Surrendered To The Lord Of Sin-Chapter 32: Hunted in the woods II

Something snapped behind her, but Lucrezia ignored it, propelling farther and farther into the forest. For all she knew, she would not die today.

The motivation burned deep in her tongue as her heart pounded in her chest, matching the echo of her own footsteps. She didn’t care if she stumbled or if her skirt was torn or if her hair was disarranged. She rose to her feet, ripped it loose, and went on, the chill beneath her feet hurting her but not stopping her.

As she continued pacing into the cold and empty forest, it was just the sounds of her ragged breaths that proved the eeriness and absolute silence around her. But that silence felt unsettling. It felt... wrong.

With her heart whizzing, she bypassed woodland trails, avoided immense snowy paths that left her footprints and obscured her scent as much as possible. These weren’t any other creatures she’d seen or heard of. They were more powerful, manipulative, cunning, and wise. All those nightmares were enough proof of that analysis. But she knew in her heart, it wouldn’t be good enough. He’ll find you.

Her heart sank.

It made her recall the memory of being chased into the woods only to run back to them. The thought left a cold chill in her bones, traumatized by the idea of returning.

Her body begged to stop and let the inevitable happen. To stop punishing herself for no purpose. Her mind howled in frustration as lactic acid burned in her limbs.

It won’t work. Give up. Go on, just... stop.

Lucrezia shook her head, driving herself harder.

Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she bit down on her lips to prevent the sob from escaping. Crying won’t help, and sure would lead him towards her.

He’ll catch you, the thought washed over her mind like cold water. You’re all alone. And still, she disregarded that procrastination.

It wasn’t a matter of if, but when. She could run for years, and he would still find her. How did she know? She didn’t trust the silence, the empty forest promising solace nor the idea of being safe. Plus her nightmares always ended the same way - as she was always killed.

For almost half an hour, Lucrezia ran deep into the forest. The longer she propelled, the clearer it became that she was chasing after herself. She didn’t believe he’d let her get away so easily. Everything about him was a carefully scripted lie, and she wasn’t going to mistake the silence for safety.

She did not doubt that if he didn’t find her, something else would - a snare, a trap - something just waiting to ambush its prey.

Every footfall she tensed, waiting for death - wondering if that last step would trigger a net or an arrow to her heart.

Stop running.

Just... stop, Lucrezia.

Her breathless inner voice was tired and hungry and completely worn out. Her muscles cramped and her mind seized with too many questions.

Worse, it was winter, and she had to combat the cold on top of everything else. It was painful, yet she pushed through with her pulse skittering in desperation. Her skin glistened with sweat from exercising so hard, yet her body froze from the chill the weather brought.

But she hated the sudden defeat in her soul - the rapidly spilling courage and hope. A part of her knew deep within her soul that she would never be able to win, and the memory of her mother, Corvina, struck her nerves. Lucrezia felt tears burn the back of her eyes, and she let them spill across her porcelain skin. The only way she had a chance at surviving long enough to save her mother was to fight this ice with fire. However, that fire gradually dimmed the longer she pressed into the forest.

For a while, she ran, until her body was forced to stop in its tracks, and she skidded to a stop. Lucrezia gasped in fat air in an attempt to stabilize the rapid rate of her heartbeat and catch her breath. She cast a glance behind, and for the first time, Lucrezia noticed how empty the woods were. There was no trace of him, nor the shadow that someone existed.

It was tempting to believe she’d lost track of him. When she gathered enough breath, Lucrezia peered through the trees, wondering which alley to run into. None of it seemed like the familiar route they emerged from, and her chest weighed at the impossibility of ever making it out of this labyrinth.

Just when the silence felt less uncertain, something fractured behind, earning her attention in its direction. Before Lucrezia could react, an unseen force hurled her off the ground and flung her through the air.

She slammed into the trunk of a massive tree, sending a spray of snow cascading to the forest floor.

"AH!" A raw, guttural scream tore from her throat, echoing so fiercely it rattled the trees as the blow hit her, knocking her flat to the ground. Pain erupted through her body, ringing through the silent woods, but she bit down hard on her lips to keep any sound from escaping. The impact left her breathless with her vision blurring at the edges as a sharp ache radiated from her ribs.

Every inhale scraped like shattered glass, and her limbs trembled uncontrollably as she tried to push herself upright. But the misery was more alarming than when her body slammed into the tree behind, and she hissed painfully.

Cold seeped through her clothes and into her bones, making the throbbing in her muscles even worse. For a moment she feared she wouldn’t be able to stand at all as her legs felt foreign, numb, as though they no longer belonged to her.

Her fingertips dug into the snow as she struggled to steady herself with each movement sending fresh shockwaves of agony up her spine. A low, strangled sound clawed at her throat, but she forced it down, clenching her jaw tight.

The forest around her remained still and indifferent along with that silence almost mocking her helplessness. Lucrezia dragged in another painful breath, gathering what strength she could. Even through the haze of pain, she knew she had to move - because whatever had thrown her wasn’t finished.

As if being heard, the force hit her a second time in a swift yet brutal manner and drove her backward into the tree with unrelenting strength. Her back dragged down the length of the trunk, its bark scraping and burning through her clothes as gravity pulled her weight along its rough surface.

It was sharp and merciless, and by the time Lucrezia reached above, a ragged cry tore free from her lips. The sting at her spine blazed hot enough to steal her breath, and she gasped, a tear slipping down her cheek.

She blinked hard, fighting to steady the world long enough to understand what was coming. Right on cue, her vision - swam as its edges bled into a haze of motion - caught the sight of a silhouette stepping into focus, and her heart sank.

H-He... he found her.

The brown-haired man moved toward her with measured and predatory certainty. His approach was deliberate, as though savoring every staggered breath she struggled to draw. And worse, he wasn’t alone.

From behind him, the air seemed to ripple as something twisted, deepened, and then split open like a darkened veil. One by one, forms stepped out of the darkened fold, emerging in silent sequence, as if the world itself had cracked open to release them in his image. Their presence was heavy enough to swallow what little light the forest still held as they gathered around him like a summoned host.

Lucrezia stopped breathing.

Her heart started beating, thrumming wild against her ribs as she watched more and more emerge from the darkened portal like they’d been convened. Everything mirrored her nightmares and the feeling she endured. The terror. The shock. The fear. The pain...

Her eyes burned with unshed tears and she tried to move her feet. But her whole body felt trapped and controlled by someone else, just like her dreams.

At that proximity, Lucrezia’s eyes followed the movement, noticing something as they materialized. The ground wasn’t just covered in snow but markings that seemed utterly bizarre yet ancient, and realization dawned upon her. Not only was it planned, but they seemed to have been waiting.

The thought burned at the back of her mind with a clear, terrifying certainty. It was all intentional, and they have patiently been waiting for the right moment she could lure them here.

Lucrezia’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. Starting from the accident, to the beast, everything had been schemed against her knowledge. Everything was about her.

The weight of that revelation propelled against her shoulder, shattering her heart into a million pieces. She was going to die... gods, she was...

The more figures emerged from that unending portal, the more it confined her thoughts. As if that wasn’t enough, the unknown force tightened around her body, shifting her weight away from the bark of the massive tree to the air towards the circle where they gathered. Her limbs dangled helplessly, trembling from pain and cold. Every muscle in her back groaned from being dragged in the air and every breath scraped like broken glass, but the realization they’d come for her was greater than any physical pain.

The force suspended her high above the ground, holding her in place like an offering. Below her, they stood perfectly still, as if carved from night itself. Even without their horses - more like monsters - it didn’t lessen the darkness emanating from them, suffocating every fiber of her being.

Lucrezia’s pulse hammered at her throat.

Before she could process anything else, something at his feet elongated, snaking upward, coiling around her wrists and ankles. They were frigid, yet they burned like frostbite, biting into her skin with agonizing precision.

Lucrezia choked on a cry as her whole body convulsed. The pain was white-hot, sharp enough to swallow her vision as her heart stuttered and her breath broke.

It hurt - gods, it hurt so much she thought she might splinter apart.

The brown-haired finally took one measured step forward, but Lucrezia was too blinded by pain to notice. "Let it in," she barely heard him say.

Another tendril of it lashed across her abdomen searing her skin like ice pressed to a fresh wound. Pain detonated through her torso, tearing a sob from her throat and she squeezed her eyes shut.

Stop. Please stop. Please-

It constricted in a violent pulse, adamant to the desperate plea in her body, and the cry in her heart. It writhed inside of her, causing every bone and muscles trembling with shockwaves. And through that pain, Lucrezia felt a surge of power ripple from the depths of her soul to her entire body.