Predator

Part Six✔️

{You There by Aquillo}
{i'm in love with this song so much..}

The only sounds that filled the air, was made by her boots atop the fresh snow, and her heart pounding in her chest. With each breath, each step, she found herself further and further into the forest, unable to stop her legs from carrying her into the unknown. Every time she pushed a snow-covered branch from her path, she found her heart beating fiercer, harsher, beneath her chest.

She soon found herself in a part of the forest unlike the rest. The snow that had been tainted by delicate paw prints and the trees that housed critters that peered down at her, was no longer the same. The snow was untouched and pure, the trees towering and abandoned. The wind blew colder causing snowflakes to cling to the strands of her hair and rest delicately upon her eyelashes yet it stung her skin and made her a rosy red color.

A chill ran down her spine as the temperature seemed to drop and the silence that floated heavily in the air became eerie. And only then, when her heart was a thundering drum beneath her breast and fear coursed through her warm veins, did her legs stop and root themselves to the ground like the trees around her. She was immobile, frozen as she felt another presence join her in this part of the forest, and she could tell by the way her blood suddenly ran cold, that whoever it was wasn't anyone good.

A low growl broke the sinister peace first. She was mobile again, stumbling backwards as she watched a puff of frozen breath appear right in front of her. Her own breath was labored as a silent crunch of snow was the indication the other presence was moving, so silent that she couldn't properly focus on where it came from. Another cloud of breath appeared, this time it warmed her ear and she stumbled to the opposite side seat from it, her head whipping to find nothing. In her haste to get away, she tripped, and was sitting on her now sore bottom in the snow.

• • •

He could see the way her eyes searched for him in the dark, how frantically they moved around the area where he last made his presence known. They were beautiful; shimmering under only a sliver of moonlight. Not that they needed that moonlight, for they seemed to have captured an entire galaxy in those gray eyes and they shined on their own accord.

He blew out another breath to tease her, this time on the side of her neck. He'd been close enough to catch the little hint of lavender on her skin and close enough to hear her heart pumping and her blood rushing through her veins. It taunted him. As soon as his breath fanned across her skin, he watched her shiver before she practically crawled away, huddling close to the cold ground.

Normally, by now his prey would be quaking down to the bones in fear, they'd be crying or begging for their life into the darkness, even running. But this girl, she was unlike the others he'd preyed on. He could tell she was afraid by the way her heart pounded in her chest and the way her chest rose and fell quickly with each labored breath, yet to anyone with naked human eyes and ears, the girl would seem perfectly calm. The gleam in her eyes read mischief, as if somewhere deep inside her she enjoyed this, yet the way she stayed close to the ground showed a position of protection, as if her long legs could save her from him. She was different in that normally he felt nothing but disgust for the humans he preyed on, nothing but lust for their blood, but this girl - he lusted after more than just her blood. Her scent alone had the beast inside him raging, her presence did far more.

He had been slowly circling her, trying to pinpoint a weakness when her voice filled the air.

"I know who you are." Her voice was surprisingly steady yet she seemed to have to force her words out. "I know what you are, and I'm not afraid."

He felt the corners of his lips tilt up the slightest as he stared down at the back of her head. She sucked in a deep breath and slowly turned her head around to find him under the light of the moon a little more, his silhouette just barely visible.