Surrendered To The Lord Of Sin-Chapter 31: Hunted in the woods

Her body went rigid in shock. Blood drained out of her face as she stared at the dagger. The cold she had felt before paled in comparison to the ice that now carved itself into her spine sharp and merciless.

N-No... she gasped, unable to hide her shock and apprehension. The blade caught the falling light, mirroring the wild and panicked storm inside her chest. She had only ever seen this dagger in her dreams yet here it was, impossibly real, looking even more ethereal and dangerous than before.

Her expression was a mask of disbelief and shock as her back stiffened, and her feet went numb, glued to earth. It seemed that her nightmare had come to life again - the most terrifying she’d ever had. From the empty forest, to the cliff, to the castle, to the Shadowers, the red-eyed man and his raven. It overlapped with another image when she - once him - drove the dagger into her chest. But at that time, it was just another nightmare, and she would wake drenched in cold sweat, while gasping for air.

This time was completely different in the sense that it was real. It wasn’t another one of those nightmares, but reality crowning its face upon her head. Lucrezia felt her heart stop beating so she was forced to struggle for a breath. The thought of them finding her in existence made her stomach coil tighter in unease.

The brown-haired feigned a gentle smile, but it was as cold as snow. He remained fixed in position, holding the dagger loosely against his fingers. He simply tilted his head, like a creature examining prey that had finally realized the shape of its fate. The soft snowfall blurred the lines of his face, but not enough to hide the unnatural sharpness in his smile - a smile that didn’t belong to the man she once knew. Lucrezia understood she should run, but her body betrayed that motive.

Cold breeze brushed her skin and her teeth chattered in cold, but she forced her expression to remain stoic against it.

"We should leave now, Milady," Lucrezia almost jerked when she heard him speak, sending her heart sprinting. "You don’t want to keep him waiting,"

His eyes held something that made her pulse thrum in her veins, and a smile that wouldn’t fade. A part of her knew that look. The way he watched and gauged every little movement of hers tells that he knew of her attempt to escape.

And to all the seven, sure she will.

More than ever, Lucrezia longed to summon the courage to run. Her nostrils burned in the icy air, and she drew sharp breaths through her cracked lips. Her mind emptied, and for a fleeting moment, she convinced herself it was just another one of those nightmares.

But it wasn’t.

The merciless cold that clawed at her skin left no doubt.

She shook her head decisively, and finally, her feet moved, taking a step back. "No.." She declined, thankful her voice didn’t crack. But her heart did, thrumming with a force that drove her ribs slightly apart.

Those eyes seemed to weigh mock empathy in them, as they narrowed from her face to her feet, and back upwards for an ephemeral moment. "Don’t make things difficult, Milady," he warned.

But Lucrezia had lived long enough to know and endure the meaning of that word. She recalled the threat in his words that caused a hitch in her breath, and her knees buckled.

The once gentle tone twisted into a sickening chillness, yet she couldn’t look away from the blade - the one that had pierced her severely in her sleep. The familiarization was something that couldn’t be overlooked if she were blind. She could feel it, feel some sort of connection with it.

Her fingers trembled violently as warmth fled her skin. "Who... who are you and what do you want from me?" she whispered.

Her mind screamed at her bravery or stupidity - she couldn’t tell - when she should be running far away from danger. Yet instead, she let peril linger in the air, curling somewhere tight around the forest, and closer the longer she stayed.

For a moment, she feared his silence that stretched longer than necessary, until he opened his mouth to speak. "Wrong questions," he merely stated with something inhuman beneath the surface, a hum like frost cracking under pressure.

Lucrezia’s stomach coiled in apprehension as the cold around her thickened. The snow seemed to fall more slowly, more heavily, as if time were stretching thin between them. As if that wasn’t enough, she sensed a faint movement in the woods, dragging her attention once more.

What... what was that?

Her pulse thundered louder than the wind itself, watching nothing more than the trees and emptiness in the forest. Nothing seemed unusual, but the air carried the weight of it, and her eyes returned to those pitch-black ones immediately, noticing he hadn’t moved an inch.

Again, she was at a greater disadvantage. His body build was enough to take her down in mere seconds. Not only did he wield a sword, but a dagger - one that always seemed to kill her in her dreams - while she had nothing. Her eyes scanned the perimeters briefly, noticing deserted alleys between the trees.

Lucrezia wondered how far she’d make it, or what the end was promised, but every second that passed only seemed to lure more and more danger towards her.

As if sensing her intent, he stepped forward. Just a single step, yet enough to send Lucrezia bolting. She spun around, only for her body to collide into something solid - or someone rather - hindering her movement.

He now stood inches from her, with an expression carved from cold danger and absolute emptiness. His eyes gleamed in a deep impossible black, carrying the weight of darkness. And in that proximity, she noticed the eerie shade of his skin. It was sickly pale green marred by veins writhing from the inside of his skin, making him look utterly and irredeemably evil.

In that moment, Lucrezia noticed something unsettling. It wasn’t just her own body and mind that the cold seemed to invade - every passing second also seemed to twist him, darkening and hardening him in negative ways that grew the more pronounced the longer they lingered outside.

Lucrezia froze as her breath was trapped somewhere between her ribs and her throat. The world shrank to the space between them, to the dagger’s faint gleam and the hollow darkness inside his eyes. Her instincts screamed, but her body refused to obey, as if fear had threaded itself into her veins and stitched her to the earth.

His gaze flicked down to her trembling hands, then lifted again - slowly, and deliberately - until his eyes met hers with a quiet, predatory certainty. "Running won’t help you," he murmured. "You’ll only make things harder,"

His voice was soft, but the softness was a lie, stretched thin over something ancient and merciless. Lucrezia swallowed hard. Her lips parted, but no words emerged, only the faintest quiver of breath and the wild thrum of her heartbeat.

Her chest heaved as panic clawed at her ribs. Every instinct screamed at her to flee, yet her legs refused to obey, rooted to the snow-dusted ground as though it had fused with her flesh.

But she yearned to move. She needed to run.

Her eyes darted frantically across the clearing. The forest offered little - a few low-hanging branches, a scattering of loose snow, and the frozen ground beneath her boots. She had no weapon, no leverage beyond her wits and the tiniest shred of desperation.

But then she remembered something. In every dream, in every nightmare, she had always imagined herself powerless... but never entirely so. There had always been a hidden spark inside her that had yet to awaken. Lucrezia clenched her fists, pressing her trembling palms against the cold, rough bark of the tree behind her. If only I could...

Her mind raced. If she could make him hesitate, even for a heartbeat, she might gain the split-second she needed. She tilted her head, forcing her gaze to lock on his, letting the faintest flicker of defiance shine through her terror.

The last time she’d looked that way was against her husband, and the thought of him caused her chest to tighten.

"Is that all you’ve got?" she whispered, forcing her voice to quaver with false confidence. The words were a gamble like a fragile mask, but they landed. His black eyes narrowed dangerously, worn in curiosity that flashed ever so slightly, and his predatory certainty wavered.

She kicked at a loose branch at her feet, sending it skittering across the snow with a sharp crack. Her sudden movement drew his attention to the sound, giving her a moment to shift her weight and press herself against the rough tree bark.

The snow beneath her boots was loose and uneven and with a deep inhale, Lucrezia pushed off the tree with all her weight, letting her body twist sideways as she swung a flailing arm, hitting him squarely in the chest with a sharp spray of snow.

He staggered back, the force of her desperate strike amplified by the surprise.

Her lungs burned, but adrenaline sharpened her reflexes. She rolled into the open, gathering herself as the cold wind bit at her skin, and for the first time in that frozen, suffocating moment, she felt the tiniest spark of power stir beneath the terror. It was a heat that coursed through her limbs in a sudden and fierce pattern as though the very fear that had paralyzed her had been transformed into energy.

Run!

Her legs, freed from their icy roots, propelled her forward. She didn’t just stumble; she surged. Branches whipped at her arms and roots tried to snag her boots, but the force inside her carried her over them, faster than she had ever moved before.

Her heart thrummed wildly against her chest, and her eyes glistened in unshed tears. The cold bit deep into her skin, but she ignored it. Behind her, she could hear his low furious hiss as he recovered, but the distance was growing.

A handful of loose snow and fallen branches flew behind her as she twisted and turned, forcing him to dodge, slowing his pursuit. Each sharp movement, each desperate feint and kick of snow, bought her precious seconds. She felt the strange raw energy within her, the same force that existed faintly inside her once - coiling in her chest and bursting into her limbs. Lucrezia could feel it guiding her, pushing her faster, stronger, and sharper, giving her more than enough advantage. Every step was powered by terror, rage, and the newfound surge that promised she was no longer just prey.

For a while, she kept her pace even, running for her very life. The heaviness of her cloak slowed her down, yet she pushed through. Lucrezia ran, twisted, and turned through the empty forest, letting the snow-drenched forest swallow her whole. She didn’t dare look behind, because if she did, she knew it would most likely slow her down, so she kept her gaze forward, propelling her feet deeper and deeper into the woods.

Her lungs burned. Her feet stung. Her legs ached. Every inch of her screamed with fear. Run. Run. Run.

Lucrezia lowered her head, pushing harder, forcing her body to find non-existent energy and propel herself from hell toward salvation.

How long did she run? She didn’t know. How far did she get? Probably not very.

But no matter the cut in her side, the bruises in her ankles, or the spasms in her lungs, she kept going. Kept running. She thanked the gods for her endless nights of nightmares which kept her awake, and for the first time in her life, was thankful for her small size.

Shadows chased her every step as snow descended on the sky. The yellow glow in the day was still light, still bright, coaxing her on, screaming at her to get up when she stumbled, and ordering her tears to stop as she gasped for breath.

She kept running - zigzagging as much as she could, cutting through deserted alleys and almost rolling her body over an inclined ground. She did everything she’d ever seen survivalists do when being hunted.

Despite the unending chaos deep within her, Lucrezia couldn’t hide her inner terror, and all she could think of was the one face she longed for even as darkness chased her.