And then I’m scrambling out of the car, Ezra lunging for me, and I dodge him at the last minute and then I’m running, running, running.
I’m free.
I head straight into the forest, a downward slope, hoping the momentum will carry me as I jump over logs and break through the underbrush, branches ripping at my skirt, tearing at my skin, but I feel no pain. I feel nothing but the wind in my hair, see nothing but the mist as it flows past my eyes, kissing my skin.
I keep my legs pumping, my feet hitting the ground in a satisfying rhythm, and I have the craziest feeling that I might be able to run forever like this, fueled by pure adrenaline and the desire to live. I’ll keep running and running and eventually I’ll hit a house and find safety. I have to.
And I don’t hear anything behind me, I don’t hear them crashing through the forest, or any hurrying footfalls or shouts. It’s like they aren’t even bothering. All I hear is the blood in my head, my breath as it works overtime, in and out of my lungs. All I know is to just let my body work and to not think and just keep going, no matter what.
I’ll make it.
I’ll make it, I’ll make it.
There’s a large fallen log ahead and I jump up on it, leaping off without a second thought, until I’m falling and falling, the drop so much steeper than I thought it would be.
But I land on my feet and I keep going, trying to make sense of how I could have jumped down the length of a two-story building and have it not even break my stride. Something tells me I’ll be sore tomorrow.
As long as I’m alive, I don’t fucking care how I feel.
And then up ahead I see a light through the trees, maybe a house, maybe a road, but it’s something and my heart is singing. I’m grinning like an idiot, feeling like the girl at the end of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre when she gets picked up by the truck, pure relief that I’m going to make it after all.
“Lenore.”
My name.
Coming from in front of me.
I scream, coming to a halt, dirt flying around me and then he appears, stepping out from behind the trees, his silhouette backlit by the far-off light.
How can it be him? How can he be here so fast?
“You have no idea, do you?” he asks me, that voice so smooth and low that I feel it coil around my heart like a snake. “But you will.”
Then he reaches for me, and before I can feel his touch, I crumple to my knees and the whole world goes black.
Chapter Five
A full moon rising over the ocean.
Rustling branches.
A dark forest of cedar and fir.
I’m safe inside a house, a fire burning on the hearth.
Sitting on the floor, on a woolen rug.
I hear hushed voices, panicked voices.
A woman crouches down to my level. A beautiful woman, porcelain skinned, with a sweet smile, eyes filled with tears.
“My baby,” she says to me, her smile shaking. “Remember what we practiced? I need you to hide now.”
I stare at her, not wanting to hide, not wanting her to cry.
I love this woman like I love my own mother.
I try to grab onto her, to hug her, but then she disappears through my fingers like blackened sand.