Beloved

Chapter Sixteen

Kristen's POV

About half an hour had passed, and I was still surrounded by trees. The hope was starting to leave me, but I wasn't going to stop now. What if freedom was less than a mile away? The painful thought of missing my opportunity of returning to freedom kept me going.

My footsteps were drowned out by the sound of my shaky breathing and my heart slamming against my ribcage. My feet were starting to hurt, but that was the least of my worries, as the sun was setting. Which meant that soon, I would be running aimlessly around the woods in the dark, totally vulnerable to any kind of threat. And possibly animals. I creased my eyebrows by the thought, but continued running.

You're going to be okay. Tomorrow you'll be waking up in a hotel, far away from all of this.

I tried to calm myself, but for some reason, the mere thought of leaving made my stomach hurt and heart ache. I was probably just hungry and scared, I assured myself as I kept on sprinting through the woods, jumping from side to side to avoid crashing into the trees.

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"Fuck," I hissed at myself, as I sat on the ground, leaning against a tree. The soles of my feet were sore and my entire body felt heavy. I didn't know how long I had been running, but it felt like hours. The sun had disappeared now, leaving the sky with a deep indigo blue color. I would had enjoyed the glowing stars, if it weren't for the stressful, nagging thought of being caught. I knew, I had to keep moving. I wanted to keep moving. But my body protested. My legs needed rest and so did my fast beating heart.

It only seemed like I was running further into the dark forest. But it was too late; I couldn't change direction now.

That was why I was sitting here, cursing at myself, while my hands were pulling my hair, as if trying to pull a solution out of my head. Nothing came to me though, and I ended up feeling utterly hopeless. I knew I had to keep going or someone would find me. I didn't know what would be worse; getting caught by Emanual or any of his friends, or run into the men from before. I had almost forgotten what happened a small week ago, too lost in everything else around me. But the fear in my body grew. What if I encountered them again? This time, Emanual, Sarah and Calvin wouldn't be here to save me.

I groaned softly out of frustration of being so helpless and lost. Pressing my palm down into the dirt, I pushed myself up, but quickly froze when a 'snap' sounded. I turned my head towards the direction of the chilling sound, but all I saw were darkness and trees. Another crunch of a twig sounded, but this time closer. I shakily exhaled, trying my best to be silent. Slowly, I stood up, while leaning against the tree behind me. The rough bark cut into my palm, but the fear of whatever was near me made me ignore it. When I was standing up, ready to run, I went still. My eyes were locked to the area where the sounds came from. Light footsteps could be heard, moving towards me. They were too light, though. The soft and frequent thuds sounded more like an animal, not a person. It almost sounded like a dog, but why would a dog be running around in the woods, after dark?

I pressed myself further into the tree, when the leaves of a bush began to rustle. My eyes widened as an animal appeared, its yellow, glowing eyes fixed on me. As it slowly stalked towards me, I tried figuring out what it was. It looked exactly like a wolf, but its back reached my waist. Were wolves really that big?

The animal had thick, brown fur, which moved with the soft breeze that drifted through the forest. Its head was slightly lowered, but no teeth were showing. It didn't make a sound as it slowly moved towards me, almost cautiously, as if it didn't want to frighten me. If that was what it wanted, it completely failed. My knees were shaking, and my heart was up in my throat.

When the wolf was around 6 feet away from me and the tree I was clinging to, it sat down. I stared at it in surprise, as it calmly sat in front of me, staring back with its yellow eyes. I bent my knees, stretched my arms and leveled my hands with the ground slowly, trying to look as unthreatening as possible. The wolf didn't seem to think I looked like a threat either, but better safe than sorry.

"Okay, I-I'm going to w-walk away now," I stuttered softly, and stepped away from the huge animal. It opened its mouth, revealing its sharp, shining teeth, only to exhale deeply. I kept my eyes on it, as I continued walking slowly away. My heart was stuck in my throat, and I don't remember breathing till I had a good distance between the wolf and I. It let out a loud whine, and in that exact moment, I turned my body around and jumped into a sprint. I had no idea if the wolf was following me or not, but I ran faster than I ever had before. Though, my legs were going as fast as they could, I kept pushing myself to run faster. My dark hair was messily being thrown around and repeatedly fell in front of my eyes. My shoulder bumped into several trees, but I pushed down the urge to stop and care for my injuries.

After some time, I slowed down a bit. Nothing could be heard, but the wind playing aimlessly around with the leaves. No thudding paws sounded. I stopped completely and turned around. My eyes instantly found two yellow ones and I tensed. Only seconds after, I was already desperately running away again.

Mindlessly, I barely looked at the ground in front of me. As I took another running step, something tightened around my right foot, and I instantly fell to the ground. All I felt was something hard against my left temple, and my sight disappeared.

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Hello! Sorry for the wait but school right now is taking up all of my time.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE 10K READS!! THIS IS SO INSANE GUYS. I never thought this story would get that many reads or votes or anything. Thank you thank you thank you

If you enjoyed this chapter, please vote and comment, as it really motivates me. Even if it's just a "excited for the next update" or "I like this story" doesn't matter, it motivates the hell out of me!

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-princen x