{Hyde} (on hiatus)

4. | Halting Blades

My stomach dropped as I stumbled, teetering on the edge of the branch. I went absolutely still, trying to pinpoint where the shot had come from. The forest was silent, other than the hoot of an owl and the rustling of wind through the canopy.

There was obviously someone in there, though, watching me. Hunting me.

Then there was a click of a mechanism; the stretching of a thread and the smallest grind of a gear, a sound so quiet it blended almost perfectly into the chatter of nightlife.

I wasn't fooled, though. That was no owl.

Glancing down at the blurry dark void that was the ground, I dared to move.

Thunk.

A second arrow, mere inches from my nose, imbedded deeply into the wood of the tree. I took an instinctive step backward, but my foot found only air.

I plummeted downward, desperately clawing at the branch; my fingertips scraped down on the bark, leaving them slashed and stinging.

My back hit the ground in an almighty thump; for a moment I felt I couldn't breath. My lungs strained against my chest, struggling to take in the gulps of air I so needed.

A rustle.

Heart hammering painfully, I shakily raised my head.

A figure, seemingly made of the shadows surrounding me, stepped out into the clearing.

It advanced, cloak swishing in the wind. A crossbow was held in one of its hands, the other resting lightly at its side. No, not just at its side; it was brushing its fingers over the holster strapped to its hips.

"Please- don't-"

"Shut it." The figure spoke in a low, muffled feminine voice. It had a light rasp to it, and just the slightest undertone of an accent.

She cocked her weapon; the silver arrowhead glinted in the moonlight. Cold sweat chilled my exposed arms and neck. This woman, whoever she was, was dead serious.

The woman reached out her black-gloved hand, tilting my head back with two fingers. For a moment, her face lit up in the moonlight.

Dark eyes, curly hair falling in her face. That wasn't the unnerving part, though; the lower half of her face was covered in a skull mask. The surface was rough and weathered, cracks running throughout.

"You are Hyde?" The way she could turn a few words into a death threat was terrifying.

"Uh- no?"

The woman laughed; a laugh that surprisingly held a hint of humour. Maybe she enjoyed killing just that much.

She continued, "I needn't even ask then-" She glanced downward, at my neck.

Then she looked terrified. Eyes wide, almost tearful, face paling. 

"Expiratu." She whispered; her voice barely filtered through her mask.

"Excuse me?"

"You're the one. Expiratu."

I narrowed my eyes at her; at this point I was feeling distinctly bewildered. The woman's face, at least the part I could see, transformed. It had gone from cruel and calculating, to terrified, to determined and resolved. 

She grabbed me, whispering urgently into my ear. "Listen. They'll come soon. Find me, okay? Find me after they-"

She paused.

Light swishing sounds, dancing around the clearing like the flight of a hundred birds. The smallest sound of footsteps, perfectly in sync with the natural rhythm of the forest.

Someone was in the woods, and it wasn't the woman who had come to kill me. Something else; something worse, judging from the look on my would-be murderer's face.

"Go." She uttered only a single word, but that one word sounded as if it was more important than anything in the world.

So I listened to her. I ran, away from the sounds, away from the too-perfect town, away from the woman whose cries echoed throughout the night.