You thought, at the moment that you were being chased down the street by the scary man yesterday, that you couldn't ever move faster than you did in that minute.
You were wrong.
Somehow, knowing that there's probably an angry Jungkook somewhere behind you, you move so fast that the dark forest blurs around you.
Your legs burn with exertion as you sprint away from the group of men still lingering outside the house, getting almost to the tree line before your hear the first shout of, "Hey! Y/N's gone!"
Then, the growl comes.
It's deep, and rumbling, as if a stampede of horses is pounding the earth into bits behind you. You swear the ground shakes with the deep vibrations that roll across the air toward you.
"I'm going to freaking kill her," Jungkook roars.
Crap.
Tonight is the night you die.
You don't turn around, only force yourself into your utmost physical limits, the boundaries furthered by adrenaline and a kind of exhilarated fear that you've never felt before.
A huge smile stretches across your face, and you imagine that it's the same kind of smile that crazy people who are about to be executed reveal.
You're doomed.
Honestly, you really didn't expect the whole fire alarm plan to work.
Therefore, the plan from here on out?
Yeah.
There isn't one.
You're just running around like a rabid squirrel, thinking on the fly with a brain that's surely the size of a peanut. You're such an idiot.
Where the heck are you going to go now?
When you hit the tree line, you run for several steps before veering off to the right, hoping that the forest is thick enough and Jungkook is far enough away that he won't know which direction you've gone.
Your breath pants out into the chilly air in white puffs, like smoke. The clouds of pearlescent vapor evaporate as soon as you run though them, only to be replaced seconds later when another heaving exhale releases from your chest.
As you run, you try to take stock of the situation.
Okay.
So you don't know where you are, nor do you know where you're headed. There might not be another house around for miles, or there could be another house just outside of the next copse of trees.
There really isn't a way to tell.
What the most obvious question is, how are you going to escape from the roaring lion stalking you through the forest.
Should you keep running and pray for help to come?
Or should you hide, like the defenseless creature of prey that you are?
Hide, you idiot, hisses your innermost voice. You follow its instruction without hesitation.
Still sprinting, you keep your eyes peeled for a low hanging tree branch, and grin when you see the perfect one.
Quickly, your hands scrape on the rough bark as you pull yourself over the branch, huffing from all of the exercise you've been getting in the past day.
Your legs are shaky from exertion, but you push past your mind's warnings and force your body into submission, dragging yourself up one branch, then another, and another, until you're as high as you can safely go.
All of the branches above you appear too small and brittle to hold your weight, so you settle into your position, sitting with your back to the truck and your feet propped in front of you, knees tucked into your chest.
You look down to the forest floor from the canopy, watching for any sign of the seven boys you know must be hunting you.
It's almost silent here, and black and dark from the night. Cicadas trill quietly in the tender moonlight.
You wish that you were in a different situation so that you could fully appreciate this lovely night. But, as a branch quietly snaps on the ground below you, you remember that you can't.
You're a cowering animal for the night, stranded and scared.
A dark shadow shifts down at the base of the tree.
Holding your breath, you lean over a little and peer down into the murky boughs of the tree, working to catch a glimpse of the figure hovering there.
It's tall and slender, a simple faceless shadow of a man. It could be any one of the Bangtan Boys. You can't tell out the shapes features through the dark, nor can you tell where he's looking.
You hope he's not looking at you.
You can't move, don't dare to breathe, and keep your eyes glued to the man on the ground. The pounding of your heart is like the pounding of a bass drum in your ears, obnoxiously loud and overbearing. You're surprised that he can't hear it from down there.
Your dark-colored coat should be doing a decent job of camouflaging you into the tree bark, but you can't be certain that the shadow isn't staring directly at you.
It's unnerving.
Finally, after what seems like a millennia of bated breath and frozen limbs, the shadow stalks away from you, loping through the forest with a smooth gait that reminds you of a big cat on the hunt.
You exhale in relief and relax.
That was truly one of the most terrifying, nerve wracking experiences of your life.
You quietly shake the tension out of your stiff limbs and let your body wilt against the solid strength of the tree trunk. A cold breeze wafts past you and ruffles your hair.
There. If you can remain here until morning and simply head in the opposite direction of the house, then you might actually be able to make it out of this thing with your freedom intact.
Satisfied with your unexpected quick-thinking, you pleasantly curl up on your tree branch and look up at the moon, which shines like a white beacon through the translucent grey clouds.
You speak to it, "Score one for the squirrel, zero for the wolf pack."
"Actually," says a wickedly gleeful voice behind you, "I think I'd reverse that if I were you."
Startled at the closeness of the disembodied voice, you twirl around on your branch, straddling it as you face the trunk and behold a black-headed Cheshire Cat grinning across the trunk.
Jungkook's smile might actually split his face open if it gets and larger, or meaner. His eyes are blacker than the freezing air dampening the world, and his hair is ruffled and displaced by the wind.
"Looks like I caught a little squirrel hiding in the tree," he says. "Oh, Y/N, you don't want to know what we're going to do with you now."
He's crouched nimbly on the branch that rounds the trunk from yours, his hands on either side of the solid cylinder of rough wood that stands as the only barrier between the two of you.
Speechless at how silent he was getting up the tree, the only thing that pops into your head is, "Screw off."
Then you grab the branch above you and heave yourself up, lightening fast.
Fear produces a cold sweat on your brow as you tear into the smaller branches towards the top of the tree, moving fast to escape the mocking chuckle that sounds below you.
You glance down, watching just in time as Jungkook smoothly leaps onto the branch you had been on and gazes up at you through his dark lashes.
"Where are you going to go when you reach the top?" he calls out, asking a relevant question that you yourself are frantically analyzing.
This far up, jumping might actually kill you, or at least severely injure you. This entire strategy relied on you being passed by, unnoticed, so now your whole plan is shot.
Fingers brush your ankle, and you shriek and yank your leg up, kicking at the man below you.
Jungkook laughs again and crosses his arms casually on a branch, resting his head on them like an innocent child. "Come on, now, give up. There's only so much you can go up." Even though his voice holds the same mocking tone as before, there's a hint of caution creeping in as you shimmy your way up to the higher branches.
The wood groans underneath your weight, making you pause in your motions.
"Stop it. It's not funny any more, Y/N. You lost, come down." There isn't any laughter in Jungkook's voice now. Another look down shows you that he's watching with wary black eyes. You can barely make out the tiny shape of a black cross on his cheekbone.
Trembling muscles pull you up another branch and you pause to rest for a minute, taking in just how frighteningly high you've climbed.
But where else can you go?
There's nowhere, you think to yourself, resigned. There's nowhere else to go but-
Across.
Your eyes alight upon a branch, following its length to where it almost touches with another tree. It's not a jump, barely even a step that spans across the gap between the two branches.
"I can make that," you whisper.
This is your last chance at freedom.
You won't be caged up any longer. You won't be mixed in and contained by people who do bad things to get by.
And you most certainly will not be returning to your father's house.
You can make that.
"Don't," Jungkook says in a low voice. It's softened considerably from the former tone, and turned soothing and gentle.
Like he's trying to talk someone down from a ledge.
Well, he is.
You ignore him, though, and gently begin to crawl along the branch, moving out. You know that the very end will be too weak to hold your weight, but you inch forward anyways, testing how far you can get before the wood collapses under you.
You stop when a frightening crack sounds from beneath you, pausing with one hand lifted in the air.
"Y/N," Jungkook hisses. You can hear him moving below you, trying to get close, but his weight is more than yours and the branches won't support him. "I'm serious, quit it. You're going to hurt yourself. Just come down."
"What do you care?" is your response as you start to push yourself up, balancing your weight on the branch. Eventually you're able to stand up straight on your feet. You back up a little to give yourself room to jump. "If I die, that all your problems are taken care of."
"Well yeah," the black-headed man scoffs. "But if you die, I want to kill you. You can't die by falling out of a tree. That's stupid."
"You're stupid," you say, sighing heavily at the fact that your last words may be at the intellectual level of a five year old.
You take a deep breath, the deepest you've ever taken, and take a heavy step forward.
That's when the branch splinters beneath your foot.
"Crap!" you hear Jungkook yell, seconds before your weight begins a free fall. A scream is ripped out of your mouth as your weightless body limply falls, and then a heavy weight slams into you.
You stop falling.
"If we die," Jungkook mutters through gritted teeth, "You're going to give me a very nice funeral."
He's hanging from a branch by one hand, the muscles of his forearm strained and tightened while the other is wrapped securely around you and holding you tightly to his body.
His fingers slip on the wood and he winces, biting down hard on his lip as he struggles to hold both of your weights.
But he can't.
It's too much for him.
"Hold on," Jungkook says hoarsely, glancing into your eyes with a gaze darkened with resignation. "It's going to be a bumpy ride."
The he tucks you in closer to him, and releases his grip.
And the two of you plummet toward the ground.
[A/N]
Unedited