Unbroken

Forty

Skye

The commotion continued on for several minutes, and during that time, I kept running blindly into the black night. I kept waiting for the salty taste of my tears, but nothing fell. Still numb, still in a dream-like state, as though my emotions weren’t catching up just yet.

At some point, my back felt prickly, the fear surging at the thought of that thin man chasing after me. I kept waiting for his arms to wrap around me, for the gun to be pressed against my temple.

But nothing happened.

Nothing but the sound of a few more bullets cutting through the air. I let out these strangled sounds every time I heard them, dreading to think what was happening.

The thunderous sound rocked my being. I stopped and vomited again, expelling everything inside me as I worried myself sick. What if my boys were shot, bleeding, dying? I sucked in air, continuing on, moving despite my instincts now roaring for me to turn back. To go to them.

I didn’t.

Hunter told me to run.

I was running.

*

I collapsed, my chest on fire, my body unable to press on any further. I felt insects biting my skin as I pressed my back against a rough tree. I didn’t care that my ass was bare, that my flesh was being devoured, that my feet were bleeding and aching.

I sat, breathing in the silence, waiting—waiting for the tears.

Still, nothing.

But my anxiety was inching higher. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know if anyone had heard those shots. I didn’t know where to go, and if I could find my way back again if I needed to. I didn’t know if it was even right to keep pressing deeper into the bush in the black of night.

I heard strange noises tumbling from my lips. The pained whimpers. I sounded like a wounded animal.

“I don’t know what to do…”

What was I supposed to do?

“I don’t know where to go…”

I vomited again, but there was nothing left to vomit. Then I rocked back and forth as tremors tore through my body, causing my teeth to chatter.

I should go back.

I should see if they were okay.

Why did I run?

Yet I plodded deeper into the forest, listening to Hunter’s demand, knowing that going back might not be safe.

After so long, I stopped and the world spun. Faint. I felt so faint. I fell to my side, still cradling myself, still trying to breathe through the anxiety. My vision went dark, and I was falling under. I tried to stop it, to keep my eyes open, but I was having a full body reaction I had no control over.

Black descended all around me—

Fear was a cunt of a thing.

*

It was still dark when I heard the crack of twigs nearby.

My eyes flew open, and I bolted upright, wincing when the leaves beneath my bum crinkled. I went tense, unmoving as my ears strained to listen.