Author's Note: 13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡizJ2aUIfcT
Today is day one of daily posts! It just so happens to be the introduction of a new character. I wanted to do this for two reason though. One, there is a challenge on another platform to have a certain amount of words posted in 30 days... Hopefully I signed up for it correctly. And B, I am sacrificing the buffer to get to the next part of the story! 13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOwsJlUhhSw
⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘₊ ⊹ Soul 𓉸 Rejected ⊹ ₊⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1jWFNBnD5w
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡebxGEspquI
Julian awoke on his back, staring at a pale full moon peeking through the treetops. He had a clear view of the starry night sky through a hole in the tree canopy made by his descent.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡifsA7Qqq7u
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡld6TejKNiM
This was an unfamiliar sight for him. He should have been looking up at his bedroom ceiling. And beneath him should have been a mattress on his bedroom floor, not the mud soaking into the fabric of his pajamas.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSQqVYCO3sX
He shouldn’t be here. He couldn't be here– wherever “here” was.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkGnPOSZT3M
He had school tomorrow. Not that he really wanted to go to school. He hated everyone there. Even the teachers. But they told his father that if he skipped another day, he’d be expelled.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpdIXMMEm7U
Something kicked his leg, interrupting his thoughts and that something fell to the mud next to him with a splash. A man, sprinting through the forest in the middle of the night, had tripped over Julian.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg0lFjwtEdc
He turned his groggy head to his left where the man had landed. He stared with weary eyes, letting them adjust to darkness trying to fixate on recognizable shapes and edges. The details of that face slowly became woven from midnight, shaping into something human and discernable. The man's complexion was so dark that the night was nearly enough to disguise where the mud ended and his face began. It was just a moment, so the only thing Julian could see clearly was the piercing white of a pair eyes filled to the brim with sheer dread staring back at him.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWDv0igdGnK
He was terrified.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxS0hefbTHW
The fleeting moment passed, along with any opportunity to ask questions. The strange man looked back the way he came before stumbling to his feet again and sprinting deeper into the woods. Another man, then another, each slapped leaves and mud with bare feet, splashing drops of the cold forest floor into the air and onto Julian's bewildered face.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW60FWCwqFA
This couldn't have been a dream. The mud felt too real. Not to mention the soreness he felt in his ankle from being kicked by a grown man going full speed.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs9vhDfQ1Cc
This was certainly real.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lob9kPQPe
That might also mean that the monster peeling open his bedroom like a tin can moments ago could have been real too. A paralysis demon ripping off the ceiling, reaching towards him and chanting some nonsense language didn’t usually fall anywhere near the realm of reality. Floating towards the ceiling in a crackling purple portal might have been a dream, but maybe, just maybe, it was a memory of events leading up to his current predicament. Though this was unlikely.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqmkUrBgLS6
One thing he knew for sure, he was really in a forest and those were some real dudes running scared. His natural instinct was to start running too but still, the question nagged him. The question of who they were running from.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ53cTyaut74
Barking sounded from the distance in the direction the men came, accompanied by voices. He snapped upright when he heard the sound of raised voices.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEVxY2scyjX
"Get on, boy! Get! Get!"
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1kZimMzt0b
He didn’t like the way they said “boy.”
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGRqd1DA5yx
The barking grew louder. So did the yelling. A soft orange light flickered on trees in the distance.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKExepwJVYh
“I think I see one! Go on, girl, let’s go.”
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQgyf4yBU8s
Julian felt fear swelling in his gut. This must have been what those men were running from. He didn’t wait to find out. He sprung to his feet and took off after them.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9rRARVe1xx
The ground was soft and muddy in some areas beneath him. ‘Quick’ was usually an understatement when it came to Julian’s running. But this time, the sludge of the forest floor didn’t let go of his feet easily. The mud suctioned and the leaves threatened to slip from beneath him with each stride. Its resistance strained his muscles.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnytez7BI3n
The sounds of the pursuers drew closer behind him, but the burning in his legs grew, refusing to take him any faster. This was no track, not the neighborhood pavement. This was a treacherous forest with bushes and sticks that cut his shins and the bottoms of his feet.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8bNQCNInd2
He could feel danger caress his neck, skin crawling at the sound of disembodied footsteps lockstep on his tail. He ducked under branches, weaved steps between rocks and dodged bushes until a fallen log seemed to emerge from the darkness underfoot. He leaped but his foot slid instead of finding purchase, stealing the landing from him. His momentum sent him face first into a puddle of mud.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxI5lRsgPrJ
He righted himself with a quickness but looking behind him, the orange light of torches paint tree trunks that were far closer than he would’ve liked. Hope seemed to recede with the shadows as the light illuminated the bark of trees around him.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjjEtKbzcL3
This wasn’t like the light that brightens a room. Sure, it would, but the fiery glow was more like a consuming light. It was looking for something or someone. But it was impartial, willing to find anything and anyone for the sole purpose of engulfing them. This light made someone want to be counted among the hidden.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeloPTPI6Yz
Now, he was soaked head to toe in mud and leaves, weighing down the shirt and gym shorts he wore to bed. If it was difficult to run before, he doubted he stood a better chance with the added weight. He wouldn’t increase the distance between them by trying to run again.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡREFRfZVlXO
He wiped his face and squinted into the shadows cowering from pursuers. Only a few feet from him jutted a low hung branch that looked barely strong enough to hold his weight. There was no time. They were close.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4h7wXH7BuS
He shook off some of the mud weighing him down, and struggled to ascend the tree. Maybe it was the mud or maybe his palms were the ones soaking the bark beneath his grip. Either way, it felt to him like the very distance from the ground was pulling him by the collar, backwards and toward the earth again.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYhkE4c4bgZ
Within mere seconds, the trunk grew narrow and the forest grew small beneath him.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgfYNNT60K7
In that span, the hunting party quickly trampled the footprints he left in the mud only a moment ago.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsokfsW8aGs
Julian didn’t dare move an inch or so much as breath. He didn’t know who this crew of night crawlers were, but he could tell that he didn’t want to garner their attention. He clung, frozen, both physically but also in temperature as a night breeze chilled the wet remnants of mud coating his skin.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxZcwQTHW1E
At the base of the trees, the hunting party slowed a little with the dogs that lingered only for a moment to investigate a scent they can’t seem to place. Four men and three dogs passed beneath him with a feminine figure with a bandana over her mouth and nose lagging close behind. Each of the men had shotguns strapped over their shoulder and a leashed dog or torch in each hand.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxINN3DozWc
But it was the woman who caught his eye. She seemed to notice something the others overlooked. Julian watched her slow her pace as she passed the mud that Julian just crawled out of. It was clearly illuminated by the fire of the torches that lingered for approximately two eternities.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw5WakiN2V1
He could see her head tilt, examining the mud, tracing the tracks and divots in the sludged surface. Her head clearly followed a set of tracks in the ground. She traced the steps like a predator looming over her prey, following the trail that led to the base of Julian’s tree.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHlaT8IWoh5
Her gaze remained affixed on the bark for ages, picking a soggy leaf from the first branch Julian used to climb the tree. She twisted the stem of the leaf between her finger and thumb, the leaf limply spun along as she stared at it. When she finally released it, she didn’t watch it fall. Instead, she looked further up the trunk, tilting her head back to follow the trunk all the way up.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBq9QmJ7Mhq
Julian could see her from where he clung to the branches. He could see her pale skin glowing in the orange light, partially concealed by the bandana covering the bottom half of her face. He could see the whites of her searching eyes glint in the flickering flames, even as the men began their search again and the torches moved away. That predatory glare. Her eyes ripped leaves off branches and peeled away stray twigs, trying to find some fault in their design. Something off. Something not shaped the way a tree should. Something man-shaped.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyIZF91JyL9
Her gaze didn't relent, climbing higher than most men would dare go and searching limbs that could never support a man’s weight. If Julian wasn't so thin and nimble, he would have never made it as high as he did. Still, it took her only seconds before her eyes finally rested on him.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJB3wTUbxgW
His heart dropped to the roots.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTFzSzzeyDj
He didn’t dare move.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡClhsBxw6TO
Her eyes narrowed, squeezing out the shimmer of the torches as they drifted deeper into the forest without her. She was so far down and so small, he couldn't tell exactly what she was looking at. But it looked a lot like she was staring right at him.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF46X5Jn5Co
He wanted to cling tighter, but he didn't, any movement might give him away. He wanted to close his eyes and wake back up in his bed, but that was never an option. He felt small and helpless. Just like always.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4WqLDLXmS6
She took a half step closer, tilting her head to the side. She might not know it, but she was locked in perfect eye contact with Julian.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Iogzzegrv
"Yeee! That's a boy, righ’ therr! Yee yee, yeeww!" A man’s voice called from where the rest of the hunting party continued.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgqsWK8QO28
Her head snapped to the sound like a bear trap. She didn’t offer the tree a second glance before starting towards the commotion.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNy8Ac9i6Mi
Julian choked on the breath he was holding, barely able to muffle the sound.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CsHc1v8rF
She had already moved on but the impression she left in the forest lingered. It was like the crickets refused to chirp so as not to draw too attention. He couldn’t help but feel like she could have him killed with a single word. He had never felt that before tonight.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2HYsHtQHeg
Even when he was mugged, he never felt he was going to die. Something about her eyes told him that there was no mercy in that soul. He was helpless. There was no Dad, no cops, nor high school administrators. Just him and that force wearing a bandana over her face
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwTdJpgevEA
Hopeless.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpXoABAo23T
Helpless.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSaC4jRviTB
And stuck up a tree.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKnwpyYsKxz
She left! It’s time to move…
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLkETVG987s
Go.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNlpxWH7Zjl
His body refused him.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbJDQ7XSLxo
Move.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvIno9jYJwX
His grip didn’t loosen.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl7GVSopPy5
Move!
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXF09Y3RtNB
He obeyed himself at last, descending with trepidation. At the tree base, he watched the woods darken and the light of torches faded. Without the presence of danger, he started to feel silly for letting such an innocuous event shake him. Of course, he was never in any real danger.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxB915lNeI4
This must be a dream, how could I have gotten here?
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡysNnGnBG9f
He should've just power-punched that woman to the moon or something for scaring him.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNGXDE6zc26
He turned around and took a step back the way he came before freezing in place.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡheCqZjtleH
If it was a dream, there would be no reason to walk away. So why leave?
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWvcH6qAmMC
He figured if this was a dream then he would go towards the danger, not away. And the mere fact that he considered it danger was a clear sign that deep down, he knew this wasn't a dream. It was all perfectly logical. And if it wasn't a dream…
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu527nBXcWv
I tripped that man.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGnV9N90KrX
They were caught because of me.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSNypFGw8Ql
He stared down at the footprints that carved the wet clay. Their edges reflected the moonlight brightly.
13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSksvDDK7pz
What happens when those men get caught?13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtkgAQFX6pb
and then Add to home screen.