Chapter 19
AVERY’S POV:
51%
+5
I don’t know how long I was out. Time slipped away like sand through my fingers, but the overwhelming heat jolted me back to consciousness. My body burned. No, it wasn’t just hot–it felt like the very air around me had ignited, biting in on my skin with the fury of a flame.
I blinked, fighting against the blur clouding my vision. Something burned, and something was on fire. The haze of flames flickered in my peripheral vision, but the world around me was still swimming, out of focus. I groaned, my throat raw as if I’d screamed for hours, but my lips barely moved. I tried to focus again, blinking rapidly, forcing my eyes to steady themselves.
I felt the pain. My head was pounding, my nose was bleeding, and when I tried to move, I felt the jagged pull of my body against the restraints. I could taste the copper of my own blood. I was strapped into the car–no, hung upside down. My vision threatened to slip away again as I tried to gather the strength to act.
reached for the seatbelt, my fingers trembling as I struggled to unclip it. The metal pinched my skin as it came loose, and with a strained grunt, I shoved the seatbelt away. My body dropped, and my head crashed hard against what should’ve been the roof of the car, now the floor. I hissed as a wave of pain surged through me, every inch of my body screaming from the sudden impact.
My legs felt like rubber as I tried to move, pushing myself up from the twisted wreckage. My arms were weak, but I dragged myself through the wreck, crawling over the body of the shorter man who had been in the car with me. I winced as my knees scraped against the glass, but I had to get out.
move. I had to
The window, now shattered, was my only way out. I could barely keep myself steady as I crawled toward it, feeling the jagged edges of the glass scrape at my skin. The rush of cold night air was a relief, but it did little to stop the tremors that wracked my body. It was as if everything had just been through was finally catching up with me again, and I couldn’t keep my body from shaking,
WY
I slipped out of the car with one final push, rolling onto the ground outside. I gasped, the air feeling like ice against my burned skin, but the burning from the car was still too close. Nooked back toward the wreckage. Flames were licking the edges of the car now, sparking and crackling like the very world was about to collapse into fire.
I could see the officers–fake officers–still inside the car. They weren’t moving. No matter how much I called out to them, there was no response.
“Hey, wake up!” I screamed, though it was barely more than a rasp. My throat felt scratched, the words barely escaping.
I tried again. “Wake up!”
But there was no response. Only the relentless crackling of the fire and the increasing heat that now felt like it was boiling the surrounding air.
I felt it then. The terrible, gut–wrenching sense of dread crept up my spine, taking root in before the fire reached the fuel tank. I had to get them out.
my
chest. The car would explode. It was only a matter of time
My bady was screaming in protest, but I couldn’t leave them there. I
I crawled back toward the wreck, despite every part of me begging
every part couldn’t–I wouldn’t–be responsible for their deaths.
me
to
stay
away
The shorter man was heavy. His body felt like a dead weight, and I struggled with
to get him out, feeling every inch of my body aching with the effort. My arms were weak, bloodied from the glass, and from the injuries I hadn’t even fully noticed until now
him, pulling
nd dragging him through the window. I barely managed
I tried to find their pulses, but when I touched their necks, there was nothing. No faint thrum of life. No warmth of a heartbeat.
Both of them were dead.
F
I collapsed backwards, my knees hitting the hard ground as my body gave way. The horror of it washed over me in waves, and my mind reeled. I just killed two people.
I dragged both of them a little farther from the car.
uld barely
he, the effort so great that each gasp for air felt like fire in my chest. My hands were slick with their blood, my fingers shaking as I let go of them. I staggered back a few steps, panting heavily.
1/2
Chapter 19
+5
Tears flooded my eyes, blurring my vision as I sobbed uncontrollably. I wanted to run. I wanted to scream. I wanted to–I had to leave. I hadn’t meant to do this. I hadn’t meant to kill anyone. But here I was, surrounded by the bodies of two men, their blood soaking into the earth beneath me.
I explosion hit like a thundercla
While I was lost in my own tears, a loud
The sound of the blast deafened me, and even though I was far away, the brightness of it was overwhelming. My hands shot up to shield my eyes from the intensity of the light, but even with my palm pressed against my fáce, the blinding white was too much. The force of the explosion shook the ground beneath me, sending a shockwave that rattled my bones and made the air smell like smoke and metal.
When the light finally faded, I was left trembling, every part of me on fire from the blast. I could feel the heat on my skin, even though I was no longer close to the car.
My heart was hammering, my body a patchwork of bruises, cuts, and blood, but I didn’t have time to think about that. I had to move. I couldn’t stay here. Not with the fire and the wreckage, and not with what I’d just done.
I pushed myself up, wincing as a sharp pain shot through my leg as my leg wobbled beneath me. I tested my weight, and a dull ache confirmed that I’d twisted my ankle. Gritting my teeth against the agony, I began to limp away from the wreckage. The dense woods seemed to close in around me like a dark, eerie shroud. The wreckage was a twisted, smoldering mess behind me, and I knew I had to keep moving
The woods around me were dark, too dark and foreboding, but I limped on, driven by a growing sense of unease. The trees loomed like shadowy giants, their branches whispering in the wind as if they were watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake. I stumbled through them, the sharp edges of twigs and branches tearing at my skin, leaving deeper cuts that burned with every step.
The noises of the night were unsettling, too loud, too close. I heard the snap of twigs and the rustle of leaves. My heart raced as animal sounds echoed through the woods, their growls and screeches too aggressive, too close for comfort My mind was numb; each step felt like I was losing myself more and more to the darkness, to the unknown.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been walking, but I knew I was lost. The trees seemed endless, the path in front of me dark and unfathomable. I was alone. Alone, and at the mercy of whatever hunted in these woods.
As I staggered deeper into the night, my body bruised, my clothes torn, I couldn’t help but wonder: Why did Axel want to capture me so badly? What would he do to me once he found me? Of what significance was I?
Would he stop at nothing to drag me back into his world? To break me down piece by piece until I was nothing? Would he make me pay for what Lhad done?
Damn!
Maybe I should’ve stayed behind bars. The prison was a hellhole, but at least it was peaceful, and life was predictable. Out here, chaos reigned.
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