7
Ness
The darkness seemed impenetrable tonight.I had no idea which direction I was running. I’d turned to cut through someone’s lawn, but in doing so, I’d strayed too far away from the streetlights. My vision didn’t want to adjust.
The sound of footsteps wasn’t far behind me. Harvey howled again to remind me that he was toying with me. The sound came from my left, then to my right. He could easily overtake me while I ran on two feet. He hadn’t yet because he wanted me to suffer.
I grunted, annoyed. There was no way that Harvey could have known that I’d end up alone. He could have struck a deal with Beryl to make sure that Ryder wasn’t around tonight, but I doubted it. Beryl wasn’t one to play petty games like Harvey. Beryl was older than this country. Maybe she would use Harvey as a tool, but she wouldn’t give him exactly what he wanted.
Would she?
Now wasn’t the time for questions. I had to survive. I could run forever. I was good at it. Alvin and his son had trained me. Right as I thought this, I stepped down onto a piece of glass. It slid into my skin without hesitation. I cried out in pain.
Stopping wasn’t an option, but the next few steps sent searing pain up my leg. I whimpered and tried to lift my foot mid-run so I could pull the glass out. It was in so deep that I couldn’t get ahold of it.
Harvey growled nearby. I fumbled and had to put my foot down. The pain shooting up my leg made me hiss. I dropped to my knees, palms slapping the sidewalk. Tiny shards of glass pierced my hands. Grimacing, I lifted my head to search for Harvey.
My eyes had adjusted, but the lights were dim here. Even though I’d made it back to a road, the streetlights here were nearly all broken. Only one flickered a couple hundred feet down the road.
If I shifted now, would it push the glass out of my paw? Or would I simply give Harvey an opportunity to attack? I wasn’t even sure if I was back in Lakesedge yet. If I shifted outside of the supernatural neighborhood, then Alvin would have a reason to punish me for sure.
That was, if I survived tonight.
I wondered if Alvin would punish his son for killing me. Up until now, Alvin had let Harvey get away with all kinds of atrocities. I suspected that Harvey liked to hurt some of the other female shifters behind closed doors, but there was no way that I could prove something like that unless I put myself in that position.
Considering how Harvey was hunting me tonight, I doubted I’d live long enough to find out.
But, if Harvey killed me and gave the pack a reason to work together, then Alvin might punish him just to keep the pack complacent. It was a bittersweet idea, one that I didn’t really want to happen because I wanted to live.
Tired and hurting, I rolled over and sat in the narrow strip of nearby grass. Harvey didn’t leap on me immediately, so I took the time to dig my fingers into the gash in my heel. The pain made me shudder. My breath rushed out of me, but I finally grasped the shard.
Pulling it out hurt more than it had going in. By the time I dropped the bloodied shard onto the sidewalk, my chest heaved. Now would have been the best time to attack, but there was still no sign of Harvey.
“You like the chase, don’t you?” I asked the dark around me.
Scanning the shadows revealed nothing. Had Harvey gotten bored? I refused to believe that he’d wanted nothing more than to scare me. He was waiting somewhere. He had to be.
Adrenaline still hummed through my body. It dulled the pain in my foot. I pulled the sock off, turned it inside out, and wrapped it around my bleeding wound. The sock bandage was tight, but I hoped that the wound would heal soon. Ryder had made sure that I’d eaten enough earlier.
So, I stood and made sure to keep my weight off my wounded foot. “Well? Are you going to fight me?”
I wiped my hands together with the hopes that some of the little glass shards would fall out while I cursed whoever had shattered a bottle here. Why were people like that?
Since this was Syracuse, I scanned the nearby homes. The front lawns were littered with things the homeowners hadn’t bothered to put away, such as tools. I eyed a sledgehammer and my heart flipped in my chest. If I could get to it, then I would have the upper hand against Harvey.
I just had to grab it first. Taking a tentative step forward, I stayed alert for the sound of claws or footfalls. It made me tense, my gait turning stiff. I tried to loosen up, but fear closed cold fingers around my spine.
The sledgehammer was only a few feet away. In a couple of steps, I would be able to grab ahold of it.
Try me, Harvey. I dare you.
I heard him rushing toward me. I threw myself forward, pain be damned, and grabbed the hammer. It refused to rise from the ground. I tugged, my back straining. Harvey’s scent filled the air the moment before his hot breath reached the back of my neck.
I threw myself out of the way once more. Harvey hit the hammer’s upright handle. That was when I realized that the hammer had been left out because it was stuck in the concrete walkway. Someone must have accidentally left it out while the walkway was being poured.
I scrambled backwards and leapt back onto my feet despite the pain throbbing in the heel of my foot. Had I ripped the gash open? There wasn’t time to check. I had to keep running. Harvey snarled and bounded after me.
Once I looked ahead, I saw a silhouette. It startled me. I backpedaled until I remembered Harvey behind me. With nowhere to go, I lurched to the left and started running towards a gap between two houses again.