Chapter 5

Each thorn Anna pulled out seemed to take a piece of her with it. She had yet to grasp how she had gone from preparing for her eighteenth birthday to being hunted like a game. She felt the wounds close up as she pulled out the last thorns. She'd stopped behind a huge tree trunk to get herself together a bit before resuming the race. The little sprint races she'd had with her brothers growing up had come in handy at such a crucial moment. She'd given them a decent distance.

They're getting louder... her heart began racing as she could sense those heavy footsteps approaching yet again. Her racing heartbeat soon translated into a dash forward, diving deeper into the deep green. They were probably farther away than she'd thought, but the current situation seemed to intensify all her sensory perceptions.

Anna kept running, hoping she wouldn't run into something worse in those woods. The Silver Moon had other enemy packs with no small resentment for their domineering nature. Richard had stripped most of those packs of their alphas, killing them, taking them prisoner, or simply turning them into his pawns against their will. Anna just prayed that she wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. Each stride she took led her further down the slope and raised her suspicions.

The midday sun shone brightly over the woods. It dawned on her that she had spent over half the day running for her life. When does it all end? She couldn't run forever, but she found it hard to see anything beyond the current moment. She couldn't see anyone coming to save her from the hands of these men. And the thought of confronting them made her cringe. But for some reason, she was determined to frustrate their lofty ambitions.

Suddenly, an arrow came darting forward from the greens, brushing the right side of her head and sticking fast to a tree trunk before her. In an instant, her life just flashed before her. That was very close. How could they... She took a peek behind her; there was no sign of them, but she could hear their footsteps loud and clear. She was marveling at the accuracy of the bowshot—to have fired from that distance and missed by just a little timely movement she'd made.

Another came, then another. All missing by just tiny fractions. Those were the same silver-bladed arrows she had seen at the massacre scene. Then came another, which grazed her right shoulder. It was apparent on which side the shooter was. Anna began orienting her movement more to the left. As she tried to take a peek behind her, she forcefully stubbed her foot into a rock, causing her to trip over as she darted forward at top speed. Anna soon found herself crumbling down the slope like a wrecking ball. She was at the mercy of gravity as she had no control over her movements; she just had to wait until she hit an obstruction or, preferably, a level ground.

'Thud!' She saw herself at what seemed to be the bottom of the slope. It was moist ground devoid of vegetation. She felt a bit dizzy and lightheaded from the entire landslide. She felt a wave of ticklish pain all over both forearms as she tried using them to slow herself down but to no avail. Her body was healing slower than it had before. With that, it dawned on her that she'd need to feed, as her transition was complete, even without a ceremony.

Her trembling limbs barely held her upright, but she knew she couldn't afford to collapse. The six ferocious wolves were still hot on her trail, their growls and snarls piercing through the stillness of the woods.

One more dash and Anna tried some self-incitation as she slowly tried to pick up her momentum. But all of a sudden, she was stopped in her tracks as realization hit her when she noticed she wasn't running on a track anymore. Anna's heart raced as she looked down to see her feet submerged in a murky mud pool. The thick mud seemed to suck at her feet like quicksand, threatening to swallow her up. She couldn't feel any solid ground under her feet. Mud pool... that explained why the environment around her seemed arid.

Panic set in as she struggled to free herself, but the more she struggled, the deeper she sank. The mud seemed to swallow her whole, dragging her down with a relentless grip. It was as if the earth had turned against her, refusing to let her go.

The mud was thick and sticky, grasping her legs with a greedy grip, creeping up her thighs, and reaching for her hips like a ravenous predator. She desperately groped around for a solid object to grab onto, but all she felt was the slimy texture of mud slipping through her fingers.

They were drawing closer. In a brief moment, it was clear to Anna that the pain of pushing through a seemingly endless pool of mud was nothing compared to her death at the hands of those vicious wolves without a chance of avenging her family's demise.

"Here it is, Anna." She took in all the air she could and shut her eyes. The eighteen-year-old she-wolf was soon immersed in the cold, grotty mud. She intended to stay hidden from the incoming wolves and to slowly advance when she was sure the coast was clear. The sounds from above slowly faded as she descended into the dark, miry unknown.

***

Anna struggled for what felt like an eternity in the murky, clinging mud. But finally, her hand found purchase on something solid, and she pulled herself to safety with a desperate burst of energy. Gasping for air, she collapsed onto the ground, her body aching and her stomach empty.

She could barely fold her fist. The exhaustion and fatigue had consumed her entirely, rendering her immobile. She lay on her left side, feeling the coolness of the ground against her cheek. Her eyes remained shut as the thick mud had seeped into every crevice of her ears, nose, and mouth, making it hard to breathe. She was trapped in a silent and dark void, unable to determine her surroundings, not knowing where she was or what awaited her.

Her life had taken an unexpected turn, one that was so dark and cruel that she knew it was a reality that she would never be able to escape. The thought of never seeing her family again was still too raw for her to fully comprehend. She hadn't even been given the ironic luxury of at least mourning her dead.

As each page of her sorrowful ballad unfolded in her mind's library, she could feel her breath leaving her slowly. She forcefully sniffed out in a bid to clear her nostrils.

The sun, which had been smiling over the woods, had been covered up by a lot of thick clouds. Rumblings of thunder became more audible, ushering in the incoming downpour. Anna heard them faintly, but it didn't matter much to her;

The first drop of rain that hit her muddy face made her cringe at first. But then she realized she had nothing to fear, as she'd faced death itself. Then came the downpour. Each drop of rain seemed to make her feel lighter as it slowly washed the mud off her body. A wave of hopelessness overwhelmed Anna as she flattened out her body on the ground, waiting for the rain to bring its worst. She couldn't care less at that point. It seemed like the heavy downpour had been made just for that moment.

Her life had become more bitter than all the tragedies she'd ever read. She slowly opened her eyelids, as she felt a release on her face, to see a cloudy and gloomy sky. She shut them out as she sobbed out loud. She'd reached her wit's end, unable to handle the hurtful emotions welling within her. She just let it out.

She could feel the life slowly creeping away from her; she felt the usual cold as her eyelids began blinking slowly. She'd never thought she'd greatly anticipate death at any point in her life, but there it was.

Suddenly, she felt a shift in the air around her. There was a faint rustling in the bushes as if something or someone was approaching. She tried to get up, but she had no control of her body anymore, as her body was too weak to respond. She struggled to turn her head to see who or what was coming, but her strength failed her. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and her heart raced faster.

As her eyes made their last blinks, they seemed to capture a strange, unfamiliar masculine face shrouded by long hair. A feeling of dread crept up her spine. She tried to focus on the face and commit it to memory, but her mind was too foggy and hazy.

As she felt herself drifting away from reality, the image of the man's face faded away into nothingness. The end was here, and she knew it. Her breathing slowed until it finally ceased, and the world around her went dark.