Chapter 2 The Chase
I turned and ran up the stairs to get my bag.
I tripped on my dress twice while running so I decided I would strip myself out of my beautiful dress and lay it on the bed.
I threw on my black sweats and slid on my running shoes then grabbed my already packed bag.
The thought of not going to school was tearing my heart out.
But I knew my brother meant business and I wasn’t going to stick around to find out what would happen to me if I tried to stay.
I ran back down the stairs and out the front door into the crisp winter air.
It didn’t take long for me to become breathless.
The tears just kept coming and I couldn’t stop them.
I knew my parents never wanted me around, but I am their daughter.
How can you publicly humiliate someone like that?
Like I had been nothing to them was a blow to the heart.
My body was trembling from crying so hard and I had snot running from my nose.
People just stared at me when I walked past.
No one offered any help or even asked what was wrong.
As the clock on the castle grounds struck 10pm I heard a howl so loud that the windows of the local businesses and homes rattled.
It was coming from the direction of the next town, which lay past the border in Pleiades.
The sound froze me in my tracks and my heart pounded wildly in my chest.
When the clock quit chiming I thought I heard a small weak voice say, “run, Celest run”, and I turned around thinking someone was talking to me, and that’s when I saw him.
Zion was standing there with a group of friends.
“You better start running Celest because if I catch you, I will kill you, that’s a promise!”
I began to run. I knew he wasn’t playing around.
I had been running for maybe five minutes when I heard my brother laughing from behind me, he didn’t even sound winded as he spoke, and his words terrified me, “go get her!”
The sound of heavy fast footsteps started chasing me.
No, not footsteps, paws, thudding and crunching on the frozen snowy ground, and lots of them.
I was going to die. There was no way I could outrun a pack of trained guard dogs.
I knew I had to keep running but how was I going to get away?
I just kept running, I knew there was a forest just outside the castle grounds, I could hide there, and then beyond the forest was the town in Pleiades, and I could find somewhere safe.
We didn’t go there often, or at least I didn't, so no one should recognize me.
I was getting ahead of myself. I had to get away before that was even possible, it wouldn’t matter if I was dead.
I reached the last stone wall that wrapped around the castle grounds and ran through the open archway that said Pleiades across the top.
Every time I left the castle grounds, it was through this gate, so I know it leads into the forest.
I kept running down the gravel road until I made it to the forest.
I was freezing, and I could still hear paws behind me.
The smell of pine and cedar slammed into me as I made my way into the thicker area of the forest.
Under any other situation this forest would have been beautiful, snow lay on the ground lightly glowing blue in the light of the moon.
Icicles in the shape of long teardrops hung from the limbs of trees where leaves used to be.
In the light from the moon the icicles shone dimly onto the ground like tiny sparkles.
The pine trees that were once so strong now bowed from the weight of the snow.
I would have to come back here, if I survived, to paint all this beauty.
I looked around for any places I could hide.
But with the trees’ leaves gone and with very few pine trees I knew I would need to find a hollowed out tree, a cave, or keep running until I reached the town.
“Over there Celeste looks like there's a cave,” that same small voice said.
I looked to my left and there was a cave but there were weird red plants covering the ground in front of the opening.
I knew I couldn’t risk running any further, my body still ached from being whipped and I was having a hard time catching my breath.
I sprinted as fast as I could crashing through the red plants and dove into the cave and hid as far back as I could.
I could still see out of the front of the cave and there about 80 feet away stood six huge dogs.
Three of them were brown, two were burnt red in color and one was black with a white stripe up his face and down the back of his neck like a horse's mane.
These dogs were the biggest dogs I had ever seen.
I had never seen anything like them on the castle grounds.
They were looking everywhere but couldn’t see me.
They raised their noses and started sniffing the air.
The dogs started coughing and gagging while rubbing their noses with their paws just as an awful smell wafted into the cave, what was that?
I know that smell all too well, rotten meat, I almost threw up.
The huge dogs howled and then ran back in the direction they came.
They couldn’t find me, was I safe? Whatever those plants are, must have saved my life.
I would have to ask about them once I was in town.
Maybe someone had seen these red plants before.
I decided to wait a while before I left the cave, just in case my brother or those dogs were around.
I leaned against the cold stone cave wall and was overtaken with exhaustion.
My eyes started feeling heavy and I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up the world around me was quiet, and the smell from those plants had disappeared.
I knew that I needed to make it to the town so I made the decision to leave the safety of the cave, and when I did, the red plants were gone.
How was I going to figure out what they were when they disappeared?
I’ll have to come back once the sun is out and I know I am safe to see if I can find any trace of them.
It was very dark, and I wanted to reach the town, so I didn’t freeze to death, so I began to run in the direction of the town.
I was so physically exhausted; how much further could I go before I collapsed?
The sun had been completely gone now for a few hours, but I could see perfectly in front of me.
The moon was bright in the sky and a slight glow coming from beyond the trees kept me going.
I could feel the cold winter air blowing in my hair.
It felt so weird, I know it’s freezing out here, but the cold doesn’t seem to be affecting me.
The smell of snow in the air was so crisp, it had never smelled like this before and it even tickled my nose as I breathed in.
I was looking at all the trees I passed, I seemed to be traveling beyond fast.
I focused again in front of me. The trees again thinned and the smell of cedar and pine slowly dissipated.
I passed a final cluster of snow covered trees and continued to run down the path.
Was that the town already? It couldn’t be.
I had only been running for a short time.
I looked down at where my feet were supposed to be and became startled, disbelieving as there were white glowing furred paws in their place.
I tripped over myself and went rolling through the snow landing with a thud as my head hit a rock, and the world around me went black.