Chapter 1
I woke to harsh light burning my eyes from a slither of sunlight peeking between my curtains. I glared in that direction with one hand raised to flip off the offending fabric. Plopping my head back into my pillow, I sighed. God, what an awful dream. I did a mental evaluation of my body as the memory of pain pulled my face into a grimace. It was just so...real.
With a groan, I finally pushed my upper half up onto my elbows and twisted my body to sit up properly. I was half sure my body would collapse back on the bed if it wasn’t for the quiet tapping that snatched my attention. “Huh?” I half murmured.
“Renna?” A soft voice called out. My eyebrows furrowed, and I looked to my right, where the voice came from. A room I’ve never seen before greeted me. It was boringly plain and gloomy. Dark wood and muted greys were everywhere the eye could see.
“Um, Renna? Are you up?” I ignored the voice and glanced around. Where exactly was I? My mind wandered back to my dream. This wasn’t a hospital room. I was sure of it. The room was bare aside from the twin-sized bed I occupied and a small chest at the foot of its frame. There was a small window to my left, partially covered by a thick gray blanket thrown over a sturdy stick to act like a curtain. I stared at it in confusion.
“Renna?” The voice came out shaky. “I’m coming in.” I didn’t have the chance to answer before a woman was slowly creaking the door to my right open and letting light come pouring over me from the other room.
“Oh my!” She fumbled closer as if surprised. “You’re actually awake!” I took in the woman in front of me. She was painfully pretty. Her blonde hair fell to her waist in soft waves, and her eyes were big and brown like a baby doe. A flowy green gown flattered her natural curves and brought out the golden tint in her hair. The gown really threw me off. It was a square neckline with billowing sleeves. Something flickered in my memory at the thought of the style.
“Renna? Hello?” She waved her hand in my face, and I stared at it, too, for a moment before finally speaking.
“Do you know me?” That brought forth a giggle from the woman. It was a delicate, bubbly sound.
“Of course, silly. I’m Elira.” She paused and said with hesitation this time, “Remember?”
“No.” I deadpanned. The girl was pretty, but I wasn’t going to coddle whatever freaky fantasy friendship thing she had going on over there. “Can you go? I think I’m having an existential crisis, and I’d prefer to have it alone.”
She blinked owlishly at me. “What?”
I slowly and quickly shooed at her with my right hand. “Go away.” I insisted.
“Uh...Renna?” She took half a step back, but still faced me with an offended look on her face. “I’m going to go fetch a doctor, alright? You-” She cut her eyes to the door. “You stay here and rest, okay?” She practically dove out the door and slammed it shut. I heard a faint click of a lock sliding into place.
“Oh dear, sweet, baby-face Jesus, who is this psycho?” I whispered to myself, completely shocked. My eyes widen. Dear God, I must’ve been kidnapped. “Well, that’s her problem. She should do more research on the people she kidnaps. I’ve never been known for making things easy.” I tutted underneath my breath.
Yanking the blankets off, I stood from the bed with confidence. I was dressed in a long off-white nightgown with what looked like hand-knit wool socks. I wiggled my toes in delight as I took in how soft they were.
I didn’t waste time checking for pins in my hair to pick the lock on the door, but cursed and blew hair out of my face in frustration when I realized I didn’t have any. Usually, I kept two or three against my scalp in the back of my hair for emergencies. Maybe she did her research after all. Instead, I yanked the thick blanket off the stick above the window, almost blinding myself in the process, and wrapped it over my right elbow. I hit the window with all I had, but it didn’t do much more than splinter. I cursed again. It took four hard hits, and finally, just running across the room with a war cry to break it open.
With sweat dripping from my brow, I unraveled the blanket and rewrapped it around my hand to clear out the lingering shards of glass sticking out in the frame. I hummed in satisfaction before tossing the blanket out the window so I wouldn’t step directly on the glass. When I was halfway through, the door on the other side of the room slammed open. A tall, dark, and honestly handsome man stood in the doorframe with one hand directly on the door holding it open, and the other holding an upside-down wilting mess of wildflowers. His eyes were wide in shock and fastly fading anger as his eyes sprang around the room before finally landing on me.
I shot him a mock salute before dropping to the other side and taking off in a dead sprint. I wasn’t about to be caught up with another psycho kidnapper. Even if they were downright ridiculously good-looking.
“H-Hey! Stop!” I snickered to myself. Did he really think that would work?
I didn’t stop running even though I didn’t hear the man giving chase. I kept my pace light and purposeful to flat rocks and logs to help cover any tracks. My pace didn’t hold up as long as it should, though. I was exhausted and hungry before the sun started to change to high noon. Thinking back, it was already late morning when I smashed open the window. I definitely didn’t run far enough.
I slowed my steps and stood in the middle of an otherwise quiet forest. It took a second to sink in that it was indeed too quiet. Something big was coming my way. I cursed under my breath, realizing I didn’t change directions.
As slowly as I could, I started climbing the tree closest to me. It wasn’t big, but I was small enough to make it up at least ten feet off the ground. The leaves provided just enough cover that I could comfortably sit along a trunk close to the base. I didn’t even bother holding the base and just rested my hands along my thighs, keeping my movements to a minimum. I wouldn’t be found unless they were actively looking up into the trees.
Like a tiger waiting for their prey, I watched the man from earlier come dashing by. He was nearly silent, but with the way he was crashing through, anyone would find him. A long cloak whipped behind him and was snagging on small branches left and right, only slowing him down. I silently shook my head. How irresponsible.
As soon as I was about to climb down, the man came crashing back into view. His eyes were dark, and a muscle was clearly ticking in his forehead as he whipped his head in all directions. He was grunting and heaving like a horse now. He stomped around near the base of my tree before bringing his arms to his chest and crossing them. I felt the corner of my mouth quirk in amusement.
He stood there for a good couple of minutes, yanking at his cloak and punching the air. Eventually, he leaned against the base of my tree and tried to get his breathing under control. Like a golden opportunity, I let my body fall backwards and kept my legs around the branch. He froze, and his eyes shot up to me. Our faces were inches from each other as he stood under the tree, and I dangled from above. My ginger hair fell around him like a curtain, and it was like time itself froze in surprise.
His eyes were dark brown. For a while, he didn’t blink- didn’t even breathe. Of course, before he finally came to his senses, I reached down and grabbed his shoulders. I let myself fall and used my arms to propel myself off of him and twisted mid-air to land wobbly on my feet. I could hear him slamming into the ground with a thud and a groan of air. I turned just enough to throw a teasing wink his way before taking off in another direction.
The roar of anger behind me was music to my ears.
