Abused

Chapter Four

Fear

You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.

I looked down at the ground, it was so far away my head spun. I can't do this.

I was perched on the windowsill of Lucas's bedroom, my legs dangling in the air. Lucas's room is one the fourth floor. Four stories, about 11 feet pet story, I think it's half a foot between each floor so that's what? 45 feet? A fresh wave of dizziness washed over me. I closed my eyes until the vertigo passed.

Lucas had left me alone in his room. He'd left to do something, but not before making a production of posting two guards outside the door and locking the door behind him. I had thought about the option of fighting my way out. I could easily pick the lock. I didn't think, however, that I would be able to fight the two guards and win. I wasn't particularly skill at combat of any kind, running was my skillset. Even if I was able to handle those guards I was drugged when they brought me up here, I have no clue how to get out of the manor. There could be an army of wolves throughout the house waiting for me as well. My only feasible option for escape was to jump out the window and run after I hit the ground.

The thought wasn't thrilling for a couple of reasons. The first, the obvious one, falling four stories in no way sounded fun. But it was after the fall was over that concerned me. I have no clue how to get out of the territory. In theory if I simply ran in one direction I would eventually get out, but the territory of Lucas's pack, the Moonlight pack, shared a border with the Red Forest pack. After so many years of running to get as far as I could from them the thought of escaping from Lucas just to run right into their territory was far from a happy one. I shook the past from my mind and focused on the task at hand.

It would hurt. I had no illusions about that. I would be jumping from the fourth floor. A jump like that would most likely kill a human. Wolves tend to be more durable. I would still be hurt. I would probably break a few bones. However, I can handle the pain. That was the only thing that I could be grateful to my past for. When you live in pain for so long you tend to find that you can endure much more of it. It's the only reason I'd been able escape the first time. The pain I was in back then was nothing to me, not anymore.

I took a deep breath. It's been years since I felt pain like that. Would I still be able to push through it? Would I be able to endure it after all this time?

If I couldn't then I wouldn't be able to run. I'll be trapped, injured and unable to escape again. They would kill me. Lucas would kill me.

I shut my eyes. The thought of my death didn't frighten me. I had prayed for it, begged for it, for years. Even now, the thought was still soothing. I had tasted freedom. I had lived, truly lived. If I died now my mind would be at peace. I had done more, seen more, than I had ever hoped for.

I opened my eyes. One... Two... Three! I pushed against the side of the manor with my hands and feet. For a single split nanosecond I was weightless. My hair was left behind as my body rushed towards the ground. Air rushed into my nostrils and eyes, burning and stinging them. It was a rush of adrenaline. Pure exhilaration.

Then I felt a rough, steel hand latch onto my wrist. It yanked me to a painful stop, I almost yelp as my body slammed harshly into the siding of the house. I was pulled up from just my wrist. I could feel the bruise forming already. Lucas's scent infiltrated my nose and I whimpered as he dragged me back through the window and threw me onto the floor of his bedroom. My wrist throbbed and my arm pulsed from the pain radiating from the already dark red injury. Soon it would be purple.

I looked up at Lucas, careful to avoid meeting his eyes. How had I not heard him enter the room? Fury emitted from every particle of his being. I ducked my head in submission and tried to contain my fear. "What are you doing?" he snarled, enunciating each word as if it were its own sentence.