Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. The first thought I had been able to have ran through my mind.

I threw my back against a tree that was just thick enough to conceal me.

I stood just inside a patch of darkness that the green light of the moon had failed to infect.

The snarls and high pitched whines of the beasts that hunted me echoed all around me in a chorus of violent sound. I stood just inside a patch of darkness that the green light of the moon had failed to infect.

Help. I need help. My second thought came silently because I was too terrified to speak. They would hear me and my small moment would end the same way I would, with gnashing fangs and shredding flesh.

My hand sent waves of blinding pain through me with every passing second. I could run no longer. If it swung loosely into my chest one more time, I would lose consciousness. I knew it the way I knew the golden choker was still locked around my neck.

Run. They’re coming. The third thought I had been able to have since I woke up ran back through my mind.

I was not in The Well and the living terror I had woken up in was not a dream. The uncountable nicks and cuts on my feet and ankles were proof of those truths. The blood that leaked out of them was no one else’s but mine.

Cold sweat dripped from my brow and pattered against the leaves under my feet.

Anna. The fourth and most important thought came to me again. All I could remember was falling asleep in her arms moments after we had said I love you to each other for the first time. Was she lost in the same dark woods that I was? The dogs, hounds, wolves, whatever they were, were they after her too?

I could not call out for her, all that would bring me was a quick and violent death.

The savage sounds of the beasts tapered off into sudden silence. I filled my lungs and held my breath, desperate to not make a sound. Quiet steps slowly padded over the leaves behind me. Quick bursts of sniffing came with it and I knew that the tree I leaned against was all that kept me from being found.

Breathe. My chest burned from the lack of air. I couldn’t keep my mouth closed, I was going to gasp and give myself away if I didn’t do something.

I bit into the inside of my cheek. The iron taste of blood filled my mouth but the pain let me hold my breath for another agonizing moment.

The beast stepped into the green light of the moon on my left with its drooling maw bent to the ground. It was following a scent, my scent, but it did not notice me.

It was the first time I had laid my eyes on one of the things that pursued me.

Wolf? No, it couldn’t be. I had met a familiar before that was mostly a wolf and the monster walking next to me with its muzzle to the ground looked nothing like it. Shaggy and black, it looked like a ragged shadow that had been brought to life by some dark power.

My chest began to heave in protest of my breathlessness. As soon as I gave in to its burning demands, the beast would hear me.

A very stupid idea found its way to my mind.

I had no choice.

As loud as I could, I opened my mouth and screamed.

The beast broke into a startled sprint away from me at my sudden noise and I took off in the opposite direction.

All around me the whines and snarls of the beast’s packmates whipped up again and my small moment with my back pressed against the tree ended. The sound of my bare feet pounding against the cold ground and the pained whimpers that slipped from me with every stride were all I could hear at first.

Within seconds, those that hunted me closed in.

Flashes of wild eyes glinting in the eerie moonlight brought new pangs of panic every time I caught sight of them.

“Leave me alone!” I screamed, trying desperately to hold my hand against my chest.

The beasts did not listen to my demand.

A tangled mess of underbrush woven through a cluster of barren trees lay in the distance before me.

Hide.

I glanced back to see that one of the beasts broke out of the darkness and followed me at my heels.

It lunged towards me the same moment I threw myself blindly into the underbrush.

Its wicked maw snapped closed with so much force I felt the air coming off of it.

The beast let out a pained whine at the same time that I screamed.

The underbrush had not been bushes or other plants.

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Thorny briars ripped through my night clothes and pierced my skin in every place they touched.

Fear pushed me forward despite the pain.

I turned in the twisted thorns and kicked myself further in until my back pressed against the trunk of the tree. The beasts circled me like vultures, lunging and tearing small amounts of vine away with every savage bite.

“Go away!” I screamed, too terrified to cry.

Again, the beasts did not listen to my demands.

Snap. Another long vine was torn away.

Snap. They were getting closer

Snap. I had to fucking move.

I couldn’t run.

Any attempt to push my aura into my broken hand made my eyes swim. If I actually tried to channel it, I would lose consciousness. If I ever woke up again, it would be to a reality where I was being torn into pieces by those that hunted me.

Above me, just low enough that I thought I could reach it if I jumped, a low hanging branch gave me a way out. I pushed myself up as one of the beasts tore away another vine.

“Fuck!” I screamed again, the thorns tearing through my shirt and dragging shallow cuts over my skin. I pulled them away from my bandages and everywhere else they hooked into me with my left hand. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as the whines and growls from the beast's rose into a maddening pitch.

I jumped for the branch.

The air in my lungs burst out of my mouth all at once when my left arm slammed down on top of the branch. The skin on the soles of my feet scraped against the rough bark as I clawed myself upwards.

Snap.

I shook my waist over the branch and looked down.

One of the beasts sunk its teeth into the branch less than a finger tip from my hand. It hung from the tree with its shining eyes locked on me.

“I told you to leave me alone you stupid fucking dog!” I shouted, bringing my fist down on its nose.

The beast did nothing but snarl and shake from side to side.

When the branch let out a sharp cracking sound, I hit the dog again. It yelped and released its hold, dropping back down to where its packmates circled the base of the tree.

Every part of me shook with exhaustion. Luckily, I had spent nearly every morning for the last several months climbing up to the top of the manor to enjoy some small amount of freedom. Even with a broken arm, I was a much better climber than those damned dogs could ever be.

I wiped the sweat from my brow on the back of my bandaged hand. Wedging my foot in a crook where the trunk of the tree split into two, I pushed myself up and made myself that much safer. The wolves were just wolves. If they had truly been demons, a tree would have not offered me the protection that it did. All they could do was bark and whine as they looked up at me and tore at the briars.

“Anna!” I called out, searching the woods for any sign of her.

There was no answer.

“Anna!” I screamed, sending the beasts into a chorus of hollow howls.

Then, there was silence.

Dark clouds crept over the sky and turned the eerie light of the moon into full dark. Not even the eyes of the beasts could be seen in the black.

Glowing green eyes opened and cast their color on the woods. Towering over those who hunted me to such an extreme that it made them look like puppies, a black furred demon crept out of the darkness. Its pack mates all lowered their heads and cowered in its presence, none of them daring to so much as bark.

“She can not hear you. Save your breath, you will need it.” It growled as it walked to the base of the tree.

“What the fuck are you? Why is this happening to me?” I yelled down at it, cold tears of fear spilling out of my eyes and over my cheeks.

“I am a hunter-” The demon growled and snapped its jaws around the trunk of the tree once, twice, three times.

I held on, nearly being shaken to the ground by the force of the bites.

The demon ceased its ravaging and turned its glowing green eyes away from me. Just before it rejoined the darkness completely, it spoke again.

“-And you are here to be hunted.”

The tree shifted underneath my feet. A sickening crack sounded from the trunk as dark green smoke began to roll out of the punctured wood. Another crack, the tree shifted again and my foot almost slipped out of the crook.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I thought, coughing as the acrid smoke filled my nose.

A tearing sound, loud and long, came from the tree and it began to fall.

I hit the hard packed soil. It did not break my body like I thought it would. Instead, I broke through it and continued to fall.

My aura sprung to life inside of me and faint shimmers of iridescent light leaked through my bandages.

Before I could realize what was happening, my back slammed into something hard and the air was driven from my lungs.

Gasp. . .Gasp. . .Gasp

Branches, each thicker than my body, stretched all around me. All I could do was lay there as dirt and leaves rained down onto me. Green moonlight leaked through the hole in the ground above me that my body had made. Echoing from above, the sounds of the beasts lessened until I was left in silence.

My breath came back to me. A broken, sad, sound slipped out of my mouth as I sat up and held my broken arm to my body. Every part of me hurt. I was cold, dirty, scared, and alone. There was nothing I could do but cry.

I had fallen onto one of the thousands of vines that coiled around the massive branches. The air was stale and smelled of loose soil, but it felt like no matter how much I took in, it was never enough. All that lay below was a darkness that threatened to swallow me whole if I happened to slip and fall.

Hide. Push yourself up against the trunk and hide among the vines. They are big enough to conceal you. I thought, unable to make myself move.

If only I had been able to learn how to heal myself from my mother, I could have fixed my hand. That had not happened. I had not been able to learn anything because I had been too weak. Weak, just as I was then. A crying little girl that could do nothing to protect herself from the terror she had been thrown into.

At least the beasts are still up there. I thought to myself, a futile attempt at giving myself some little comfort. There was no comfort for me. There was only the demon and its beasts.

But, I couldn’t just sit there and wait. I had to find Anna, I had to figure out where I was.

Call for The Mothers. You did not choose for this to happen, they will not punish you for it.

Before I could truly consider the thought, a low grinding sound filled the dim forest.

The vine underneath me began to move.

The small amount of moonlight shone against the dark green shape as it began to slither.

That’s not a vine. . .

It was a serpent.

The demon’s words echoed in my mind.

And you are here to be hunted.