Page 8 of Honest Neglect

I tossed the tray up and into his face, and he stumbled back in surprise for a moment. I only had a split second to get to my feet and get out of there, and I sprinted for the door as fast as I could, putting as much distance between myself and this man as humanly possible.

I kept my eyes fixed on the door and kicked it open triumphantly, stepping out into the cold air beyond. It bit against my bare skin, but I hardly noticed it. Mark’s furious voice called after me, and I took off down a path that took me as far away from him as humanly possible.

We were out in the woods somewhere. An old mill, maybe? It wasn’t as though I had time to sit around and think about it. I just had to go. And fast.

My legs were already burning from being stuck in that chair for so long, but I pushed my feet forward, over and over again. I glanced over my shoulder as I reached the forest line to see Mark rushing toward me from the warehouse I had been kept in. He might have been twice my age, but he was still quick on his feet, and he had an advantage over me. I hadn’t had any nourishment in days.

The sunlight burned into my eyes as I made it to the tree line. I felt as though I had been trapped in there for weeks on end, like I hadn’t stepped foot in the real world forever. Branches snagged against my skin, but I did my best to keep moving. I could deal with whatever injuries this left me with, but what I couldn’t deal with was what this man might do to me if he actually managed to catch me.

“Just come back, Lily!” he roared into the woods, his voice reverberating off the trees around me. I kept going, darting from side to side to dodge large rocks or logs. If I tripped, it was over for me. He would catch up with me in no time.

I had to move like I was running for my life. Because I was.

I wasn’t sure if I could take another breath, but I needed to get out of the forest. There had to be some people out there on the other side, right? Some people who would be willing to help me? I wasn’t sure if there was anyone left in Oakville I could trust, and even if there were, I might have been a long way from Kansas right now.

I tripped and managed to catch myself on a tree before I sprawled out onto the ground, and shot another look over my shoulder. I couldn’t see Mark. I froze, eyes darting this way and that as I tried to spot him. Had he caught up with me, and now he was hiding out, ready to pounce on me? I wouldn’t have put anything past him now.

But, as I stood there, there was nothing. No sound around me, apart from the wind rustling the trees, and a distant river trickling across the rocks. I had made it. I didn’t know how, but I had made it. He had given up, at least for now, and I had to take every chance I could get to escape them.

Where was I? That was the first question. I decided to head for the river. Surely that would take me somewhere and maybe I could actually drink some fresh water while I was at it. I could hardly choke out a breath, my throat was so dry.

I wandered down to the river, my muscles trembling from exhaustion, and dropped down to my knees to gulp down a few much-needed sips of water. When I was done, I sank back on the bank and stared up at the sky above me.

It looked close to dusk, which meant that it would be getting dark soon, and I knew nowhere was darker than the forest at night. It would be easier to hide out here for me in the dark, but it would also be easy for someone to sneak up on me and grab me when I least expected it. I figured I might not have a choice, but I should at least walk a little further before I gave up for the evening.

At the snap of every branch and the call of every bird, my head whipped around to see if Mark had somehow managed to catch up with me. It wouldn’t have surprised me. I knew he probably had men scattered all over this place, doing everything they could to track me down and shut me in once more.

I didn’t even know what I was looking for right now. Just some sign of life, I figured. Something I could use to go off of. If I was near Oakville, maybe I could flag down a car, ask someone to help me. It was a long shot, but I had to hope there was something out there for me, or else I would have just given up entirely.

I headed up toward the trees once more and, all at once, heard the swish of a car in the distant. Okay, so I couldn’t have been that far from a road. That was something. Eventually, as I pushed through the trees, I came to the edge of the forest, and sure enough, there was a road running along the side of it.

I couldn’t see any cars coming from either direction, so it clearly wasn’t well used. And I didn’t recognize it. I didn’t recognize anything about this place actually, now I thought of it. I didn’t recognize the smell of the air, the color of the sky, any of it. Wherever they had taken me to, Oakville was far, far away, and I would have to find my own way back there one way or another.

I walked along the side of the road a little longer, and after a few minutes, I came to the crest of a hill that overlooked a small smattering of houses below. A few of them had their lights on, but most of them looked unoccupied.

I started toward them without thinking, but, as I drew closer and closer, I found myself second-guessing my decision. What did I think I was doing? I could get myself in so much trouble, just walking into a stranger’s house like that. They would have no idea where I was from or what I was doing here, and if I tried to tell them the truth, it probably would have been dismissed as nothing more than the ramblings of a mad woman who had wandered in off the country road.

Or Tony’s men could be there. I shivered at the thought, and my feet came to a halt beneath me at once. I could be walking right into a trap. I had to remember who I was dealing with here. By now, Mark would have alerted someone else to the fact that I had gone missing, and when they found out, they would be out in force trying to track me down.

I turned back toward the forest. It seemed like the safest place I could spend the night. I could have tried to find my way back to the warehouse I’d been held in, assuming Mark would have already looked for me there, but that seemed too risky. And besides, with the darkness closing in all too quickly, I wasn’t sure I could have remembered the route anyway.

I made my way deep enough into the forest that I wouldn’t be seen from the road, and, as I went, I heard a noise that made my ears prick up. It kind of sounded like breathing. I paused, waiting to hear it again, but the only sound in the air was the birds chirping their evening songs.

I needed to keep going. All it would take right now would be for one of Tony’s men to pass by in a car, and the headlights would pick out my path into the forest. They could follow right behind me.

I followed the sound of the river until I reached the soft bank once more. The breathing had stopped, thankfully, though I figured it wouldn’t be the last sound to freak me out over the course of the night. No, this place would be full of creatures, even outside of Tony and Mark, and I needed to stay alert to make sure I didn’t succumb to them.

Once I found a spot on the bank to rest on, I pulled the shirt off my cut and wrapped it around myself. It wasn’t unbearably cold with my shirt on, but I knew that the night was only going to get colder.

And darker. The moon was almost full that night, and the blue light filtered eerily through the trees, casting shadows everywhere I looked. It sparkled off the water, and I tried to focus on that for a while to let my brain switch off.

But how could it, with everything that Mark had said to me? I wasn’t sure how much of what he was telling me was true, but that didn’t mean it didn’t scare the hell out of me. What if Warren had really been involved in anything like that? I couldn’t believe it, wouldn’t believe it, but my mind was such a mess it insisted on torturing me with the possibility anyway.

And Silver? Silver, my precious dog, who had probably died in that fire they had set at the animal shelter. The thought of her dying in fear, without me by her side, was something I was going to have to live with for the rest of my life. She had never deserved that. She had trusted me, let me make her part of my life, and now, she was gone because of a vendetta my monstrous ex just couldn’t let go of.

I tried to close my eyes and get some sleep, though it seemed almost impossible, given what I was being faced with. My whole body hurt, and my stomach grumbled with an almost painful hunger. Was there anything I could eat out here? Knowing my luck, I would just manage to poison myself with berries or something.

Suddenly, I heard it again. That noise. That snuffling. I lifted my head and looked around, determined to work out where it was coming from, but I couldn’t see anything.