Different.

Chapter 2: The Stranger

Chapter 2

The stranger

I was lost.

Running aimlessly off the cleared pathway and pushing through strange and scratchy shrubbery, occasionally even black berry bushes that cut at my skin.

But I didn't care.

All I wanted, all I needed, was to get away from the mysterious stranger. They gave up trying to be stealthy and went full out after me. If I wasn't so breathless I would've screamed.

I ran down the never ending hill, constantly afraid I was going to fall onto my face and the stranger would catch up and do god knows what to me.

And then, it happened.

My foot landed on an abnormally large yet thin and fragile broken piece of bark that was jutting out of the ground.

It was almost like time slowed down.

I could feel the wood quiver.

Bend.

Strain.

And then it finally snapped under my weight.

I could see the splinters flying in every which way.

I could feel gravity pull my body down, face first.

I could see my hood being pushed back from my face, and my hair trailing behind me in smoky wisps.

I could feel my stomach drop as I threw my hands out in front of me.

I could feel the crunch as they landed in a mess of black berry bushes.

I could feel the skin tear as the thorns burst into my skin.

I could feel my legs rolling over my body as I began to fall down the valley.

Falling.

Breaking through bushes whose branches snapped at my bare face, leaving angry red slashes as evidence. A layer of muddy dirt beginning to coat me with each upside down turn of my body like a snowball rolling down a hill.

I plowed through the forest for what felt like hours and mere seconds at the same time, until I finally came to an abrupt stop, my back slamming harshly against a boulder.

The world was dizzy, spinning in circles and growing fuzzy as I struggled against my own lungs to gasp at the dewy air around me.

Blinking and rubbing the mud from my face, I noticed something cold was lapping at my legs and soaking my jeans. I was sitting at the very center of a stream, the crystal clear water running over me.

I had finally got my breathing back to a steady and stable rate when I looked up.

There was a cleared makeshift pathway of where I had rolled down the massive hill. I wasn't at the bottom of the valley quite yet, which was why I was sitting in this stream instead of falling to my death and drowning in a river. If I had rolled all the way down, I never would've been able to recover in time to swim my way back to the surface. So in a way, I was lucky.

But that wasn't what I was staring at. Because at the top of my little pathway stood a figure. I couldn't see anything but their silhouette. The vague outline of their body. But it was enough for me to be able to tell they were big. Much bigger than me. My eyes grew wide as they began to run at me down the hill, and I scrambled backwards around the boulder, my hands stretched out behind me, when something sliced my hand open. I winced, but frantically looked down to see a sharpened rock jutting out of the ground.

The figure was getting closer, stumbling down the hill clumsily yet powerfully like an aggravated bull.

I hastily began digging through the muck and tugging at the rock to try to free it from the streams muddy clutches.

The figure had stopped, curiously and almost sadistically watching me, like a feline watching its prey try to feebly escape, and was now only a few paces away from me. I could vaguely see that they were male from their large jaw and short, dark hair. He tilted his head to the side, and I could almost make out a smirk forming on his pink lips.

My own lips were trembling. Tears were beginning to cloud my eyes, but I fought them back and watched him carefully, one hand still digging in the mud for the rock.

Something like a growl escaped his lips, and he took a single step towards me.

Then I felt it.

My heart rate accelerated. I could feel the blood pumping in my veins. My eyes grew to the size of saucers. My chest rose and fell rapidly. My hands tugging even more urgently. My fear overwhelmed all my senses.

I squeezed my eyes shut, and threw my hands up in front of me, the sharp rock in the forefront of my mind.

I felt the air grow cold around me. A rush of wind flew past my face. My fear seemed to rush out of me with the thrust of my arms moving in front of me.

Then, a thump.

I lowered my cut up hands and peeked through a squinted eye.

The man was back a few feet, on his rear, the sharp rock erected from his right thigh, blood seeping out around the wound.

He looked down at the cut with astonishment, then back up at me, hazel eyes wide with...fear?

A gasp escaped my throat. How...? The rock was still stuck solid in the ground. And even if it wasn't I didn't throw it...

But I didn't have much more time to think. Seizing the small window of opportunity to escape, I scrambled up to my feet, and sloshed through the stream.

I turned back to see the stranger slowly and weakly stand up, and stare after me. He didn't seem to want to chase after me, but nonetheless, I pumped my legs fast and hard, and ran off into the distance, leaving the stranger and the mystical forest behind me.