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“That path will take you to the highway,” he said, pointing to the ground behind me I turned and found the path, but when I turned back around, he was gone The crunch of the brush under his boots faded quickly, sed by the sounds of the storm

I was free

But I was also truly alone In the dark And that clouded over the elation I should have felt

My chest grew tight I pressed ainstout of ht it would coain, I couldn’t catch my breath

Panic set in

My vision blurred The forest around ether into one big green and brown vortex, like staring up into the eye of a tornado

I’d felt safer ’s hate-filled eyes

I tried to get up I sat up on my knees, but I slipped in the mud and fell forward onto ain, I turned ontoa hand over my exposed ear

I needed to be invisible I needed to disappear into the dark, and then just ed my knees to my chest

Twenty-four hours ago, I thought I would be set up in so in the comfort of a roof over nity, but I hadn’t had the luxury of dignity since I woke up in the hospital Instead, I was barefoot and cold in the middle of the woods And as the moon disappeared behind dark storm clouds, I was enveloped in complete blackness

I tucked my bare feet as close to my body as I could to keep the chill offteeth turned into a full body shake as the rain pummeled me Each icy drop felt like a pin-prick into my skin

Why the hell did he kiss me? Why the hell did I let him?

I wasit

I’d done a lot of fucked up things in the last fewin abandoned cars But nothing I’d done leftto his kiss

What was even , I’d hoped at any second the tall grass would rustle and he’d appear out of the brush to rescue me from the dark

King wasn’t the rescuing type, I reminded myself