Ander - Part 2: Subchapter 33
33
"Sarah! You get back here right now!"
Her father's voice, so close, but she didn't dare turn around. She doubted she'd be able to see him anyway, even if he was right behind her. The darkness was so deep.
And why weren't the trees getting any closer? She could see them up ahead whenever lightning tore through the sky, their bare branches beckoning to her like claws, but they were still so far away, despite the burning in her throat and the ache in her lungs and the slickness between her thighs... so far away...
"Sarah!"
She ran on and on in her awkward, shuffling way. Every time the pain became too great, she'd look down at Andrew's face. He was nothing more than a warm shape in this encompassing darkness, but that was more than enough to keep her going. She hugged him to her chest, trying her very best to shield him against the slicing wind.
"Saraaah!!"
If only she could make it to the trees... maybe she could get away...
"Markus!" Was that Mother's voice? It was difficult to tell over the howling gale. "Please, just leave them alone!"
Lightning flashed across the sky, tracing a burning path from the clouds to the tip of the Cora like a beacon. The thunder that came from this strike wasn't a mere rumble, but a resounding crash that seemed to come from every direction at once, reverberating across the valley. And just ahead, bathed in shadows even darker than the night all around them, illuminated for a single moment in the lightning's afterglow... the line of trees that marked the forest's border.
"Sarah!"
She finally made it to the first tree, slipped behind it, and leaned her back against the rough bark to catch her breath, listening for her father's shouts.
With the wind roaring in her ears and shaking through the crimson leaves above, it was next to impossible to tell how close he was. She cautiously peeked around the edge of her hiding place, hoping to catch a glimpse of him in the next lightning flash.
What she saw instead was the warm glow of the building she used to think of as her home, shining through the windows as if to ask her if she had gone mad. Why was she running around outside in the cold and the dark when she could be sitting inside, sipping some warm milk and maybe finishing that deformed scarf she's been working so hard on? She could even see her mother's silhouette by the door, screaming into the night with her hands cupped around her mouth. Oh, how her tired mind wanted to imagine she was calling her back home, but she knew that wasn't the case.
'Home' would never have the same meaning for her ever again, and why?
"Sarah, you filthy little bitch! Where are you!?"
That's why.
The next bolt of lightning flickered inside the clouds, briefly changing their colour from darkest black to deep purple, highlighting every ridge and valley with glowing crescents. It was just enough to shed a moment's light on the ground, sending her father's shadow leaping across the grass, its back hunched over and the arms elongated to monstrous proportions.
He was less than a stone's throw away, coming closer and closer with each passing second, shambling along in his drunken gait, calling out to her.
She couldn't stay here.
Keeping the tree between them, Sarah stumbled into the pitch-blackness of the woods, feeling ahead with the tips of her toes for any evil roots sticking out of the ground. She knew they grew all over this place, and she couldn't even begin to fathom what would happen to the restless little bundle in her arms were she to trip and fall.
"Sarah! If you come out right now, I promise I won't hurt you! Just that little whelp! Please, listen to your father!"
For one crazy second she considered yelling back that he had gone mad, but she held her tongue just in time. Instead of listening to his demented promises, she only listened to the wind rippling her clothes, making the wet patch on her dress feel like a sigil of ice. Leaves and twigs blew into her face, stinging her cheeks, scratching at her eyes, but she simply bowed her head forward and pushed on, against the wind, away from her father.
"Sarah! Answer me, dammit!"
Oh dear gods, he was getting closer. Sarah weaved between the trees, nearly invisible pillars of black shadow, dry leaves crackling underfoot, but still that voice came closer and closer. It dawned on her that she wouldn't be able to outrun him, not as she was now. She'd need to find a hiding place, a _real_one, and quick...
"Sarah! I've had enough of this! I am cold and tired and hungry and by the gods if you don't come out right now there will be hell to pay! Sarah!"
Up ahead, weaving and bending in the wind, were two intertwined oaks, discernable in the darkness only because of their unique shape. Sarah has seen them many times when walking these woods.
"Sarah!"
If the oaks were here, then that must mean that somewhere up ahead, where the ground starts to angle up, nestled between two mossy boulders...
"Sarah, goddammit!"
It wasn't ideal, but it would have to do. She skirted around the oaks, the pain in her belly steadily growing worse and worse. The fact that she might end up dying, literally dying for this cause was starting to creep into her mind, and she was powerless to stop it. Oddly enough, it didn't seem to bother her as much as she would have expected. The fear of something happening to Andrew was far greater than any concern she might have had for herself. She has made some spectacularly stupid decisions over the past few years, but he was innocent in all this. He deserved to live, and if she had to die to give him that, then so be it.
"Sarah, where are you? Come back!"
Now, where was it? With the oaks to her back it should be somewhere around here, but it was so damn dark! She could barely see the trees around her, much less one tiny little -
Lightning flashed across the dark sky as if sent by the gods themselves, clearly illuminating exactly what she was looking for. Just up ahead, in the shadow of two great boulders overgrown with moss: a groove in the rising earth, as if someone had scooped out the side with a giant spoon.
Sarah quickly made for this hollow as thunder rumbled overhead, using the outlines of the boulders as a rough guide in the dark. It couldn't have been more than a dozen paces, but by the time she finally reached it, it felt like she had run for miles.
"Sarah! I have been patient with you up till now, but no more! You hear me!?"
She ducked down without thinking and the pain that shot through her body was like an arrow made of searing coals, burning through her flesh. She would have screamed out loud were it not for the bitter upsurge in her throat, making her choke. She coughed into her open hand and felt fine droplets spatter across her palm.
She was suddenly very grateful for the darkness all around them. Not only was it hiding them from her crazed father, it allowed her to convince herself that what she had just felt on her hand was ordinary spittle and not... no, it was just spittle. That's all it was. And the metallic taste in her throat was from running. She was perfectly fine. She'd better be, for Andrew's sake.
She tried it again, much slower this time, holding her breath. All imaginings of burning daggers and arrows and knives and swords left her mind. What she felt now wasn't anything like that. If felt like the flame itself was slowly pushing its way inside of her, as if it had been made solid and given form; a frozen tongue of fire.
She couldn't hold it in any longer. She moaned in pain, the bitter taste of iron coating her mouth.
"Sarah?"
Oh no, did he hear that!?
Forsaking the pain, Sarah bent down as much as she could and squeezed into the hollow. The top of her head scraped against the earthen roof, pulling her hood down and causing a small cascade of sand and dust. She tried her best to shield Andrew from this avalanche while clumps of tree roots grabbed at her hair and stung her face. Her nose bumped against a solid wall of dirt much too soon for her own liking. By her Living Soul, her tail was still outside! Did she really think this would work? This wasn't sanctuary, it was just a little divot in the ground!
"Sarah! You here?"
Even though it pained her immensely, she sat down with her back against the wall, brought her knees up to her chest and curled her tail around her ankles, hoping to the gods that no part of her was exposed.
She could feel a fresh wetness leak out between her legs, making her feel lightheaded. She's never been in so much pain, not even at the height of Andrew's birth. Even though her body screamed for air, she was barely capable of breathing, and what little breath she could take carried the scent of the damp earth all around her. Roots poked at her back and scratched at her neck like gnarled fingers. At least she was out of the wind. There was that to be grateful for, at least.
The opening to her little groove suddenly lit up like a white eye, revealing the base of the twin oaks she had passed just a minute ago.
And the legs of her father.
Sarah was unable to keep from gasping out loud, but thankfully the sound was drowned out by the rumbling thunder overhead.
Every natural instinct told her to abandon this little niche and run, but the calmer, more rational part of her mind insisted on staying put.
She only saw him for a second, and only from the knees down, but that was all the information she needed. His toes were pointing not towards her little hiding place, but towards the oaks. That meant he can't have seen her.
But what if he already knows you're in here?
That's impossible. Father was a farmer, not a hunter or a tracker. There's no way he could possibly -
Lightning streaked across the sky yet again, illuminating something in its momentary flash Sarah had not noticed until now.
From her hiding place, stretching off into the direction from whence she came, evenly spaced out among the dead leaves on the forest floor...
The crimson trail of her blood.
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