The Colt & The Cobra - THE SPECTER SERIES [book six]

Chapter TWENTY THREE

Mikki De'lucca 

Awash in a sea of Charlie's shouts your legs propel you forward, tripping, stumbling and stubbing toes on the overgrowth underfoot, you lose all sense of time and place, knowing only what your instincts demand.. 

'RUN, MIKKI! RUN!'

Your heartbeat pounds in your ears, drowning out the thunder rumbling overhead, it climbs in your throat to suffocate you, barely allowing you to take a breath.. Short sharp huffs leave your lips, air expelling from your lungs on each jarred thudding step..

Fear.. True, palpable terror so thick you can taste it as you realise you are alone..
Completely, isolated..

Nobody knows where you are.. Nobody really cares..
If you were to disappear forever, the world would be a better place..
Everybody would be better off..

The darkest of thoughts begin to surround you.. Maybe you should disappear..
Just like Savannah..

Maybe that would be for the best.. 

-FLASH - FLASH - FLASH-

Three bright, blinding flashes of white light just ahead of you through the trees stop you dead in your tracks, your bare feet skidding to a halt before sinking into the muddy forest floor.. 

What the hell was that?! 

You squint into the darkness, trying to see through the dense woods when another series of lights spark through the trees, like impossible blinding lightning in reverse.. Instead of coming from the sky, it comes from the ground..

What is that?!

-FLASH - FLASH - FLASH-

Common sense screams at you not to get any closer to the danger of the inexplicable strobes.. Instead you turn sharply, taking off running again in the opposite direction..

Branches whip at the exposed flesh of your arms and legs, leaving stinging welts and searing cuts in their wake, but you don't stop moving.. You run until your lungs burn with feverish fire and your muscles ache through to the bone.. Only when you reach a narrow dirt-track clearing do you stop, doubling over in exhaustion with your hands on your knees, puffing and panting to regain your breath, a sharp stabbing stitch at your side.. 

There in the dark with the light of the moon shrouded by heavy grey clouds, the loneliness strikes you.. You feel as though you have just lost the only person you thought you could trust..

There is nobody left to rely on.. 
No hero is coming to save you.. 
No knight in shining armour.. 

Colt had revealed to you that he isn't the saviour you'd been trying to convince yourself to believe in.. He had demonstrated what you've always known deep down.. That there is no hope for you.. 

Of course there isn't.. You deserve this.. You deserve every ounce of suffering, like karmic retribution for all your family's crimes and convictions.. 

This is the De'lucca curse coming to fruition.. 

Lifting your head you peer around, completely disoriented, with no idea where you are.. All you know is you feel like you have run for hours.. Your body is weak and tired, breaking down you can't keep it together anymore, and so you begin to weep.. 
"Charlie?.. Charlie.. Oh god-- What have I done?" 

Sorrowful, strangled sobs rack your quivering, cold body.. Sinking to your knees in the mud, you bury your face in your hands, sadness pouring from you.. You cry hard, your shoulders heaving as the rain washes away any trace of the tears.. 
"I can't do this anymore.. I--I can't keep going.. I just want to be with you.."

Reaching into the pocket of your jeans you retrieve the little yellow prescription box, still brimming with the toxic belladonna pills, tipping the entirety of its contents out into your hand, you take a deep breath, for the first time in your life, truly contemplating what it might mean to end it all.. To swallow the pills and slip away.. “Could you ever forgive me?”

Before you even get a chance to consider, fate is decided for you..
A savage growl, followed by a vicious hiss stops you short, distinctly ominous, it's the sound of something very big and very pissed off.. “Grrawwllll.. Hssst!”

Slowly, you lift your head, turning in the direction of the blood-chilling snarl..
A mass of wet caramel fur and glinting white fangs sharpened to razor-fine tips combined with a series of gnarled hisses set disbelieving fear rampant throughout your system.. "Oh.. My.. Fucking.. God.." You breathe in terror, the little white pills scatter to the ground around you as you scramble to your feet.. 

Coming face to face with a Mountain Lion hadn't been your first thought when you left the safety of the ranch behind.. Actually, it hadn't been a thought at all!
Now, confronted by the biggest cat you've ever seen, it is the only thing you can think about.. 

Slowly you take a stumbled step back, unsure of yourself you try speaking to the animal, as if it might somehow understand.. "Nice kitty.. Good Kitty.. Please don't eat me.."

The cat reacts fast, swiping a paw in the air as it yowls in warning.. “Rawwwlh!”

Fear claws at your heart and everything blurs into slow-motion as every one of your senses kicks into survival mode, your limbs freeze, paralysed with terror and blood roars in your ears..

No.. This can’t be it..

You don’t want to die like this..
You don't want want to die at all!