Crown Secrets

Chapter 1

Bree walked slowly, her legs did not want to obey her orders to keep going, and she decided to give them a short break. She rested her tired body against a sturdy tree and looked over her wounds. She peered down at her arm; the blood had dried leaving a brown color over it. Her dress had torn during the slashing, and what remained of it was still turning the color red from the gashes in her knees. The blood continued to drip down her legs all the way to her bare feet. She, feeling guilt ridden, closed her eyes and allowed her mind to falter.

He would not be this way if it weren't for her. He was kind and smart; he was too smart. He realized what her mother had been trying to do, and he decided he wanted to change it. He spent time learning and experimenting on people, and he succeeded in finding a way to stop her mother. He took what Bree's mother held dearest; he took her powers.

She wondered how her story had come to these events.

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The hollow beyond the borders deep in Silu was cold and shaded by the night that never ended. Fog circled her as she ran through the dreary forest. She was not sure why she had to escape it, but she knew that she had to leave. Whispers started sneering at her shortly after she started picking up her pace from normal to brisk.

Bree.

The voice was soft and delicate; it had echoed around and seeped its way into every aspect of her body. The sound was feminine and warm, but it struck terror through her body. She kept at her quick pace as she tried to navigate the all too familiar but never visited forest. She went past the trees and noticed how they were crooked and covered in prolonged pieces of bark. The bark bent its way upward reaching for a sky that she could not see. The sharp angles of the trees she had to navigate resembled those of a spine contorted and stretched apart. No matter how far she thought she got, the vaporous mist followed close behind.

Come to me, sweetheart.

The whispers swarmed in a formless barricade of fog, and it pillowed into her body. It trapped and clung to her bones that created a crushing sensation. It was hard for her to breathe as the smog tried to consume her. It pulled her down, and she felt the dirt and debris cling to her stinging skin and hair. She dug her burning hands into the earth to hoist herself up, and she could feel the tepid liquid dripping down to her fingertips. She quickly regained her balance, and she started running from the ever persistent mist. Because of her fall, she was less dexterous than before. Her turns were not as precise, and this caused her shoulders and arms to scrape along the trees. She ran through the pain because the fog never stopped following her through the forgotten forest.

Why are you running?

The voice that was once airy and light turned into one of a predator. It sounded as if the voice was slithering up her back. It twisted its way into the depths of her mind. The mist itself nipped at her skin. She tried to escape from its grasp, but it just tightened its hold and dragged her to the ground a second time. She scrambled to grab at anything to get off the mud, and she latched onto a tree root that poked through the ground. Her hold did not last for long because the root took on life and it lifted out of the ground. Branches of the nearby trees unraveled, and both the roots and tree limbs wove their way around her legs. They held her in one spot; the more she struggled to rip them off the tighter they became.

The fog caught up up to her in seconds and hovered in front of her. It didn't yet consume her, but it instead engulfed back into itself. She gasped as the smoke took on the shape of deathly white hands with needle thin fingers. The hands advanced upon her, and she screamed when they connected with her skin. The fingers purposely dug themselves into her arms and legs. They broke the surface and went deep enough to wrap themselves around her bones. She screamed out further in agony as crimson blood spewed out of her new wounds. The hands that held her bones applied heavy amounts of pressure until she felt the bones start to shatter. Bone ground on bone, and she threw her head back trying to escape the pain. Different branches took the opportunity to wind their way around her chest and neck cutting off her vocal cords. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to scream to no avail.