Leave It All Behind

Chapter Fifteen

~Unedited~

As I ran, not knowing where I was going, I thought about the days that led up to me ending up here. In this messed up place, where I arrived as a slave and ended up as a bride to be!

-Flashback-

"Hurry, Sophia! We'll be late for school!" My friend Charlotte shouted hastily, trying to make me walk faster than a snail would, as she put it.

I hate school. I'm 17, In year 11. Yes, I repeated a year because I failed maths and history. It sucks, having to stay at school for longer than I would've had to if I'd just scraped a C.

It's GCSE year and I still have no idea what I want to do for a job. But I still have plenty of time, right? Nope, not really.

"Sophia! Hurry up!" Charlotte called again, more urgently.

Always in such a hurry... who else would care if they're late for school? Exactly. Only Charlotte, who is somehow my best friend. She's quite popular, as well as being goody two shoes, and I'm just... average.

I began to run to catch up so she wouldn't be too mad with me, but suddenly stopped in my tracks and shivered.

Someone was watching me. I knew it.

Usually, I'd put it down to me being my stupidly paranoid self, but I'd had this shivery sensation on and off since January. It was now May. Five months, so I'm a little more freaked Thani usually would be.

One time, I was in my room listening Black Veil Brides through my headphones and I suddenly had a sense that someone was watching me.

I'd taken my headphones off and looked around my room. No one was there. But what did I expect? A serial killer to be in the corner? Haha, unlikely.

Didn't stop me from looking out the window either, just to be sure. But no one was outside.

"Is anybody there?" I'd shouted, as if I expected a response. Because a murder was sure to be like 'yeah, I'm in the kitchen making a sandwich. Would you like one?'

Strange... but I know someone was watching me... but I just shrugged and put my headphones back on.

I live in a bungalow with my adorable younger sister and my loving mother and father. Except stress about exams, my life was pretty much perfect. I had everything I'd ever want. Family, friends and I did well in school.

Generally. Except me, maths and history somehow ended up as enemies.

But something was going to happen soon, and I knew it. I couldn't place what or whether it would be good or bad, but something big was going to happen, I was sure of it. Mainly because of a certain letter I received unexpectedly from someone with the initials 'CL'.

Another time I was walking though the woods and I felt it again. The sense of being watched.

I loved these woods, I walked through them everyday. I found comfort in being among nature with no distraction from the modern world, just me, nature, and my thoughts.

In an instant, the comfort of the woodland vanished, replaced with an uneasy sense of dread that had settled within my stomach.

I'd looked around, but saw nobody. Nothing but the trees, and the gentle rustle of their leaves being blown about by the wind. All calm, like usual. But I'd never been able to shake the feeling of eyes on me.

Then I'd seen a shadow flit from one tree to another, so fast that if I'd blinked I would have missed it.

"Who's there?" I'd called. Like in a clichéd horror movie, except this was not a movie. It was very, very real.