In Between Seasons

Chapter 47

I flicked the knife in my hand, catching it before spinning and tossing it at the tree. It buried itself in the hard flesh slightly to the left of where I was aiming. I huffed, grabbing another from the belt at my side and turned back around. I closed my eyes imagining the tree, a different one, slightly to the injured one's left. I darted towards it, weaving between the trees before I reached it, and began slashing it, ducking imaginary punches and finally whipping around and burying the blade in its flesh. Adrenaline rushed in my veins as I grabbed my last knife from my belt, turned and flipped it so it spun accurately into another tree across the way. The knife's vibration echoed through the empty woods as I felt a presence moving in. I looked over my shoulder as my breathing quickened in time with my pulse.

I shouldn't be this scared. I could kill. I looked at the knife filled trees. They proved it. I grabbed my knives and stuck them back into the belt as I spun in the woods. Inhale. Exhale. Why wasn't this working?

Inhale. Exhale.

The fear built in my muscles until they coiled, and I took off running. Where was Hunter? He was never far when I was training. I had started training during the day, close enough to hear the men, but far enough they couldn't hear me. That way, if something came, I could find Hunter, and we could go.

Each intake of air seared into my lungs as I rushed through the woods. I slowed as I looked around, and my breathing stopped. My heart stopped. My pulse stopped.

These were not Hunter's woods; these were mine.

My hands went into my hair as the crippling feeling of being here—of being home washed over me. It was all a dream.

I couldn't be here.

They would kill me.

The forest moved around me, and I turned as the nausea swept over my body. A dark movement caught my eye, and I grabbed my knife, crouching as I prepared for it to strike, but then it was gone.

I needed to keep going.

I needed to get out of there.

I burst forward, thrashing through the woods, but my footing was all over the place. The forest was moving too quickly around me; I was going to lose it. There! There it was again; that shadow moving slowly beside me. I found my footing and lurched forward even faster. The forest became a blur, but the shadow person still moved to the side of me. It moved slower than me but still managed to conquer my speed. As it moved into the light in front of me the features became lucid. I stopped dead but not of my own violation. I was forced to a stop as the figure rose in front of me with the crimson liquid of death pulsating from the bullet hole in its temple.

I was going to lose it. I held my stomach as I heaved, but Trevor just shook his head at me.

The blood trickled down his forehead, and then down with a sickening plop into the puddle at his feet. He cocked his head at me as he licked his lips and finally spoke, "Running again? I knew it wouldn't be long before you did."

"I'm not running from anything," I replied as I tried to dig my feet into the dirt. Something was pulling me forward, pushing me right into him.

His features contorted as his lips twisted into a smile that reached his black eyes, and he threw his head back as he laughed. It echoed across the woods—familiar, frightening and worst of all, dead.

He's dead, Kate! The thought didn't lessen the fear building in me. It's just a dream. It didn't matter.

"Come on, Kate," he said as his face lowered to mine. "You were always running scared. You never had the balls to really do anything despite the fact you saw it all too clear."

I blinked my eyes, fighting the urge to close them—to eradicate the image of the hole in his head. The hole Hunter had inflicted as Trevor tried to kill me. The hole that could very well be in my own skull now.

"I'm not scared of you!" I yelled, leaning into his face.

Finally, the gravity pulling me forward stopped. We stood on even ground, facing one another off.

"Of course not," Trevor said, circling me. I cringed as I felt his hand touch the back of my neck. His fingers were cold. "—I'm dead. You know you're not running from me!"

"I'm not running!"

Trevor stopped moving, still behind me, and he leaned forward so his breath wafted over my skin. Goosebumps rose as he whispered,

"Yes, you are."

"What am I running from then?" I demanded.

"You know, Kate. You're just ignoring what's right in front of you."

Trevor's cold hands gripped me and spun me to face him, but he wasn't there anymore.

"Sara!" I screamed her name as rage filled my body.

She lifted her chin and winked at me.

"Kate!" Hunter was shaking me. Hunter!

My eyes flashed open as I leaned forward, my chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath.

"You okay?" Hunter asked, rubbing my back as I choked in air.

I nodded my head.

"Another nightmare?"

"Yeah," I whispered as I slipped out of bed.

I splashed cold water on my face before looking up at Hunter standing in the doorframe.

"Are you ever going to tell me what they're about?" he asked as he grabbed the face towel and handed it to me.

"If I understood what they meant, I would tell you," I replied as my breathing finally calmed.

"You've been having them ever since you fell down the stairs." Hunter stepped forward to run his fingers over the scar on my temple.

"Are you sure you feel okay? I can call Doctor Skokie to come and give you a once over."

I shook my head before leaning into him.

"I'm fine," I whispered as I breathed him in.

He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my head.

"Okay," he replied, but I had a feeling he didn't believe me.