Bruises of Risk

Fantasia

So hey there again! Don't know when this'll be posted due to my annoying writer's block. I wish writing the chapter were as easy as writing the author's note (sometimes it is).

I wanted to thank you guys for reading and commenting and voting and fanning and just being truly amazingly fantastic!! Bruises of Risk got to number 29 in Action and 52 in Fantasy!! That's the highest it's ever been!! Thank you guys so much!! It's all cause of you guys!

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Chapter Ten

Fantasia

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll

                The fact that he was so angry with me didn’t even make sense! I should be the one telling him to run. I’m the one who’s hurt. But something felt off, as if I was missing something.

            I don’t have the time to think about this. I thought as I ran out of the elevator at the bottom floor, not waiting a second to look around and see if Damen was already waiting because I knew he was.

            I sprinted out the doors and to the back, straight into the forest. Why was I even running? He wasn’t going to hurt me, I knew that and he knew that. Maybe he was hoping I would get scared and run off, so he could be away from me. We were constantly in front of each other and out jumbled feelings were not reacting well to that.

            However, I didn’t stop running at the rapid speed I was at. It was relieving to not have to hear my thoughts over my loudly audible heartbeats, and when I could hear anything else, my thundering footsteps blocked out further noise. Maybe I should’ve tried running quieter but the danger of predators evaded me as I took in the forest’s appearance in the early morning. Fallen, dark orange leaves crunched under me as I followed a brown path illuminated by the morning sun shining through the trees, giving them an unreal bright green glaze. My peripheral vision blurred the red, green, blue, and other different hued plants together as my speed kept and I felt content to be among such beauty.

            I passed a golden bush, speckled with dusty flowers and suddenly my heartbeat and footsteps weren’t enough to block out the thoughts, the forest’s beauty could no longer divert my attention because that bush had reminded me of Damen’s eyes, thus reminding me of Damen. My sprinting decelerated and my feelings accelerated and there was nothing I could do to stop it anymore. This whole feelings thing is a major annoyance.

            Walking along the windy trail, I found a serene pond a deep cobalt blue beside a red flower bed and I sat down in it, dipping my legs in the lake up to my calves. Was it always going to be like this? Were Damen and I ever going to move away from this weird relationship we had of making amends only to break them later? And why was he so repellant of me? He let Sarah in easily.

            Laying down, I stared up at the light violet sky and sighed. Last night had proven that even though our feelings are supposed to be going haywire, this whole attraction was not just one-sided. Even though he didn’t show it, Damen felt it, too, but I couldn’t help but wonder if these feelings were real or just because we were to be “Linked”. Did that mean that the others hadn’t shared real emotions, but rather manipulated ones by the Gods so they could work together comfortably and not ever feel the need to be anywhere else? But if Damen actually liked me, for real, he wouldn’t have left me like he did last night, only to spend the night with Sarah. And to think I’d felt special! I laughed cynically at myself for being such a fool but I stopped once I remembered knowing Damen’s feelings in that moment and I didn’t feel stupid anymore. Something just wasn’t fitting.