Night Witch

Chapter 25

She was winded.

She could feel and hear how ragged her breaths were, and her usually light clothing clung to her skin, making her drip with even more sweat. And she was tired, too. Running for half the day had made her joints ache.

She reached at her hip for the cold metal of the flask. The feeling of it was somehow a relief against her fingertips.

She uncapped the flask and drank greedily from it. The water was pure and sweet, but she was able to put the bottle down when she needed to. It was regular water, which was gratifying. At last, in this strange and twisted Forest, the yaga had discovered something normal.

Normal. At the thought, her heart gave a sharp pang. Ever since she was eight, her normal had been a grim reality. The only time she could remember true normalcy was when her parents had been alive.

She had a new normal now, one that she felt she had to change soon.

She looked down at the ground. The footprints were gone. Ancestors. She hated the shocking intensity of her senses when she ate the flowers, as well as the pain that came with it.

Get...going...Karina...

Once again, she pressed her fingers to her temples, and allowed the sharp pain of Lilith's voice to fade away. It was easier this time: get the flower, chew it, focus on anything but the excruciating pain that consumed her body, and immediately begin running. She wasn't going to dwell on her heightened senses and the pain that came with them. She was going to--

Run.

She leaped into action, automatically lifting her rough skirts higher so as not to tear them more than she had the first time she had followed the footprints. Her body moved in a constant, forward motion, twisting through stark trees and bounding over thick brush. She was a one-minded blur, moving faster and faster every second.

Then she heard it. She immediately stopped, just catching herself before she fell into the thorns.

A growl.

Her mind immediately flashed to Hans and the growls he emitted earlier by the fountains. He's dead to you now.

What if the creature she heard was Hans? What if he was still him?

Liar murderer thief thug monster you can't trust you can't trust run run run

Another growl, coming from behind her. She whirled around.

Karina could hear the tiny catch in her own breath, could feel the blood rushing to and from her head and heart. She was a constant thrum of energy, a cat waiting to pounce.

No...she was the mouse. The creature trapped between claws and paws--whose, though, she didn't know. At the next sound, she vowed to Lilith, she would run before risking her life even further.

She scanned the too-bright trees, searching for the source. It was to no avail; the trees were still trees that hurt her eyes, and they were all clustered too thickly together for her to be able to see anything.

It was too easy to hide in this Forest.

Maybe she should just get going. Run along with the chicken footprints and stay alert. It wouldn't be hard, so long as she ate the flowers.

She didn't want to eat another one.

Run! Runhe'sbehindyourun!

She couldn't take any more chances.

She propelled herself into motion as she heard a snarl--from in front of her, from behind her, from everywhere. She was running, and whatever it was behind her was running too, snapping twigs and breaking branches. She didn't dare look back.