Murderous intents

I hear screams and I hear yelling. I hear hounds barking and I can’t believe my father rounded up more than a handful of men to chase me down and bring me back home. Truly, I never expected him to care! Why would a man literally sell me off to someone, only to chase me down and drag me back? Did he not receive his payment yet?

Was this not about me being a huge pain for him? If i disappeared, I’d be no one’s pain anymore! Why was he chasing me.. Why did he so dearly want for me to not be free?! 

If I had the time, I’d break down crying and I’d pull the hair right out of my scalp trying to wrap myself around the frustration that this whole situation had brought to me. But I did not have the luxury of time! I was being chased through the forest, while darkness swallowed everything I could see. I could barely see a few feet ahead, and I was dodging trees at the last moment. 

My lungs were burning and aching, screaming for me to stop. My legs were protesting every little twig we snapped, and every pebble we stepped on, because I somehow did not have the time to put on shoes, and running barefoot through the forest was not my brightest idea so far. At best, I managed to toss on a thick coat and run for it, because I knew my life depended on it. If they caught me… my life would end. And it better ends by my own hands than theirs!

I could hear the animals of the first getting frenzied with the thrill of the hunt as they watched me from the darkest corners of the forest. Were they watching me or the men following me? Were they ready to shred me to pieces or were they ready to sink their teeth into the flesh of sinful men? Could animals judge a sinful heart? Theirs was pure of malice…

The moonless sky grows a bit agitated and a strong cold wind howls through the forest, and now, now I see the first snowflakes dance in the air, through the branches, and melting right against my tear stained face as I duck another low branch and scurry away. The men were getting closer and I could not run forever. I did not have the strength! 

“Oh! All loving Mother! Please save me~” I whisper under my breath as I push myself up and take a fugitive look up towards the sky as I take a few more shaky steps.

What was unknown to me was that where the forest ended and the meadow started, men had no rights to step. The ground under my feet suddenly seems to be harder, more supportive and when I look down I notice I’m walking a stone path, surrounded by dead grass. Up ahead, the stone path was swallowed by the forest again, the meadow ending just as abruptly as It had started. The rock is cold and it sends sharp jabs of pain through my body with every step I manage to take. 

“There you are!” a low, throaty voice reaches my ears and I turn around, only to see the same disgusting face that forced me to run away. 

Father Cassimir stops at the edge of the meadow, his figure half covered by the darkness of the forest, making him look as if he were not real, but a fragment of a nightmare that escaped my tormented life.

“I will not let you lay your hands on me!” I spit at him, voice shaky, heart beating so fast I was sure it was carving its way out of my chest.

“I don’t need your consent~” the man smirks, showing off his disgusting yellow teeth. 

“Nesta!” My father’s voice echoes through the forest and the man stumbles forward into the meadow, half choking on his own words. 

I yelp and step backwards, only to find myself falling like a crumb to the ground, startled and terrified. 

“Child-” the man gasps for air. For sure, running like this did him good. When was the last time he put in any effort beside shagging my mother? 

He rushes forward and he reaches for me, but as soon as he does, a rush of cold air wraps around me, making my damp hair whip against my skin almost painfully, and something blocks the view in front of me. I blink, hazed and puzzled and looked up slowly, realizing someone was blocking my father’s access to me. A large, tall figure, with broad shoulders and a red cloak that somehow feels familiar.

An ear piercing scream leaves my father’s mouth and I’m pulled back to reality. I rush to my teeth and push past the figure that separates me from my father. The man defending me, was faceless, his face hidden by the cloak, but his arms poked out from under the cloak, long clawy fingers wrapped around my father’s arms, talons sinking into his flesh, letting warm blood drip and stain the ground.

“No!” I grip the stranger’s coat and tug at it, to get their attention. “NO! Please!” I start begging. “Please don’t harm him! Please don’t kill him! I beg of you!” my voice is raw and my throat hurts, and tears start to stream down my face again. 

The stranger turns to me, and I see a ruby red shimmer from under the hood, resting on me with a bit of confusion. 

“He was chasing you.” The stranger spoke with a dry throat, his voice low and gravel like.

“I know!” I scream at them, desperate to make them let go of my father’s arm, which looked like it was going to get ripped off. 

“He was ready to harm you.” The stranger stated the obvious and I feel my heart shrink at this statement, but this does not make me loosen my grip on his cloak.

“He is my father! I can not let you kill him!” I scream tugging the cloak again, making the stranger even more puzzled.

“Father…” they murmur and turn to look at the man he was holding. “Then, I have no right to kill him, do I?” The stranger seemed to grasp my urgency, his grip slowly loosening, the talons turning to long, slim and pale fingers. “But he is trespassing and the punishment for that is even worse-” 

My heart skips a beat and I feel my stomach swirl with nausea. Worse than death? I wanted to throw up, both from exhaustion and the fear that started to take root in the pits of my being. 

“I am trespassing too!” I spit out without thinking, stumping on the ground with my bare feet as if I was desecrating something holy. “Punish me instead! Kill me!” Yes! Please kill me before they lay their hands on me and my life ends at the hands of men and their greed!

The stranger seems to pick on my distress and I can tense the way they tense as they cast another troubled look in my direction. 

“I beg of you! Let my father go!” I feel my knees give in and tears start to blur my vision again as I fall on my knees and my nails stubbornly hold on to his cloak. This was no normal being. If he were but a man, he would have flinched and he would have bent under my weight and the way I pulled on his cloak, but this one here? This one did not move a muscle. He was a statue. 

The stranger casts a concerned look over me again and then looks at my father, and up at the forest eying the men and the hounds that have suddenly stopped growling and barking like the demos they thought they were. Silence settles over the meadow and no one has the courage to let out a single sound, beside my father who groans and curses in pain. 

“Very well then,” the stranger murmurs and he flings my father at the edge of the meadow like he was nothing but a doll made out of rags and straw. “I will spare your father.” They speak and I feel relief wash over me, while a cold shiver rushes down my back making me painfully aware that everything around me was cold and I was really going to die tonight. 

“Don’t you dare take my daught-”

“Your what?” the stranger cuts off the man who scurries to his feet like an unstable toddler. “You chase her through the woods with men and hounds… and you still have the guts to call her yours? A belonging of some sort? Or was this just a fun game I don’t understand?” the stranger growls in an odd way, their voice layering in a painfully terrifying way. 

The cloak slips right out of my hands as the stranger closes in towards my father again and I feel desperate to stop him, lounging forward and grabbing the edge of the cloak. They stop abruptly and I feel pity being sent my way when they turn to look at me.

“Don’t -” I whisper, my throat sore and dry. “please! “ I whisper, digging my nails into the velvet cloak, painfully, ripping a few of them. 

The stranger suddenly seems conflicted and I am sure I can see the way they sigh and decide on not going on with the slaughter he had in mind. 

“Just leave…” the barks with a bit of defeat, gesturing for everyone to piss off, before they turn to me and slowly bend down, to help me to my feet.

“Get away from her, you foul beast!” my father screams but another familiar voice booms.

“FERDINAND!” father Cassimir yells, making my father stop from trying to stab the stranger who, oh~ so tenderly scoops me up. “He’s got her now. Nothing much can be done.” the priest scowls in a very displeased way, while the stranger’s cloak envelops me with an oddly familiar warmth.

“I’ve got you.” the stranger murmurs, their voice incredibly soft and gentle, making me feel like I am not just being carried away by a murderous creature, who’s fingers turned to talons that could shred meat and bones without a struggle.