Barron's Prey

Molly & Barron

Chapter 14

Molly

Her feet pounded against the dirt as she ran through the woods. She didn't worry about all the noise she was making, not when the monster following her could just smell which way she was going. No, she had to conserve her mental energy, not spend every second she had trying to out maneuver them. She wasn't egotistical enough to think that she was better at the game these things played.

"Come out, come out wherever you are!" taunted a voice in the woods.

She fought the urge to whip her head in the direction of the noise. She had learned the last time that she'd smacked her head into a branch that looking anywhere except in front of her was a mistake. Breathing deep, she pushed herself harder. If she could make it to the river, she would be fine. If she could get herself to the one place where she belonged, she could make it through this.

Something swiped at the back of her leg, causing her to stumble and cry out. The yowl of laughter behind her forced her to keep moving. They said that cats liked to play with their prey, and the oversized asshole chasing her proved that fact. She didn't even want to count the amount of scars she had on her body. She didn't want to know all the damage these creatures had done to her in the past year. No, she'd continue doing what she had from day one, and take every second she could to escape this hell hole.

"Molly, darling, you know running only makes it worse," a feminine voice called out. "If you just stop now and let us bring you back, we'll go easy on you."

She snorted, knowing the lie. She'd been there, done that. The last time they had made the promise, she was still so drugged from their experiments that she hadn't been able to sense the lie. "Not happening," she whispered under her breath as the sound of water filled her ears.

With tears of joy running down her face, she pushed herself a little harder. Only feet away from her destination, something slammed into her back. Smacking the forest floor hard, she let out a cry of frustration. Not again. Not this time. She wasn't going back. She couldn't keep letting them stab her with needles. She couldn't keep letting them try to take the one thing that made her who she was.

Digging her fingers into the forest ground, she tried dragging her body away from the claws pressing into her shoulders. Deep rivets of blood began pooling onto the dirt, but she pushed that fact to the back of her mind. Whatever they had given her this time had kept the pain mostly at bay. Oh, she could still feel it, but her mind took long enough to catch up that she hadn't passed out yet.

"Bad, kitty," the laughing voice said as the claws began to retract. "We can't kill Molly."

They could, and they would. Just as soon as they got what they wanted out of her. She couldn't let that happen. She couldn't let these monsters succeed in their plans. Reaching out as far as she could, she let out a relieved sigh as her fingertips touched water. The pain in her shoulders and calf receded; the cuts on her feet disappeared. But as she let the water heal her wounds, she felt it snap something together deep inside of her.

With a yell, she jerked her hand away, but it was too late. Without her permission, her body began withering on the forest floor. Bones popped out of place, reforming with an agony that she had never felt in her life. Even the people she had been surrounded by in the last year hadn't inflicted this much pain.

Panting, she glanced at the woman who had pursued her. A large smile was on the beautiful woman's face as she patted the lion beside her. "It's working, Joseph. Look! We did it, we've created one."

The lion transformed smoothly, turning into the man Molly had loathed for as long as she had seen him. "Don't get too excited. The last one who got this far died during the transformation. We can't try it on you until we know for a fact that it will work." He stared at Molly with a creepy grin on his face as her body reformed itself. "Plus, we'll still need her after this. We need to do more experiments, find out exactly what combination caused her to transform."