Chương 17: Towards Her Freedom

At first, she thought that she was imagining. Against the darkness of the night, with soft flurries of snow falling over it, the stag looked ethereal. The stag blinked his eyes and met her stare. For a moment, she took in its fathomless gaze across the fence, made mesmerizing by the soft glow of the yellow light of the porch. Something softened in her heart and her shoulders, which were so tense, relaxed and her hands dropped to her side. A smile bloomed on her lips as she watched the stag across the space between them.

The stag moved a step back and then all of a sudden, turned and dashed into the night. Elize jerked her head back as a ragged breath left her. Perhaps the beast was afraid of her… of the fangs that must have revealed. Or it must have sensed that she was a vampire. A blood sucking leech, and abhorrent creature who refused to be the part of the Lore. Chest heavy, she didn't bother to look back at the place the stag was standing when she walked inside the cabin. There was too much to think about. There was too much to do.

As she closed the door behind her, Elize wondered that even if she couldn't get out of the Fulshire forest, wasn't Arawn bothered that she would venture out in the forest and might find her way out, or was he hardly bothered that she could go anywhere for all he cared, or he was too sure that she would never get out. What kind of captivity was this? She was free but not free. She shook her head and then went back to her room. If Arawn thought the she was going to stay in the cabin, then he underestimated her. Arawn—the centaur, the keeper of the Fulshire forest didn't know who he was dealing with. Caleb was supposed to return in two weeks and by then she would be back in her apartment, collecting things and then she would simply vanish. He would never be able to find her. She wanted to get lost in the world to the extent that she didn't want to find herself.

Determination set in her heart and Elize started looking for a satchel in which she could pack a few things. She had to get out of this place but to tackle the wilderness, she needed a few more things. The most important of it were some clean shirts and trousers and definitely knives. She changed into a black shirt and a pair of jeans, which surprisingly fitted her and then packed things in a satchel she had found in the kitchen below. She even packed all the knives she could get hold of. Elize wore an oversized sweater, which seemed to engulf her entirely. She folded its sleeves and tucked it inside her. Then she picked up the shawl she had thrown on the bed and wrapped it around her. In the cold, she needed to stay warm and that could be done only with layers of clothing. A pair of weathered leather boots were lying in the corner of her closet. As she wore them, she couldn't help thinking that these people must have thought about the whole kidnapping plan. That is why all the things that she found in the cabin were her size or only for her taste. They must have thought it too meticulously because even the fridge was stacked with blood.

With renewed energy, she jumped to her feet, tied her hair in a messy bun and strapped her satchel across her shoulders. She was going to escape now. As if the word added extra spring to her feet, Elize bounced all the way down and then to the front door. "Bye bye, Caleb!" she said and opened the door with a chuckle. "I am coming wor—" her mouth snapped shut when instead of the balcony, she found herself looking into a totally different place. It looked like a backyard. "What the hell?" she whipped her head to the right and then to the left to see if she was hallucinating. She stepped forward to explore the place. There were high wooden fences and right across them were the dark shadows of the trees. A mixture of disbelief and confusion set in her mind. She darted towards the right to see if there was a gate somewhere, but there wasn't. She went to the left side, but there was not a single exit. There was a small pile of logs over which a thin layer of snow had fallen and near which an axe was lying.

Irritation spiked like the fizz from a freshly opened bottle of soda. Surely her mind was playing tricks. She stomped back in the cabin, walked right across it to the back door, and opened it. However, to her utter shock, she found the same backyard there too. "Gods!" she rasped. She was not able to understand the trickery. For a moment, she stood at the edge of the door. Then she rolled her sleeves up. "If you are going to use your magic Arawn, I am going to destroy those walls!" She headed left to where she saw the axe.

It barely took five minutes of Elize to cut the fence and get out of this place. With a hearty laugh at her success, Elize threw the axe and said, "You are truly foolish, Arawn!" Being a vampire came with consequences. She was physically stronger than before.

She walked into the forest, a whistle playing on her lips. Why was it that she hadn't felt this good in a long time? Elize didn't run into the wilderness, she walked and she walked lazily. Since she could only traverse during night, she had to take full advantage of it. Yes, she was afraid of the wild beasts, but she was not going to stay captive. She started walking, soft snow crunching under her boot, towards her freedom. The forest in front of her was silent and dark. She noticed a small frozen lake with an overhead canopy thirty minutes later. A smile crossed her lips. This place was out-worldly. She would have enjoyed it if she wasn't on a mission.

Several hours later when Elize came across the same lake four times in a row, she stopped, aghast, shock surging through her. Was she going round in circles or was the scenery repeating itself? Or were there more than one such lake? Heart thudding heavily, Elize once more walked away from the lake, but found herself standing in front of it all over again an hour later. It was nearing dawn and she hadn't made any progress. She had to find a dark place. Tired and frustrated as hell, Elize screamed loudly. "Aaaaaaaa! I hate you Caleb!"

SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO
MishaK

Thank you for reading the book. I promise a lot of action and adventure and of course a lot of Caleb and Elize! If you like the book, add it to your library so that when a chapter is released, you get a notif.

bình luận bình luận của 15

Bình chọn

GỬI QUÀ TẶNG

Load failed, please RETRY