A second after the thought crosses my mind, giving me hope, that same hope is dashed to the ground.
He won’t be looking for you in the fucking woods an hour outside the city.
Not for days. Weeks, even.
Probably never.
“I—”
“Let’s play a game, little girl.”
I shudder, trembling as the voice comes from the shadows all around me.
“W-what’s the game?” I whisper.
“It’s called tag,” the monster growls. “And I’m IT.”
It happens in a millisecond. He roars the last word through whatever is changing his voice, and as he does so, I hear the snapping of twigs and the crunching of underbrush as a shadow comes lurching out of the woods right in front of me.
Humans have an inherent fight or flight response to danger, from the days when we were living in caves trying not to be eaten. When a saber tooth tiger leaps at you, you have two options: stay put and fight for your life, or turn and run and take your chances.
In the second that the monster storms out of the shadows, I make my choice. I turn and fucking run.
I want to scream, but I’m incapable of making a sound as I bolt away from the car and the man chasing me. My heels fall off and I kick them away. I wince and cry out in pain as I slam through the underbrush of the forest at the edge of the clearing and crash into the blackness.
The clearing was almost pitch dark, with the moon behind the clouds. Here in the trees, it’s like running through a black hole.
My pulse roars in my ears, and I keep my arms up in front of my face, flinching as they block the scrape and claw of branches that are trying to rip my face and snag my hair.
“Where are you, little girl…”
I choke back a scream when I hear him crashing through the brush behind me. I veer sharply to the right, pelting into the dark forest. I gasp, ducking at the very last minute to avoid running face-first into a low branch. It skins my elbow, though, and I cry out in pain.
“I can smell your fucking fear, little one.”
I swallow another scream, zigging left to crash through the trees. Maybe there’s something nearby. A rest stop, or a gas station. Even the road we took to get here. I mean, we’re only an hour at most outside New York. It’s not like we’re in the middle of nowhere.
Hope catches fire inside me as I whirl to the left and push and claw my way through the trees and snarled branches.
“Shall I tell you what happens when I catch you?”
I almost scream. Fuck me, he’s so close. Way closer than I thought he was, somewhere just to my right. I zig left, pushing myself, trying not to care about the underbrush slicing and ripping at my bare legs and the heavier branches arching to bash in my face.
“I’m going to fuck you till you bleed. I’m gonna hurt you, slut. I’m going to watch the light go out in your eyes as you choke on my fucking cock.”
There are games, and there are nightmares. And I’ve tripped over my own impulsiveness right into the latter.
I shouldn’t have run from the brownstone earlier. Shouldn’t have gone out. Shouldn’t have gone on the Venom site, and I definitely shouldn’t have engaged with that demented stranger.
Because there’s no question that’s who’s brought me here. Who’s chasing me.
Who wants to hurt me, for real.
Panic surges through me as I crash down a small embankment and hide behind an uprooted tree. I pull out my phone, hoping against hope…
Oh my God.
I have one bar of service.
I can hear metallic snarling and the sound of crunching leaves and snapping twigs, like my attacker is getting closer.
I don’t have much time. Or more than a prayer of a chance. But it’s something. In the one millisecond I have, I text Kratos a map pin of my location. I wait, watching the send bar load tortuously slowly because of the almost no service.
But it goes through.
I jam my phone into my bag and force myself to get up. With a choked cry, I fling myself through the trees, running as fast as I can and trying to ignore the pain in my bare feet.
Praying that the break in the trees I think I can see ahead will open up to a road, or a house, or anything.
With a last gasp, I crash out of the woods and into a dark clearing.
Instantly, I go still and my heart drops.
I’m right back where I started.
“Too bad.”
I scream as I whirl. The energy is draining from my aching muscles as I back away. Slowly, the branches move. A dark shadow emerges, stalking toward me.
