Destiny

Prologue

Running through the dark forest, my whole body was numb from all the fear building up inside of me. I gasped for air and felt every breath painfully burning in my lungs, stinging like small needles. Branches and dry leaves crunched each time my feet met the uneven ground, but apart from that and other distant forest sounds, I could only hear my heavy breathing. My heart beat twice as fast as it should and I had the feeling that its sound echoed from my surroundings.

Tears were streaming down my face as I realized that I was only running around in circles.

I'm pretty sure that my right ankle was broken, because as I jumped over the fence only a few seconds ago, I twisted it pretty badly. Every step almost made me cry out in pain, but I couldn't afford to stop.

But how long would I be able to endure that pain?

The only thing that kept me going was that I knew he was after me and I could lead him away from my home. My mom and my sister were all I had left and I won't let him take my family away from me. This meant that I'll probably go down, but at least they'll be safe.

I was crying so much by now, that my vision was blurry from all the tears so I didn't see the rock in front of me. As I fell over, a hiss left my lips and the pain shot up my leg like fire. I cringed heftily as a result, while I only saw white for a few seconds, the pain completely paralizing my body. Only after I had taken a deep breath, I could see clearly again and immediately spotted the claffing wound on my thigh. The sharp edge of the rock effortlessly cut through my jeans and my skin, causing the deep wound my eyes stared at in horror. A sudden feeling of nausea crept its way inside of me, since I had never been good with the sight of blood, even if it was my own.

"You can run as much as you want, I'm going to find you eventually!", the voice that was haunting my nightmares shouted, only a few feet behind me now.

The blood in my veins ran cold as I realized that he was close. Stumbling over has costed me precious time that I couldn't afford to lose, but I did anyway. As dramatically as it sounds, this had probably just been my death sentence.

But if I have learned one thing from my mother it's to never give up, no matter how hopeless the situation was. So within seconds, I ripped a piece of my blouse off and tied it around my thigh in order to keep the bleeding in check. With gritted teeth, I got up again and continued to run for my life.

Maybe I could make it.

I was slower than before, but that was all my body had left to give with a twisted ankle, a deep wound on my thigh and aching palms from all the thorns that got stuck underneath my skin.

"You can't escape me!", the deep voice laughed and another cold shiver drove through my body.

I got the feeling that he was enjoying all of this, while I was forced to experience the worst time of my whole life. I had never been scared that much ever before, while my chaser made this into his own sick, little game.

The fear and the pain threatened to overwhelm me and my surroundings started to spin as I collapsed on the cold ground. I knew that my body couldn't take any more so I used my last strength to crawl behind a massive tree trunk and hoped that he wouldn't find me in my hideout.

It was dark, so I clung onto the hope that he would walk into another direction or just wouldn't see me walking by. I could only pray right now.

But suddenly, I heard footsteps on my right, branches breaking under the sole of his shoes. Instinctively, I took a sharp breath out of startle and covered my mouth with my hand in a heartbeat. I tasted blood as my eyes closed shut and I prayed with every fiber in my body that he would just walk by and I could escape eventually.

A cold laugh caused my heart to drop in my chest and my body to shake in complete fright.

"Found you", the placid voice spoke and my eyes opened in a heartbeat.

As I met those cold green eyes of his, I immediately knew he was going to kill me.