She's My Prey Episode 1

Chapter 1

SADIE

“No, no, no!” I gasp, the oxygen barely in my lungs to cry out the words.

Branches whip at my face and tear at my dress as my legs pump beneath me, my feet colliding with the ground hard enough to send reverberations running up my legs. My chest heaves as I greedily suck down air, chancing a quick glance over my shoulder and finding no evidence of anything chasing after me.

I know well enough that just because I can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there though.

The sound of my feverish escape echoes through the silent woods, the trees seeming to amplify every footfall, every shallow breath, but I don’t dare stop.

My knees threaten to buckle beneath me as I dart through the trees, shoving through the underbrush in my path, but I push myself to move faster.

Suddenly, I throw myself to the right, pushing into the hollowed-out center of a massive tiphe tree. Usually, the woods are full of life, full of sound, but tonight this forest feels like a graveyard.

No sleepy sounds of critters or quiet bird calls sound from between the branches. It’s as if the whole forest knows danger is near, and is hiding from the apex predator roaming between the trees.

If someone had told me a month ago that I would be running for my life instead of sitting in the stuffy classroom of the Bordello, preparing to be sold off to Indor, I would have laughed. I thought he was the biggest threat to my life at the time. But it’s funny how four weeks can change perspective.

I try desperately to even out my breathing, staying as silent as I possibly can as I press myself against the inside of the tree, trying to become small and unnoticeable. My heart thunders in my chest like the beat of a wild drum, intent on summoning the monster in these woods.

The sudden silence feels like as much of a death sentence as the sounds of me crashing through the forest vegetation, the sudden lack of sound deafening even to my human ears. I strain against the silence, listening intently for signs of movement, for any sign that I’ve been tracked this far.

Seconds feel like hours as I curl tightly in on myself, blind in the swallowing darkness of the tree, the sparse moonlight unable to penetrate the hard bark. From my vantage point, I can only see a sliver of the forest floor and the gnarled trees beyond, a thick mist beginning to gather near their roots, obscuring my vision further.

A soft, far-away snap sends a chill racing down my spine. A part of me wants to believe that it’s just some harmless anserinae, stretching its wings on the forest floor, but I know better. To survive in these woods a sense of self-preservation is paramount, and no creature who wants to live would dare be caught vulnerable right now.

Except me.

My eyes strain against the darkness as I fight to see through the mist, see any sign of the monster following me. Silence falls heavily over the forest again, the snap of that rogue branch echoing in my ears.

I swear I hear a voice, but it’s too distant for me to tell.

I try to shove down the useless panic welling in my chest, to push aside the paralyzing fear of being hunted, but my body argues with me, my muscles locking together and going rigid as I stare out over that sliver of forest.

My eyes water and my sight blurs, my eyes burning as I stare at the woods beyond. I don’t dare to blink, to tear my eyes away from my window into the woods, for fear of what might be there after my eyes open again. Nothing moves between the trees save for the thickening mist, rolling and crawling across the drying leaves on the forest floor.

I’ve never been under the impression that human beings were any kind of real threat, not here on Protheka amongst the dark elves and orcs and all other manner of horrifying creatures. But right now, tucked inside this tree, counting down the seconds left in my life, I’ve never been more aware of how truly helpless I am.

Another branch snaps, closer this time. I clamp my hands over my mouth, suppressing the scream that’s been bubbling in my throat since the night began. It’s toying with me. It could move soundlessly if it wanted to, go completely undetected in the woods, especially on a night like tonight when the moon is little more than a sliver in the sky.

But it likes when I’m scared. It wants me to know it’s coming for me.

“The forest is not your safe space, little one.”

My heart kicks further up in gear, just like it wanted it to.

Slowly, so slowly, I peel a hand away from my face, feeling around in the base of the tree for anything I could use as a weapon. It’d be stupid to think I could outrun it in any kind of fair race, or even fight it in any meaningful way, but I don’t want to die here. I’ll do what I have to for even one more minute of life.

A too-big foot appears from the mist, nearly wrenching a scream from my lips. The creature is massive, even bigger than I remember. My hand shakes as it closes around a rock, my fingers clenching tightly around it as I bring it closer to my chest.

“You cannot hide from me.”

My breaths come faster, shallower as I lose the fight against my rising panic. The mist thickens, nearly obscuring my vision as the thing lowers its head to the forest floor, the sun-bleached white bone of its skull gleaming in the starlight.

It huffs as it inhales my scent, massive, membranous wings protruding from its back and casting dim shadows in the mist around it. Even from here, when it’s crouched nearly on all fours, I realize that this thing dwarfs everything, even the largest of orcs. It must be nearly 8 feet tall at its full height, broad, dark shoulders twitching with the promise of violence as it commits my smell to memory.

“What did I tell you?” It’s not looking at me, and I pray that it’s only hoping to draw out a whimper from me, to alert it to my presence.

Without warning, its head snaps toward me, dim red light pouring from empty eye sockets as it zeroes in on my hiding spot in the tree, and I lose control of myself. I scream, the sound shattering the stillness of the forest.

My scream seems to be all the permission the creature needs, and it races for me on all fours, faster than should be possible. A massive hand closes around my ankle, nearly taking up my entire calf as it wrenches me from the hollow of the tree.

“I’ll forgive your mistake, little one. Just this once.”

In a panic, I slam the rock against the creature’s skull, scrambling backward as its flesh-bare maw opens, revealing its impossibly sharp teeth and unleashing a roar that makes the forest floor tremble. I’m on my feet in an instant, running as fast as I can, tearing through the woods yet again.

Cold sweat clings to my brow, my heart beats wildly in my chest, and my mind fixates on only one thing.

Run. Run. Run.

“That one,” it snarls. “I’m not sure I can forgive.”

I hear the heavy thuds of the creature’s footfalls behind me, shaking the earth itself as it gives chase. I try to use my smaller size to my advantage, darting between narrow gaps in the trees and rocketing through thick undergrowth, but I can hear it gaining on me.

It’s close, too close. I’m going to die.

A sudden weight wraps itself around me just as I reach the edge of a cliffside, and the creature and I go tumbling over the edge. Rocks and other small debris rain down around us as we tumble down the cliff face, rolling and picking up speed as the ground rockets up to meet us.

That fall alone would have killed me were it not for the massive, muscle-hardened body enclosing mine, gripping me so tightly I can hardly breathe.

The creature’s body weathers the impact of jagged stone like it’s nothing, the two of us skidding to a stop along a stream. I struggle against it as it lands on top of me, the sheer size of the thing pinning me to the ground, my fists beating uselessly against its chest.

It growls, its red eyes swallowing up everything in my vision, forcing me to look my own death square in the face. Another scream builds in my throat as a huge, dark hand encircles both of my wrists, shoving them up above my head and pinning them to the ground.

Sharp river stones bite into the tender flesh of my bare arms, stinging in the cool night air, hot blood beading along the small seams opening in my skin as it holds me still beneath it. Its other hand trails up my waist before clamping down hard on my mouth, silencing my shrieks.

It lowers its skull to my chest, the cold bone trailing along the bare skin between my breasts, taking deep huffs as if it means to inhale me entirely. Hot exhales of breath tickle in its skull’s wake, caressing my bare skin as it raises its skull again, studying me.

I expect it to open its jaws, to take my head between its teeth and gnash on it like an overripe fruit, but instead it only stares at me. Its skull cocks to the side, as if curious somehow about the prey it has so easily caught and rendered helpless.

My stomach tightens, my labored breathing shuddering as fear and anxiety and another feeling I can’t quite place mingles strangely inside me. The creature’s hot breath rolls along the side of my face, and I screw my eyes shut, turning my face away from the inevitable gore that’s waiting for me.

“Look at me,” the thing snarls, its voice throaty and low. My head snaps back to it, my eyes wide as I begin to tremble beneath the creature. Its voice is so much worse when I can feel it vibrating through me. What is this thing?

Regardless of the questions swirling through my mind, I do as it says, keeping my eyes open and looking into the glowing red of its empty eye sockets. Perhaps if I find some way to appease this thing, to make it happy, it won’t kill me. I won’t have to die some horrible death alone in the middle of the cooling woods.

The stream above my head babbles along, water lapping at the ends of my hair and cooling the heat pouring off of my skin from my mad race through the forest. The creature falls silent again, staring down at me, when its jaws slowly begin to open, a long, slick pink tongue rolling from between its teeth.

Oh gods, I was wrong. I was so wrong.

There’s no avoiding my fate.