A Caged Angel

Chapter 23

-Fearia-

It is two days until I get married to Kaiden. As time goes on I see my dreams fading away and reality setting in. I'm in the home gym Kaiden set up for me working out, trying to get rid of my thoughts that plague my mind.

Kaiden is at work right now, he said he will be out late tonight so that usually means he won't be back till one in the morning.

After I'm done with my workout I go downstairs and grab a snack before my daily afternoon run. I like running in the afternoon when the sun starts to go down and I can feel the coolness in the air. I go to our bedroom and change into a pair of running shorts and a sports bra. Once I'm done I grab my running shoes, tie them up and head out the door.

I run for a while, the sun is starting to go down. The golden hour glow has always been the most beautiful time of day. I'm in the middle of the woods behind the castle where no one normally is.

For the past few days I haven't been able to get my mind off of what my life will come to after Kaiden marries me. Will everything change, will he expect more from me, or will it all just stay the same and he just wants to put a label on us.

I come across a side path one that I know leads to the out of the castle grounds. Kaiden told me to never go down it but the urge to do so right now is high. The possibility that maybe just maybe if I run down this path everything will go back to normal is all I can think about.

So I do it. I ran down the path without thinking. It's like any normal path through the wood, tree and bushes to either side of me, fallen branches and rocks scattered along the dirt path. It winds through different trees and the terrain.

But then I see its end, an open field filled with tall grass. In the distance I can see mountains on the horizon. But then I hear yelling coming from behind me, I turn back to realize three men are sprinting down the dirt path coming towards me. Instinctively I run, trying to get away from them. I don't know their intentions with me, or even if they are here for me. All I know is they could be running from danger or be the danger itself.
I run through the open field, staring at the beautiful horizon that is set in front of me. I could sit out here all day and just stare at the sky if I wanted to. But I need to run so I run as fast as I can hoping to get to the other side of the field where there is another tree line I can maybe hide in.

The shouting behind me grows louder and more clear. I can hear now that they are shouting at me. Words like "stop, quit running, and slow down" is all I can desfier from their yelling. I turn to glance at them again. And now instead of three guards there are two people on quads coming up behind them. I can tell they are guards from the castle which scares me. Will they tell Kaiden I was out here? He told me not to go down that path and I did and I still continue to run away.

Even though they keep yelling that doesn't stop me from running. I reach the other side of the field and enter the woods hoping to lose them in the dense forest. I keep running and running but then I'm halted in my tracks when I see a massive gorge in front of me preventing me from running any further. The men that have been chasing me still continue to and are now closing in on me and I have nowhere to run. Nowhere to go, I'm trapped.

"Stay back!" I yell at them as they come closer to me.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," one of them tells me.

The guards come up to me and grab my wrists pinning them behind my back. I struggle in their grasp trying to get out of their hold. "I see someone tried to make a run for it," one of the guards says to me.

"She actually got farther than I thought she would," the other replies back to him.

I stay in silence knowing that whatever I do won't help me. All I can think about is what Kaiden is going to do to me when he finds out what I have done.