I walked out of that cabin, completely broken, covered in the blood of the only person who had cared for me in almost three thousand days.
Numb and in shock I had just set off running into the forest, not stopping or slowing. I focussed on putting one foot in front of the other and on getting as far away as possible. Eventually running was all I could think of as I blocked out the all consuming pain of seeing Chris die. I just ran and ran until finally I came to a wide black road.
Hands grabbing the tops of my arms had me snapping out of the horrifying memory and back to my present nightmare. The Shadow was leant over me, ripping me up to my feet. His arm was pouring with blood from where I had stabbed him and he looked deathly pale. I knew he had likely lost too much blood, but it didn’t stop him from lifting me up, and carrying me to the centre of the room, where he slammed me down hard onto my back.
I screamed again as the force of the impact rattled my broken body. I could barely breathe and my vision was filled with black spots.
I dared to look up to where he loomed over me, and the look in his eyes promised only one thing. Death. This was it. After everything he had done to me, he was going to be the one to end me, there in that hell.
All of those days I endured so much abuse, just trying to survive, all for it to come to this. The bastard was going to kill me anyway.
In one last attempt to not give up. I reached around and gripped the handle of the second and last knife I had tucked into my jeans. If I was going down, I was going down fighting. If my guys ever found my body, I wanted them to know I fought with everything I had to get back to them. That I never gave up.
Blood dripped from The Shadow’s head wound and onto my chest as he bent down, dropping to his knees beside me. The fact he seemed too weak to stand worked in my favour and I readied myself to land the knife in his gut. He leant in, presumably to hit, or maybe even try to strangle me and I pulled the knife from my back, ready to thrust hard, but I never got the chance. At the exact moment I began to act, the front door to the cabin was busted open violently and both me and The Shadow leapt with a start.
Icy cold wind blew in from above my head and I knew someone was there, but I dare not take my eyes from The Shadow to see who. He looked up, his face filling first with recognition, and then shock.
I hoped and prayed it was the guys, that they had found me, but before I could process the thought harder, a shot rang out and I watched on in horror as the back of The Shadow’s head exploded in a mess of blood and gore. I screamed as he slumped forward and landed hard on top of me.
He was a few hundred pounds of dead weight on top of me, crushing my battered ribs and stopping me from getting in a breath. I fought to push him off in my panic, needing to know who else was there with me, but the more I tried to move him, the more blood poured from him and down over my neck and shoulders. There was so much and the sticky warm feeling of it, mixed with the odour of The Shadow, had me gagging over and over as I tried to push the body off of me.
Who was behind me? Who had shot him? The hope it was my guys had gone, because I knew if it were them, they’d be beside me by then, shoving away the Shadow and holding me.
Fear raced through me that I was next to be shot through the head and the adrenaline rush was what I needed. I finally found the strength to push The Shadow away from me and look around, but the doorway was empty.
I had no idea what the hell had just happened, or who had saved me and why they didn’t shoot me too, but I’d have to worry about it later. I had to catch up to Hailey and get us both to safety. The Shadow was no longer a threat, but the shooter could be.
I pushed up to sitting, then had to allow a moment to breathe through the pain and dizziness that ravaged me. I was covered in so much blood and my body was shaking uncontrollably, but I didn’t want to hesitate too long in case that guy changed his mind and came back to finish Hailey and I off.
Getting to my feet caused pain like I had never known to rush through my body. I stumbled as I tried to steady myself a few times on my messed up ankle, but eventually I got my feet under me and started out of the cabin, spurred on by my need to be away from The Shadow’s lifeless eyes looking hauntingly up at me.
I crept from the now wide open door of the cabin and peeked around the side.
The small wooden building sat in a small opening in the trees, much like the last place that monster had kept me. The green van was parked to my right, at the head of what appeared to be a crude track through the forest. As far as I could see, the entire clearing was surrounded by thick woodland, and I quickly realised we were likely miles from any kind of civilisation. As bitterly cold and snowy as it was, getting to help was going to be a true trial, but I’d worry about that once I found Hailey. In the
