5. Chapter Four
Chapter Four
Olivia
M y feet skid across the damp earth as my cry of surprise adds to the sound that ripples through the trees. Shadows pass overhead and I duck with fright, shielding my head. Birds. The shadows are birds. That threat has frayed my nerves. It feels like it’s hanging over my head, a dark cloud of tension and fear.
Where am I? My eyes dart around. The trees are thick, the bushes dense and the shadows alive with mischief. Goosebumps prickle my skin as I search the darkness of the deepest shadows for any movement. I half expect something horrible and monstrous to come rushing from between the tall oaks. The west trail comes close to the walls. If I walked off track, I would come to the aged stone. Walls designed to keep us in and other things out, I remind myself to calm the thundering in my chest.
Backing up, I turn on my heels and make myself keep moving. My speed shifts from my previous leisurely jog to an all-out sprint. Legs burning, and heart thundering in my chest from exertion, I don’t dare to slow my pace. Running has always been the closest I have ever felt to freedom. My friends could never understand why I do this. They thought it was unnecessary. Them with their trips home on holidays, family day visits and video calls with parents. I never let them see how desperately trapped I felt, how much I need to run until my lungs feel like they would collapse. They couldn’t understand, never slept beside me on the nights when I didn’t exhaust myself enough. They didn’t know the way I would wake, shaking and crying.
The school has amped up the security, with more men and women on buggies, rifles at the ready as they patrol the school grounds. I wave at a group as they whiz past, but note the security guard sitting on the back as he speaks into his walkie talkie, eyes trailing me as I jog back through the school grounds toward the girls’ dorm.
When threats were made against a Russian student who was the son of a rival of the already in office president, the authorities increased security tenfold. Men with rifles and sniffer dogs prowled the school. So I know Mistress Abbott takes these kinds of threats seriously. That knowledge should ease some of the anxiety in my gut, but I can’t seem to shake the feeling that something is coming.
I can’t take the threat as empty, and it’s left me looking over my shoulder. Before I left for my run, my stomach was in knots with fear that someone would jump out at me from the undergrowth and either kill me or drag me off. I hate that my fear of my brother might threaten one of my favourite pastimes and turn it into something that riddles me with unease. He cannot steal my peace . If I allow him to turn me away from going outside, I will fall into a hole and I know nothing good can come from that. And yet I cannot shake the feeling that something is coming. Something of my brother’s making, with evil intent set on hunting me down.