CHAPTER 1
WILLOW
Every step sends a jolt of pain through my heel and up into my body. I’m not sure if there’s any part of me that doesn’t hurt right now.
Eyes widen as I pass along the sidewalk, their stares clinging to me. I fold my arms tighter around myself and quicken my pace, lowering my gaze to avoid meeting anyone’s eyes.
I can only imagine what they see when they look at me. I’m filthy, covered in bruises and wearing only a dirty, thin nightgown. Malnourishment has left its mark on me, I look more like a gaunt teenager than a twenty-three-year-old woman.
The bruises are courtesy of my father and Paul, but the dirt covering my clothes, skin, and hair, are thanks to my escape through the woods. I didn’t have a choice though, and I’d do it all over again for this chance at freedom.
I glance at my arm and see it’s covered in small scratches, some still bleeding. I’m not surprised, I ran so fast through that forest, I didn't care about anything other than getting away from him. From them.
Someone bumps into my shoulder, sending a fresh wave of pain through my body. But I don’t stop moving. I can’t. I have no idea where I am, or where I’m going, except that something in my gut tells me to keep heading down this street.
It’s not logic that’s telling me to go in this direction, but with no better alternative, I trust my gut, turning left at the next intersection.
I wish it was logic driving me, but I’ve never stepped foot off the compound before, everything I know about the real world I learned from eavesdropping on others or from my older sister, Isabella.
Thinking about her makes my heart ache. She managed to escape the compound six months ago, and left me a note promising to find a way to break me out, too. It was impossible for me to go with her at the time, we were never left alone together, as if they knew we’d run the first chance we got.
I knew things were bad for her, she’d been forced to marry a man she despised, although we hated all the men at the compound.
They were mean and treated us like slaves.
At least that’s what Izzy told me when she snuck back in a week ago.
She said she’s been trying to free me the entire time she’d been out in the real world, and that everything we’d been taught was a lie.
She tried to free me, but hadn’t accounted for my new leash.
I glance down at my left wrist where the broken skin looks raw and red.
The only reason she came back was to help me escape, and she felt terrible having to leave again when we heard someone approaching my room.
She promised to return and find a way to help me escape, but after last night, I knew I had to take action for my own life for once.
Suddenly, that gut instinct I’ve been following lurches to my left and I come to a stop, gasping at the strange sensation. I look at the door beside me and see it’s a small store. Once Upon a Spine is scrawled across the door, and when I look through the glass, I can see rows of bookshelves.
I take a quick glance over my shoulder to make sure nobody is following me, then yank the door open and step inside. My gaze moves quickly over the store, making sure there’s no threat in here.
“Hey, are you okay?” a woman asks. I glance in her direction as she moves around the counter and steps toward me. She has long, wavy, pale pink hair that looks so perfect it’s as if she was born with it that color.
She’s wearing an old-fashioned blue dress and stops a few feet from me, looking concerned at my appearance. Right now, I need help, and she looks safer than anyone else I’ve seen since I ran.
I push my long, messy blonde hair behind my ear, and shake my head as I look around the store.
“N-no. I… I need help,” I tell her nervously.
“Okay, one second,” she says before moving past me to flip the open sign to closed and locking the door. “Come with me to the back. You’ll be safe here.”
I follow her through the rows of bookshelves, marveling at so many books.
I wish I could stay here and read all of them.
The only books we were allowed to read on the compound were textbooks and the sacred texts.
When she stops in front of a door, I glance over my shoulder, making sure nobody is coming up behind us.
When I look back, she’s ushering me inside.
“Sit anywhere you like. I’ll get you some water,” she tells me before grabbing two bottles from the fridge.
I perch on the edge of the couch, afraid of getting it dirty as she sits across from me, placing the bottles on the table. My eyes won’t stop moving around the room, waiting for a threat to pop up at any moment.
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe here.” I look at her and believe that she means what she says. I nod, trying to stop myself from continually glancing around. “Do you want to tell me your name?”
“W-Willow,” I tell her before licking my dry lips.
“Hi Willow, I’m Aribella. I’m not sure what’s going on, or how you ended up here, but you’re safe. I’ll help you figure it out.”
Her name reminds me of my sister, Isabella. I wish I knew where she was, I know she’d help me.
After looking me over, Aribella stands and grabs a sweater with a hood from the cupboard, and passes it to me.
“T-thank you,” I whisper, quickly pulling it on to hide the marks on my arms and help me warm up.
“Are you running from someone?” she asks gently.
I nod as I tell her, “My f-father.”
Her eyebrows rise in surprise. “Is he the one who did that to you?”
Nodding, I tell her, “Some of it. H-he’s crazy. He said he’s going to k-kill me.”
“Kill you?” she asks, looking stunned. “Why?”
My body starts to shake the second I think of him, and I rub my arms as I explain.
“He’s the leader of a cult. He was trying to get me to marry his second-in-command.
But P-Paul is even older than my father, and crueler.
” I swallow the lump in my throat before continuing.
“He’s kept me locked up all my life. He said it was to protect my innocence.
Now he says I must give my purity to Paul, or I’ll be offered up as a sacrifice. "
“What kind of cult actually sacrifices virgins?” she asks, sounding horrified. “I thought that was a myth.”
“I-I’ve never seen it done before, so maybe he was lying? But I’d rather die than lie with Paul. He’s vile.” I have to work to keep myself from throwing up as I remember Paul’s hands on me, telling me I was going to be his.
“Willow, I think we should call the police,” she says tentatively.
Fear fills me, and I shake my head quickly. “You can’t! He has friends on the force. They’ll say I made it all up!”
“Okay,” she says slowly. “You can stay with me—” she cuts herself off, tilting her head as she frowns at me. “Wait, how did you end up in my bookstore, anyway?”
I strange laugh bubbles out of me, and I shake my head.
“I’m not sure. I found a chance to get away, and I just started running.
It’s probably been a few hours. I didn’t know where I was going, but my body seemed to know.
As soon as I got outside your door, I just stopped running. My chest was pulling me in here.”
Even to me it sounds crazy, but her question gives me pause.
“Your chest? Not your head?” she asks.
I nod. “I can’t explain it, but I felt like I had to come in here.”
It’s true. When I ran from the compound, I had no idea where to go, but it was like something inside me knew where I was going, leading me right to this store. As if I somehow knew Aribella would be the one to save me.
“Hmm,” she hums, glancing at a door at the side of the room.
I start to wonder where it leads when she stands up and moves over to it, placing her palm in the center.
“W-what are you doing?” I ask nervously.
“I have a theory. If I’m right, I’ll be able to send you somewhere far away from here. Somewhere safe, where your father will never find you.”
I frown as I start to ask, “What do—Oh my!” I exclaim as light spreads from her hand, engulfing the entire door. The glow fades, leaving a soft shimmer around the edges.
She grabs the handle and takes a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”
I stand, nervousness filling me as she pulls it open. My eyes widen at what’s revealed on the other side.
I expected another room, maybe a washroom, but instead, it’s the inside of a large medieval-style tent, filled with brightly colored fabrics and blankets.
Something goes flying across the tent, and I take a nervous step back, unsure what I’m looking at.
“Ah! It’s not fair! I just want—” A frustrated woman stands, and when she notices Aribella, her eyes widen in shock as mine do the same. “What on earth…” she whispers, mimicking my own thoughts as she turns to fully face us.
She looks exactly like me. That is, if I’d been better fed and never been beaten. However, she’s dressed like Aribella, with a yellow-colored medieval dress on.
Her gaze moves over Aribella’s shoulder and lands on me. She gasps.
“You want to get out of there?” Aribella asks her, surprising me as she steps aside and gestures into the room.
What the heck is going on here?
Loud voices outside her tent make her flinch.
“Sounds like you don’t have much time to decide.” Aribella turns to me, her eyes filled with a mix of worry, concern and hope. “You ready to go somewhere far away from here?”
The woman in the tent moves forward, slowly stepping through the door as worry fills me. Her body shudders, then her shoulders slump, the tension easing from her frame.
“Willow?” Aribella asks. “I’m sorry, I don’t have time to explain. Just know, this isn’t the first time I’ve done this, and it’s always worked out for the women I’ve sent there.”
The new woman snorts, but I ignore her as I stare into the tent.
My father’s face flashes in my mind, and I shudder. Living in that compound is all I’ve ever known, but I’ve got to believe there’s something better out there for me.
I have no idea what awaits me through that doorway, but it has to be better than running from my father and Paul and living on the streets… Right?
Something led me to this bookstore, and the same instinct is telling me to step into that tent.
So even though I’m terrified and have no idea where it leads, I take a shaky breath and step up to the doorway.
Turning to Aribella, I whisper, “Thank you,” wanting her to know how much I appreciate her help.
Then, I look into the tent and step through into the unknown. The sounds of birds chirping and murmured voices reach my ears, and when I slowly spin around, I realize the door I stepped through has completely vanished.
I step up to the wall of the tent where it had just been and let my fingers trail over the canvas material.
“What on earth?” I whisper, not understanding what just happened.
Glancing around, I see dresses thrown about the room. Some are elaborate, like the two women who just disappeared were wearing, some look much plainer, but nothing looks like anything I’ve ever seen before.
Seeing the entrance to the tent in front of me, I slowly step over the dresses to make my way there. The sounds of voices increase and I hesitate, unsure what’s out there.
Something that sounds like a large bird squawks somewhere in the distance, and I brace myself as I reach for the flap, needing to know what’s on the other side.
Pushing the material aside, I step out onto grassy ground, my eyes widening as I take everything in. I appear to be in the middle of a large forest, with dozens of other canvas tents all around. Some of the trees must be over a hundred feet tall, and when I turn around, the view is the same.
What happened to the bookshop? The street? The city?
It appears I’ve stepped into another world, one I know nothing about. How is that even possible?
“Are you serious?” I jerk my head to the side to find the man speaking. He looks to be in his late twenties and has messy blonde hair, blue eyes, and is looking me up and down with a hint of disgust.
I take a step away from him but don’t respond, I know better than to talk back to a man.
“Do you really think this will get you out of it?” he asks, gesturing to my body. I wrap my arms around myself and take another small step back from him, not understanding what he’s talking about.
“There you are,” another man says as he jogs up to his side and looks at him. “I’ve been—” he cuts himself off when he notices me, his eyebrows raising high on his forehead. “What the fuck is this?”
The first man sighs as he looks at me in disappointment. “Apparently Willow thought she could get out of this by making herself less desirable.”
How does he know my name?
Unease fills me, and I take another step back as the second man laughs. “You’re kidding right?” he asks, as I glance between them nervously, unsure what to say or do. “You know the men who sign up for this are desperate, right? They ain’t gonna care that you’re filthy.”
“Sign up for what?” I finally get the nerve to ask.
They both frown, glancing at each other with confusion before they look back at me and the first man responds, “The Mating Hunt, obviously.”
My fear cranks up a notch. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds terrifying.
“You better go change, if mom and dads see you like that, they’ll have a conniption fit,” the second man tells me.
I try to understand everything that is happening here. They must think I’m that woman who I just switched places with. Her name was Willow, too?
It sounds like they might be her brothers and that she’s supposed to be part of this Mating Hunt, whatever that is.
The problem is, she is no longer here. I am.
My hands tremble as I realize how much trouble I’m in. Whatever is going on in this world had her stepping through that doorway just as quickly as I did. She clearly wanted to get away from here.
And I just willingly took her place.
Continue reading in Hunting for her Heart…