Loving the Shadow

Perla

Perla finished changing and ran over to Lyss with wide eyes. She wanted to shrink away and hide from the banging at the door. She felt so many things at once but the one emotion that ruled them all was excitement. She was excited to leave, fearful due to how her father was trying to get Lyss and marry her off but excited to finally be free of it all. It confused her to be this excited especially since there was a lot to be scared of.

Lyss grabbed her hand and started to run to the other side of the room, their grip was tight but comfortable Perla almost smiled at the care they seemed to show even in situations like this one. They ran straight for a window and Perla closed her eyes. She braced for the glass as they reached the window the doors burst open and guards flooded the room, they chased after them yelling at Lyss to let Perla go. Lyss kept running and flew out the window Perla wasn't far behind them but one of the guards managed to grab hold of her leg as she was exiting, Perla yelped at the rough grip on her leg. It was quite painful.

"Let go!" Perla yelled at them in hopes that it would work, of course it didn't and the guard began to pull her back inside. Lyss was pulling her arm in hopes of freeing her. All at once the guard fell and she flew back into Lyss' chest. She looked back in to see why they suddenly let go and saw Sofie standing over them with an iron rod. She had smacked them in the head.

"Go!" Sofie yelled at her before she started swinging the rod around at the other guards. Perla stood up feeling her body complain from being thrown, She offered a hand to Lyss who grabbed it, She helped pull them up and before she knew it they were off again. The woods whisked by her in blurs of color, the leaves shattered under her feet. She noticed Lyss looked as if they were floating on air while they ran. They were so stealthy they picked their placement to make no noise on the floor whereas she stumbled and tripped over everything.

Tears streamed down her face as she mourned the life she had. She had been hesitating on leaving because she was scared about this. What was going to happen next? Where could they go? All these questions swarmed in her head as they kept running, there was noise behind them as the guards ran into the forest. They had made enough distance to be able to lose them but it would be tricky, she knew these woods like the back of her hand and there was a river coming up but the waters were deep and the currents were strong.

"Lyss! There's a river up ahead!" She shouted hoping they could hear her and the wind didn't carry her voice away. Lyss didn't make any motion to show that they heard her. Perla winced as rocks and twigs dug into her feet as they ran.

The only shoes she had were heels and those were not good to run in. As they approached the river the dense tree line thinned out and the ground turned into giant boulders. Lyss suddenly stopped and Perla ran into their back. They turned around to catch her before she fell into the rapid river below. They both looked down at the water and then at each other, the guards were right behind them, it was now or never.

"Lyss..." Was all Perla could say before they both jumped into the water below.

The water was freezing and the current pulled her away, she couldn't find the surface due to how much tumbling the water was making her do. She was almost dizzy from all the spins she was doing. The water was murky from all the dirt and sand being swept away, She wasn't sure where Lyss was. Every time she stretched her hand out she grabbed more water. She was running out of air, she tried to swim up but ended up hitting the floor. The current swept her up and continued to carry her. She tried to swim again but the current was too strong. Air escaped her lips as she tried to find the surface. Her vision started to go dark and she accepted her fate.

She knew there wasn't a high chance of surviving this. She just hoped Lyss would make it. Her eyes started to shut as the water encased her.