Chasing Catalina | Book One: Worshipping Ashes

5. | The Prey

I felt myself running. I ran so hard my chest hurt. The sharp pain of the twisting muscles in my side stabbed like a knife. I wanted to stop, to just.. breathe the air that was threatening to cut itself off from my lungs. Just once did I want to feel freedom from the chains that had its fucking grasp on my soul.. that wasn't going to happen though, so I just kept running.

I tried to motivate myself, "just keep running, keep... fucking... running." I muttered silently and breathlessly as I continued to muscle through the pain in my body. Trees flying past me back towards the darkness that I just escaped from.

The stars felt as though they were going to crush me under the trees that towered overhead. Leaves are just barely growing back after the recent freeze. Grass sprung beneath my bare feet as well as the pine needles and sharp grassy patches that held the thorns that St. Augustine grass had to offer.. but the best part is I didn't feel the pain in that part.

It's funny how Adrenaline works.

It makes you fearless, strong, invincible... for a singular moment. Then when you're free, you begin to die. That's when you realize how much you've fucked up during your time of invincibility, but what do I know?

No rest... for the wicked.

I put my hands out as I could physically feel myself give into my body's need for rest. Collapsing into a smaller pine tree and leaning my chest and shoulder against the rough bark that seemed to stab my skin through the thin black tee shirt.
"Cat... you gotta-....keep running.." I muttered to myself as I took a deep yet hesitant breath before pushing myself off of the tree and running again. My lungs felt like they were going to burst in my chest if I kept this up.

The darkness grew. It grew louder, darker... it grew wider until I felt it swallow me up into the void of its existence. But I didn't fall into any pit. I didn't disappear into the abyss. I remained still. The grass that survived the darkness still remained under my feet. Stabbing and careering my skin carefully and brutally as I glanced down to it.. trying to identify the ground.

Silence was growing.

My breathing suddenly stilled as I felt the presence looming over me. The familiarity of the culprit brought goosebumps to my skin while the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
My eyes just flickered with golden light before they sparked out of order again. The green shade blurring to a blackness... and then back to green again. The strain in my chest was more evident as I tried to see. Pain twisting again in my side and now my chest too. I tried to force this power back before grunting and yelling out in the pain that resided. It replaced the ease of breathing with agony and devastation.

The presence lingered, observing the show that I dramatically put on, but can I just say that it wouldn't be a show, without realizing that death was inevitable.

I glanced over my shoulder at the darkness that followed me and I stood tall against it.. until I felt myself being attacked by the speed. The darkness tackling me into oblivion. Falling for what seemed like an eternity.. a muffled scream and then..

Nothing.

. . .

I wake up immediately in a panic. My breathing is choppy, hair is stuck to my face from the sweat that beads from my forehead and down my temple and the side of my face. I can't even think clearly enough to reach up and push the hair out of my face before realizing something is off.

I still felt the darkness.

My eyes cut to the left as shivers ran down my spine. Fear striking into my very core before turning my head towards the window. A soft breeze comes in through the crack that's in the window.