Lex
“Ready or not,rabbit, here I come,” I whisper. I take off the way she went. I calculate the moves I know she’ll make. I’m not just a hunter, I’m also a tracker. Stealthy and smart.
I pick up my pace and follow her. It’s so fucking dark. I don’t see traces of her until they’re directly in front of me. When the tall grass sinks, ending abruptly, I know she took a right turn that shoved her heels into that very spot. What a stupid game to play. All because she called me what I am.
No, it’s because of her smart-ass mouth. It’s because of her defiant fucking behavior. If she wants to be a child about everything, I’ll make her play hide and seek. I haven’t decided what I’ll do to her once I catch her. Because I will catch her. I’ll make the choice the moment she’s in my grasp.
Will I please her or hurt her?
A sharp pain races across my thigh, and I bite back the urge to scream out. I look down and run my hand along a barbed wire fence. A twisted point of connection is the cause of my injury. It tore a nice slit in my jeans and brought warm blood to the surface. A piece of fabric blows in the breeze, attached to another sharp piece of fencing ahead of me. I pick it off the wire and lift it to my nose. It smells like her, mixed with the metallic scent of her blood.
She’s hurt.
My eyes scan the tree line, and I spot the faintest clearing of brush ahead. I run along the fence. If it connects to an adjacent paddock, I’ll see it before I run into it.
“Rabbit?” I call out as I reach the cleared section. She went in there. I can feel it in my bones. My heartbeat throbs in my cock as the chase gives me a rush of adrenaline I haven’t felt since I was younger.
When I became a murderer.
To be clear, I didn’t get hard from the killings, but they released all these good hormones that made me wonder why more people didn’t kill those they hated. It’s the ultimate release. Like an orgasm for my brain. I’m hard now because my body anticipates the moment I’ll get my hands on her.
As I barrel through the brush, I knock back branches and make my way through the dark, silent forest. The old me burns beneath my skin. Dark thoughts creep from the deepest recesses of my mind to argue with me. Images of what I’ll do once I catch her swirl through my thoughts.
I want to fuck her one last time.
Lexington tells me that our backs are against the wall. I have to get rid of her because she’ll never just leave. My thoughts weave through the evil ones. It would be better for her if I just...ended it. Quick and painless. For her, not for me. It will gut me and fracture the illusion of happiness I’ve had since I met her. Well, since I took her.
But can I do it?
I’ll figure that out once I catch her.
Branches rustle. It’s disorienting and difficult to tell which direction the sound came from. I leave it up to my instinct, which drags me to the left. In the following silence, I wonder if the sound was just an animal after all. Maybe even a real rabbit. But it happens again, louder and closer, with footfalls behind it. It’s a rabbit, alright.
Mine.
The toe of my shoe catches beneath a root and sends me forward, my palms landing on a rock. Her footsteps will be quieter on the rocks than on the forest floor littered with brittle twigs and dried leaves. I smirk and look up. The wall of stone nearly blends with the darkness.
“Very wise, little rabbit,” I call to the top. As I climb, I realize her smaller stature has given her the advantage here.
Prey 1, Predator 0.
I slide down the rock, scraping my hands into a bloody mess on my way down. “Fuck,” I growl.
I follow the wall of rocks, trying to find an easier way up. Just as I expect, there’s a trail of mud and pine needles that, as steep as it is, is cake in comparison. I know that sneaky little rabbit is up there, hiding and hoping I don’t find her.
Or maybe she hopes I will.
If so, that’s not very wise on her part because I have no idea whether I’ll devour her, kill her, or release her unscathed.
Ignoring the pain in my hands and the blood dripping down my leg, I reach the top and scan the new landscape. It’s less dense than the forest floor, lacking massive trees on all sides of me. A scraping sound draws my attention to the lower rock wall. Selena slides down the last bit of scree and hops to the forest floor once more.
Sneaky fucking rabbit.
Prey 2, Predator 0.
I’m proud of her because she’s showing her true wit and strength. She isn’t just acompliantwoman. She isn’t just a prim and proper girl in a fancy fucking car. She’s keen and willful. She’s someone who can get dirty and outrun me. She doesn’t seem so weak and vulnerable now. Prey can’t survive by being weak. They survive on their cunning.
I dig my fingers into my waistband. As frustrated as I am, I make my way back down the cliff, sliding every few steps along the muddy path. I follow her footprints, neither of us running any longer. We depend on our wits, not speed.