned about in school couldn't get me through this situation, not history class or English and definitely not math, my mind drew a blank. He was a literal zombie, but that was impossible, unrealistic. He even seemed more dead than the girl did, not that I actually had the chance to take a good look at her in the right light yet, but he was just so different than any other supernatural I've ever encountered, so undeniably strange.

Sometimes, witches would come into town with their fascinating outfits and whimsical speech, but they're never there to do serious work with humans. They would only smile and wave at us, teasing us with a flick of their fingers as if they know that none of us have the guts to say a normal hello. Yes, they're dangerous and could easily scare us to death with a simple word such as 'boo', but they were the friendliest and less visibly intimidating compared to the rest of them. Everyone wishes they could befriend them, but nobody ever does. Oh, well, call us cowards. But, he's not one of them, because every single witch gives off the same type of aura, and the vibe he's sending just ain't cutting it.

That leaves the last one I know about, werewolves. And, he shares no characteristics with those beasts at all. Believe me, I would know. It's the little things that gives the hidden wolf away, and he shows the opposite. His teeth, fangs, that are shaped just a bit too sharp at the ends, then it's the unlively feel and appearance of his incredibly pale skin, not to mention the way he left her body. She would have been chewed up by now, mauled, ripped to shreds, unrecognizable.

But, this, is new.

Her body was placed on the ground, actually, it was more like she fell that way. Arms gracefully set in front of her, barely able to see how one was previously twisted unnaturally by just a simple crack as it rested on her curved side, and her legs were still perfectly straight with just the single knee bent. It was almost like she had fallen asleep that way, but I knew better, especially since her killer was breathing down the back of my neck.

Before I could complain about how slow my so-called mate was being, my line of thought was interrupted by the echo of a branch snapping, an echo that made my body twitch in anticipation. But, of course, it couldn't go unnoticed, because then I was being forced to lurch forward as the man pushed me flat on the ground with the strength of a full grown horses kick. My face was shoved roughly into the dirt as my legs were pulled out from under me, all of a sudden I was resting on my stomach with no view. Before I could grasp the concept of what was going on, I let out a small, instinctive yelp that nobody with normal hearing could possibly hear, and I bit my tongue to stop me from making even more noise. Screaming would definitely make it worse, might even send him over edge at the thought of someone coming and maybe even trying to save me. Although, I had my doubts that he didn't already understand that the peace was gone, my cover blown. His hands had roughly smacked down on my back, pinning me there with his body weight as I felt an extra pressure on the back of my legs.

Thankfully, I was able to see him with the help of turning my head to the side.

"No," he whined quietly, just under his breath, and the wind cried as he frowned, his dark eyebrows scrunching together as his hands started shaking furiously as he grew more nervous with each passing second, not scared of what he was doing, but fearing what was going to happen after. His chin pointed towards the direction where the sound came from, his eyes staring off into the distance as they searched rapidly for the culprit, flicking North, East, South and West, just to repeat the process all over again. His calculated riddles turned to a jumble of rushed out words, no longer well thought of, no longer confusing. They were straightforward, he knew exactly what he wanted and he was going to get it. "They can't be here! They can't! I found you first! You're mine, not theirs!"

I don't want to be his. I don't want to be theirs.

Then, my face was being scraped against the tiny rocks again, slicing into my skin and ripping pieces of my cheeks apart. Little nicks had already been carved into my face, and I didn't have to see them to know they were there. The fresh sting was all I needed. His hold on me was strong and painful, and all he was doing was pushing me deeper into the dirt. I felt helpless as I tasted the gritty soil that had been rubbed on my lips start to brush against my teeth.

Out of the corner of my eye, the one that wasn't forced shut by the ground, I noticed how one of his hands had slithered it's way to my arm, and with a painful snap he twisted it in line with his mouth. I screamed at the top of my lungs, wailing loudly at the newly found pain. My vision became blurred, clouded and blocked by the waterfall of tears. The sting of his elongated fangs pricking into the skin on my wrist was barely felt.

And then, he wasn't there. His hands were no longer holding me down and cracking my body into positions my bones couldn't go, instead they were ripped off of me. Air flew past my backside, lighting up the midnight sky as if it cleaned it. There was no more pressure digging into my spine and leaving me paralyzed from fighting back, keeping me pressed against the ground as if I was meant to be stuck there forever. There was still an ache of what was left, but there was also the feeling of 'finally' and 'thank the Lord'.

A familiar, welcomed, pair of hands grabbed my waist.

💕