A Place In The Universe ((Book 2 in the Almost the Heir Series))

Chapter One: A Stressful Reunion

Snap. Snap. Snap.

The time for being careful was definitely not now. Dagger in hand, she ran through the wooded area, chasing after her prey.

'Who's running through the woods?' you ask? Well, she wasn't quite sure herself. All she knew was that she woke up in a muddy field one day, unable to remember anything. All she knew was that she had to follow her human instinct to eat, sleep, and survive. So that's what she did.

That's why she ended up chasing a deer through the woods. Her bare feet bled a little as she tore across rocks and twigs, her tangled mess of brown hair flying out behind her as she did so. But she didn't care; she was used to it by now. So she kept running. She ran, and she ran, and she ran, until she came to the edge of the woods.

She stopped at the edge of the treeline, letting the deer escape. Beyond the edge of the woods, lay an open corn field. To be more specific, the cornfield she had first woken up in. She didn't like being out in the open, so naturally, she avoided it as much as possible.

As the girl stood there, leaning against a tree, it happened. A dark shape took up most of the visible sky. It looked dangerous, and yet, she didn't run. Exactly why, she wasn't quite sure. The thing seemed almost... familiar... but no, that couldn't be, right?

The dark shape came lower and lower until it reached the ground and settled in the corn stalks, indefinitely killing them. That was when the terror set in.

In a mess of hair and limbs, the girl took off running. She ducked and jumped and dodged until she managed to trip and fall into a ditch. With the sound of pounding footsteps growing too close for comfort, she flattened herself to the dirt and silently crawled over to a bush and curled up beneath it. She lay there, barely daring to breathe.

"Are you sure she'd be here? This seems awfully remote..."

"Banner said that this was the last place she could be traced to. Besides, this looks like exactly the place she would be."

"I just want to be sure this time. I don't think I can handle too many more false alarms, you know?"

"Yeah. I get it."

"Wait... Did you hear that?"

The girl silently winced and tried to breathe even more shallowly. By now, the footsteps had stopped only a few feet from where she lay. She continued to wait in silence, the lack of oxygen beginning to make her dizzy.

Just as she felt as if she was going to black out, she heard the footfalls fade away in another direction. With a great gasp for air, she rolled out from under the bush and sprawled herself out, the beating sun forcing her to shut her eyes.

"I knew it! I knew I heard something!"

The girl leapt to her feet in mere moments, taking a defensive stance. "Steve! Over here!" The strange man called over his shoulder. The sound of someone running through the underbrush could be heard, and then another man came to stand next to the first.

"Elena!" The second man, Steve, exclaimed. Who is Elena? Am I Elena? The girl questioned mentally.

Before she had a chance to react, the first man drew his weapon and trained them on her. The words bow and arrows popped into the girl's head, leaving her to cast a confused stare at the dirt. "Clint, what are you doing?" Steve asked frantically. "Her eyes, Steve. Look at her eyes-" he didn't have a chance to explain himself, as the girl let out a soft groan of pain through clenched teeth and let a hand fly to her forehead.

The two men began to scale down the side of the ditch to get to her, but they weren't fast enough. Her eyes fluttered closed as her knees crumpled beneath her and she fell, hitting her head on a jagged rock in the process.

A/N: Hello again, dear readers! I am so unbelievably sorry for the length of time between the ending of Almost the Heir and now! I've had to re-write this a few times over to make it better for you guys, because you guys are awesome and you deserve the best! Also, I've been on a bit of a hiatus, so that contributed a lot, too. So again, sorry for the wait- I know I left the ending on an odd and confusing note.

Let me be the first to say CONGRATULATIONS to @TheMrsLaufeyson for winning the cover contest!

One more thing...
Almost the Heir is not classified as finished, if you haven't noticed. And yes I have a reason for that. I plan on going back and editing it, as I know I have a lot of typos and careless spelling mistakes, and I don't want to mark it as finished and have you guys put it in your archive, only for it to come out of your archive again when I edit it.

Anyway, thank you guys for sticking with me! And to any new readers, *waves* hello there! You guys are always awesome, too! Until next time,

-fallingleafviolinist