CORRUPTED (Book 3 of the Tempted Series)

Chapter Twelve

You can't guess anymore how long you've been walking. You've lost all sense of time, distance, and direction. All the trees are beginning to blend together into one monstrous cloud of red blurriness and each step you take feels numb to the point you can't feel yourself walking. There's no pain, but this journey is excruciating. At this point, you don't know what the point is. You're wandering in the middle of a forest with two other people, lost beyond hope, looking for a weak point in the world that is impossible to see with the naked eye.

You notice your fists are clenched in frustration and you unclench them, knuckles sore and white. You must have been clutching them for a long time, because you leave four red crescent-shaped marks from your nails on your palms. You rub your hands together.

Every time your mind falls back to thinking abut your seemingly unreachable goal, you feel a twist of dread in your heart. What's the fucking point of wandering around waiting for something to happen when you can just make a path open right in front of you?

The real question is: why haven't you already?

"Hey Schneeplestein," you call out. "Why haven't I just commanded the world to open up a path for us? Wandering around here has done nothing and it doesn't seem like it's doing anything anytime soon. Wouldn't it be worth a try?"

He was already shaking his head before you finished talking. "Absolutely not. You heard Marvin. You're a threat to this world. Trying to force it to do something will provoke it and make it angrier."

You give a frustrated sigh. "Come-on, we've-"

"No. We have to keep moving undercover. You're supposed to be hidden."

"That's why you made me this red cloak! So I'd blend in! Let's test it out to see if it actually works."

"It has worked, (y/n). The whole reason why I made it was so you wouldn't be easily spotted. You'd be hurt, or even dead if I hadn't given it to you. Now, we are going to keep walking until you feel something that could potentially lead us to the barrier." He then turns back around, ending the conversation with you.

You growl in frustration, then shake your head. "No!"

He suddenly looks back at you.

"I'm the goddamn queen of this world. I can and should be able to do whatever the fuck I want!"

Chase then comes up from behind you and walks in front towards Schneep. "Jeez," he says. "I don't know, (y/n). It seems too risky."

You point a finger at him. "Shut it, Chase! You're not helping."

With that, Chase's face turns cold. Schneep comes up behind him and puts a hand on his shoulder. His face is also a little cold, but he's more content, as if this isn't his first time at the rodeo.

"Let her," he says to Chase. "Maybe it'll work."

"Thank you," you say sarcastically. You knew he's come around. He always does. Chase, however, is starting to become a little bit of a pain.

You walk in between the two, pushing them aside, and walk ahead a little bit. You feel a slight breeze that rustles the red leaves, and you can't help but think the world is stirring with irritation, as if it senses what you're about to do.

You hear from behind you the two boys murmuring to each other. You block them out of your head to focus on your task at hand.

You clench your fists and say to the woods around you, "Okay, world. You know what I'm here for. I'm looking for the barrier. If you could just open a path that leads directly to it, I will be on my way."