On My Own (l.s. AU)

Prologue (Part I)

Harrys POV

I run. My whole body is aching, because it hasn't had enough time to recover yet. Therefore, my advice to everyone: Don't run away from the place you live, if you got beaten up yesterday.

But, even though nearly every bone in my body hurts, I can't give up now. I can't stop running.

By now it feels like running has become my nature. Like I was born to do this.
My life a hunt. But I'm not representing the hunter, much more the animal, that has to run to live one more day.

That may sound a bit dramatic. But all I do is try to escape everything that ever bound me to the place I used to call home a few years ago. Everything I need to do now, is get to the road and follow it to the next village.

My breath is starting to get shallow and I'm going to need a break soon. Just a few seconds to catch one deep breath. But until that break, I need to keep running. And I need to stay focused on trying not to trip over a root.

When I hear the first shot cutting the silence of the forest, my senses take over. My body receives the instinctive instruction to duck down and transacts immediately. The next moment I hear the bullet hitting the tree in front of me.

I stand up and get a sight of the small hole in the bark, right where my head had been, before I ducked down. That was close.

Then it hits me. I nearly died. How could I think running would be safe?

The sound of a second shot being fired breaks through the air and I jump to my right. That move could have crashed my ankle, but luckily it didn't.

I'm ready to run again, but suddenly pain explodes in my left shoulder. It has been to late. The wave of pain flowing trough my body nearly gets me to kneel down. This pain is new and it causes my body to petrify.

I have been in a lot of pain up to this moment. And just once in my life the pain was worse than right now.

~~~

'I was robbed.', even today I can hear myself, speaking loud and clear, back that day. It was the lie my thirteen-year-old-self told the policeman. He raised an eyebrow at me in disbelieve. I guess I didn't sound convincing enough. But there was nothing he could do to make me take back my statement.

The pain had me passing out just moments later. Last thing that I remember from that day, is the oh-so-confident smile my dad sent me after I didn't sell him out to his own colleagues.

~~~

The memory of his smile brings me back to the present. It must have gotten me out of shock, because the pain in my shoulder increases and I can move again. When I touch my shoulder, I think I could pass out this time too. There is so much blood. I can feel it running down my arm. At first, I just feel the wet warmth around my elbow, but then the blood runs further down to my wrist.

I want to cry out in pain, while I try to take off my jacket, but that would have showed that I am hurt and I can't let him know that I am weakened. Since I can't yell at something, I just let out a quiet growl during the second attempt to take it off. I fail again. But now I can feel silent tears running down my cheeks.

Then, everything goes black and I stumble. I thought I would find myself facing the ground but even though I couldn't see anything, I surprisingly didn't fall.

A sudden noise behind me, sends chills down my spine. I swear, I just got goosebumps all over my body.

I slowly turn around, facing who I had been running from. My own father is standing a few meters behind me. He has his gun and his flashlight aiming right at my face. His gun pointing to my forehead to be precisely.

'Did you really think you would get away like this son?', he asks, his laugh echoing in the forest.

'Everything is better than staying with you. I had to try at least.'

'You know, you're going to be punished for your wicked behavior? Running from your own father, from your home. What brought this stupid idea in your head? Nobody would take you in. You would be poor and homeless and anyone could see how worthless you are.', his voice is getting louder in the end.

'I didn't have a home for two years now.', I yell at him.

The next moment I turn around and run. My shoulder is aching, like hell just broke loose, but I successfully ignore the pain.

By now I can hear his footsteps behind me. He must have been in shock. I never yelled at him before, since I knew it would just cause him beating me up again, or worse raping me.

He hasn't pulled the trigger of his gun yet. Not a coincidence as far as I know. It just shows that he thinks he can catch me without shooting again. Which is worse. And my cue to hurry up, if that's even possible.

Being faster than him, is my only chance to make it out of this forest alive.
I keep running. Until I get the strange feeling that something is different and it takes me a whole minute to put my finger on it.

His footsteps are missing. The only thing I can hear are my own feet, making their way through the thicket. I stop, panting, and then I can hear him again.

Not his footsteps, but his voice yelling: 'Damn flashlight! I should have changed the fucking batteries.'

Thinking that he indeed should have changed them, nearly causes me to smile. He won't follow me any further. I know this forest better than anyone. That's one of the few things he actually knows about me. It would be a losing game, for him.

I should stay right because I can hear footsteps walking back. Out of the woods, where they had came from.

Now that I'm out of the immediate danger, my body gets awfully heavy. The pain is back since the adrenaline is gone and my vision gets blurry.

Putting one foot in front of the other, which is eating up my whole concentration, I make my way towards the street. My dizziness is makes me feel drunk and I'm currently getting a headache.

It has to be the blood loss. I can't call anybody since I'm in the middle of a forest, so I need to get to this street. Keep focused Harry, you can do this.

My feet hurt and I feel like I walked for hours when I hear the first car passing the woods. Less than ten minutes later I finally reach the road.

I let my body sink into the grass next to it. But when I hear a new car driving by, I jump up again.

My circulation can't keep up with me and as a result my vision gets blurry and subsequently black. I trip over the edge of the street and reach out with my hands, trying to intercept my fall.

'AHHHHHHH', I scream when I feel the new wave of pain washing over me.

I open my eyes and see the front headlights of the car moving towards me. That's it. I'm going to die. These are going to be my last thoughts.

My body is shaking, but I can't move. Again I am just the animal. This time a deer caught in the headlights.

I slowly close my eyes and wait for the pain to increase or to stop forever.

~~~

Authors note:

Thoughts?

Thanks to anyone reading my story. This chapter is dedicated to @hazzasnipps because it's her birthday and, with republishing her book, she encouraged me to publish this one.

And then there's two other people (@WhaleO_oThen and @Emryswatson) who don't know they're encouraging me to write this story, but they do.

How are you all today?

~ Lou