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"Maksym!" she screams, pointing with a shaking finger to the window. Vivid orange flames light up the night. I race to the window and yank aside the curtain, cursing out loud when I see what I should have noticed earlier. The entire fucking cabin is surrounded by flames. Someone's set fire outside, and not any fire. We're surrounded.
There's no way out.Chapter 12Olena
“Get dressed!" he shouts at me a second time. I blink, frozen in place, as the unmistakable sound of a roaring fire meets my ears. Someone set fire outside, intentionally. Thoroughly. The entire night sky is already alight with the brightness of the flames, the small wooden cabin smoking as the flames close in.
I tug on clothes and shoes as he races from the room, only to find the front room already completely engulfed in flames. Shepherd whines and howls, pawing at the door as if he knows we need to escape. Maksym covers his face with an arm and runs toward the door. I scream as a wooden beam falls and nearly misses him. Oh, God. This can't be happening. So quickly, the heat is unbearable, the smoke choking me so badly I fall to the floor. Maksym looks back at me, his face clouded in smoke that billows around him. He looks to the door and back to me, and it's just like that night they choked me. He has a choice to pursue the person who set fire to the cabin, or to save me.
But hell, I can save myself.
And then I remember. His wallet with the picture. I reach over and yank the drawer open, pull it out and throw it to him. He grabs it and shoves it in his pocket. Smoke is already filling the cabin.
"Go!" I shout. "Find them! I'll get myself out!"
"No!" he screams.
"If you don't get them, they'll only come back. Go!"
I fall to the floor on all fours to avoid the choking, smothering smoke. Gasping for clean air, I cough and finally decide to hold my breath while I escape. The heat is unbearable. My skin feels as if it's going to melt off, my eyes ache from the heat and smoke. Closing my eyes, I crawl to the exit when strong arms grasp me, hauling me out. I scream when my dress catches flame, smacking at the fire to put it out. I don't even register the pain in my palms from the heat, I'm so intent on putting the fire out. Something crashes from the ceiling above and I cover my head as a large, charred beam narrowly misses my foot. And then we're out in the forest. He's holding me to him, Shepherd circling our feet. The cabin is completely consumed. Someone set this place on fire with enough fuel to take down a building five times this size.
"Run!" he says. We have no keys for the car, no other means of escape but to run. No weapons. Nothing but the two of us and one faithful dog by our sides. Holding his hand, I follow him. We run, the fire consuming everything behind us. Whoever did this will set the whole damn forest on fire. We need to get help.
But what if this is exactly what they want? What if the whole point was to get us out? What if they weren't trying to kill us but out us?
"Are you hurt?" I yell to him.
He shakes his head. "I'm okay. Are you?"
"I'm fine," I tell him, but I know even as I say the words, I'm not. I'm terrified someone is going to come out of the woods and hurt us, draw a weapon and shoot us or worse. Someone is after us. That was no accidental fire, and I know it.
My body aches, reminding me I just gave the man who kidnapped me my virginity. I can't even think about that now. Now is just a matter of survival.
We're running so quickly in the woods, trying not to trip over tree roots, I don't hear the noise at first until Shepherd quickly veers off course and howls. I turn to look, my foot catches on a root, and if I wasn't holding Maksym's hand I'd go sprawling. Someone's after us. It's pitch black and I can hardly see a thing, but a beam of moonlight catches the white, tattooed skin of someone who's chasing us.
"Someone's following us!" I yell to Maksym.
He comes to a halt so quickly, I crash into him, but he doesn't move.
"Where?" he spits out. My heart thunders in my chest at the look on his face. The look of a brutal, vicious killer who's ready for blood.
"There," I say, pointing toward where I saw someone. With only the moonlight to illuminate the forest, it's hard to see. I stand closer to him instinctively, trembling.
