Heiress in Distress

✰ New Book ✰

I've started writing a new book under the genre of psychological romance, but it's actually more of a thriller.

It's a work I've been wanting to publish for a while now but have been torn down by self-consciousness. The prologue is up now and will be available on my account for 24 hours and then I'll take it down, but the official book starts on May.

This is the prologue.

●●●

Something snaps under my foot, probably a twig.

I only hear it, barely feeling it under my numbing feet, as I push further through the depths of the forest.

One foot in front of the other, I sprint at full speed, only now understanding what running for my life means -what it actually feels to run for my life.

It feels like I should keep going, continue running despite the pain splitting through my calves upwards and toward my thighs.

I won't stop because I simply can't.

I can hear their footsteps, slowly closing in on me, so I will myself to run faster, brushing off the crippling pain.

Ducking becomes my only chance at avoiding the branches poking from the trees on my right and on my left, and hopping intermittently becomes my only means of escaping the toppling roots sticking out from thick tree barks.

Aside from the chirping crickets, my heavy breathing and the slapping of my shoes against grass are the only sounds invading the forest's silence.

I quicken my pace, aware that there are two well-armed men running after me with an intention to put the weapons I saw strapped to their bodies to use.

Scared that I might bump into something on my way through the foreign forest, I cast my chasers an ephemeral glance over my shoulder, turning my head back immediately after. There's a safe distance between us but I don't allow myself to field the idea that I'm actually safe just because of that. After all, they're still chasing me and might do God knows what if I do so much as stop to catch my breath, fooled by the decent distance between us.

No sooner had I veered to the left to evade the sky scraping tree bark, than I skipped to the right to escape the sure crash my body would have made with another one. An ounce of hope slithers through the crack in my crumbling resolve at the sight of winking lights ahead of me.

More twigs and dry leaves crack under the men's feet, making me hyper aware of the enormity of the situation. I'm running for my life. Chased by these admitted criminals who are slowly toeing my heels.

When running further towards what seems to be the end of the once thought endless forest, I begin to hear the sound of friction tires make against asphalt. Adding the winking lights and the sound of tires, I realise I'm nearing a highway.

Out of fear, my head whips one last time behind me to know exactly how far they are, before I take my first step into the concrete.

The second I looked behind me must've been enough for me to miss the sound of the speeding car. A blinding light precedes a loud honk that makes me blindly shoot my arms out in a defense.

Helpless because of my closed eyes, I feel a sudden force pushing me to the side, making me trip over my feet. Panting like a thirsty dog, I pause on shaky feet, slowly digesting the fact that a car just shoved me with its hood.

My eyes barely catch the wide eyes of the driver before the men's voices register, willing me to continue running, even after narrowly escaping a car crash that would have taken my life. The very life I'm running for. How ironic.

What's not ironic, however, is the mistake I make next. Looking over my shoulder was a mistake.

Because it is the reason I miss the impending danger.

It is the reason I'm made deaf to the loud honking, the reason I forget the highway isn't a one-way road, the reason I miss the headlights of the truck coming from the other side. I know it's a truck because a truck's horn is quite distinctive.

A truck's height is also distinctive. A truck's kiss is the most distinctive, though. A kiss that knocks the air out of my lungs. A kiss that steals the scream right before I hear it bubble from my throat.

It all happens so fast.

The truck brushing my side, the heavy wind whipping through my body, the caress of the breeze that almost gives me a whiplash, the sound of two objects slamming, the feeling of my body being dumped onto the concrete. So fast.

My head suddenly feels too heavy, and my lids feel heavier.

I squint to make out the moving objects, despite the inverted picture. What I find odd is the intersection between pain and unconsciousness.

Forever rivals, pain merely sneaks in before ducking away immediately when unconsciousness comes to claim its right.

The force holding my eyelids open slowly withers away, pulling my consciousness along with it.

One second into the darkness shuts out all the sounds and voices around me, leaving silence as my only company. That's all I hear, silence.

All I see is darkness, and all I feel is nothing. Is this what death feels like ?

Knowing you're broken but feel nothing ? Knowing you've experienced a sense of chaos but feel at peace ? Knowing it's time for that eternal nap but not feeling sleepy yet ?

Despite the rerunning tape inside my head at what I've recently learned, at the secrets uncovered, I can't help but cling to the very last thought at the forefront of my mind before I submit to the darkness.

My mother.

●●●

A/N: this is a Fastforeward to a certain time in the story. When, however, is deliberately not specified.

I hope this book finds the right audience and I hope whoever reads it enjoys it as much as I am, writing it.

This is just a prologue and an audience attraction, but the book will officially commence publishing on May. However, if the right number of readers find this book, publishing might just start earlier.