Selena
Ice. Snow. Night.
There was nothing but those three things beyond the wooden bridge. I squinted to try and see further, but snowflakes skated and danced through the air, forming a curtain before us.
Then something snagged my attention. Something that sent a chill down my already frozen spine.
Bones.
They crunched beneath our boots as we shuffled forward, clinging to each other in a throng of bodies. Bodies, I realised, that were sitting ducks for whatever was out here to hunt us. If anything Varick had said was true, we needed to split up, run, get as far away from this place as possible.
“Cass, move,” I hissed, her fingernails tearing into my arm. I treasured the pain, knowing it confirmed her presence, my eyes darting left and right through the veil of snow around us.
The bascule bridge creaked as it moved upwards, stranding us on the island for good.
One of the girls, Maria, in her sunshine yellow dress, darted toward the rising platform, screaming as she tried to reach the edge of it above her head.
“Maria!” Briony screeched, darting toward her as Maria teetered on the cliff edge. The sea water roared below, crashing against the endlessly sharp rocks. It was barely visible through the fog of snow, but the sheerness of the cliff walls alone was enough to invoke fear.
Maria's boots slipped from beneath her and Briony gripped her waist, dragging her back so they both tumbled to the ground in a heap.
“Selena,” Cass hissed, but I couldn't drag my eyes from the cliff. She shook my arm until I turned to her, finding her eyes trained on the snow before us.
Dark figures drew closer in the mist. The longer we stood there, the more vulnerable we became.
A sucking, sniffing sounded as they approached.
“Go.” I shoved Cass, not wanting to be around when the Vs emerged.
She stumbled over the hem of her long dress, gathering it up in her hands as we darted away from the other girls.
Footsteps pounded after us as the group followed. I glanced over my shoulder and the Vs descended on us.
Kite barged past me, faster than any of us as she took off into the snow and disappeared in an instant.
The wind swept across my path, surrounding us in a fog of white so I lost sight of the girls behind us.
But the screams didn't escape me.
I drew freezing breath after freezing breath into my laboured lungs, trying to focus on nothing but not falling as I ran, keeping my dress knotted up in my hands.
A scream cut short, followed by a vile gargling I knew I would never be able to wipe from my memory. Cass was just ahead, her long legs outpacing mine as I hurried to keep up.
The snowfall never let up, obscuring everything, both before us and behind. I kept my eyes on the swishing, dancing red hair of Cass ahead of me, stumbling over loose rocks and the ice that clung to the ground. The snow began to settle, so much so that we had to slow down, struggling through the thickening inches beneath our boots.
We hurried on for what felt like hours, walking until my legs ached and my lungs were raw. But we never stopped, not once, terrified of what was pursuing us out here.
A rush of air ruffled my hair and I ducked instinctively, clutching the stake tightly in my hand. Wheeling around, I saw only shadows dancing in the mist, but a strangled scream made every part of me shake.
The brief moment of distraction had separated me from the group. Cass was no longer visible and as I turned, left, right, round and round in circles, all I could see was the ever-pressing white mist.
I tried to slow my breathing, but no matter how hard I tried, it continued to drag raggedly from my lungs, seeming as loud as an alarm bell in my ears.
A crunch to my right made me slap a hand to my mouth. My fingers were numb, trembling, turning my lips to ice the longer I held them there.
Whispers filled the air like hushed prayers, working their way into my head. “Be still. Don't run, children. Come to us.”
The lulling voice soothed my heartbeat for a moment and I nearly removed the hand from my mouth.
Snow clumped in my hair, melting as it reached my skin beneath and sliding down my neck in a cool trickle. My hand began to move, seemingly of its own accord. I struggled to force the voices from my head, blinking out of my stupor.
I remained stock still, my heart in my throat.
“Here's one,” a sharp female voice cut through the mist.
I pinched my noise, my lungs burning for air. Footsteps sounded so close by, I was sure whoever was there was just feet away.
“Come here pretty girl,” a rough male voice joined the first.
“Hello?” a girl's voice sounded nearby. I shook my head in horror, wanting to call out to tell them to run, but knowing I couldn't.
“So pretty, all that long yellow hair.”
It wasn't me they'd found. And I despised myself for how much relief I felt for that.
“No more games, I'm starving,” the male voice said and a scuffle sounded, then a loud thump as something heavy hit the ground.
A blood-curdling scream reached to high heaven, making me want to claw at my ears just so I didn't have to hear it a second longer.
Tears sailed down my cheeks as I used the girl's death to hide my escape, fleeing at a sprint, running faster than I'd ever run before. How could I leave her? What kind of person did that make me?
As I fled, my legs gave way beneath me and I slammed into the ground, the stake flying from my grip. I gasped in horror, desperate to find it, scrabbling through the snow.
“What was that?” a voice hissed close by. Too close.
With a wrenching feeling, I abandoned my plight, standing and sprinting away. I was desperate as I traversed the uneven ground, trying to escape, losing my footing again and again.
A new noise eventually reached to me from the distance: the gushing of fast water. I scrambled my way toward it, practically blind in the snowstorm, clambering down a rocky hill in the pressing darkness.
The tears on my cheeks had frozen to two trails of ice, leaving my face numb from the cold.
As I reached the bottom of the hill, the mist lifted.
Snowflakes melted as they hit the obsidian river before me and the rising, rocky walls made me feel as though I were encased within a bowl. A waterfall flooded the space with a cacophonous roaring that I prayed would cover the sound of my movements.
Picking my way across the rocks, I moved along the shore, growing closer to the falls. The spray clung to my hair so it curled around me, glistening with water droplets and flecks of white snow.
How I was ever going to survive the night without getting hypothermia was challenge enough, let alone without those bloodthirsty creatures hunting me too.
A cave was my salvation; not much more than a dent in the rocks like huge knuckles had once taken a swing at the wall. Inside, it was mostly dry, and that would have to be enough. The cold bit at my skin and I huddled within my cloak, clutching it tightly around my shivering shoulders.
Death lurked in plain sight. Death by teeth, death by ice, death by exhaustion. These were just a few of my options. But in my frigid state, my teeth chattering and my body rocking a rhythmic pattern back and forth, I found a memory to cling to. Admittedly, it could be considered a bitter one. But to me it tasted sweeter than honey.
The moment my mother found me: my stepfather's body slumped on top of mine. I lay panting in a pool of heated blood, blood that had seeped over my skin. I never realised how warm it was, and considering the man my stepfather had been, I'd have guessed he was a cold-blooded creature.
Mum had rolled the body off of mine and I extracted the blade from his belly. He'd died so quickly. I had no idea it would be that way. And in all honesty, I hadn't thought through the process of killing him. But a kitchen knife had been tucked into the folds of my pillow case for months.
As I sat rocking, the persistent rattle of my teeth in my ears and the roar of water beyond the cave, I thought of the way the blood had felt on my skin. I relived the relief, then the resulting tears, hugging my mother until she too was drenched in his blood. We waited too long to call the police. That was my mistake. The one they pinned on me in court. Where was the remorse? What kind of teenager stabbed their stepfather and didn't shed a tear? It didn't matter what I'd said about the abuse. There was no proof. Of course I'd say that. And my stepfather had been an upstanding man in the community. He even donated generously to the local church.
I released a breath, watching as it turned to vapour before my eyes.
Still alive.
Still breathing.
Using the cuff on my wrist for light, I spotted the remains of an old fire, the wood was nearly burnt to a crisp. It had long since been put out and I wondered if these 'games' were held regularly.
Lighting it could be a death wish. The smoke could alert the Vs to my presence. But the snow had soaked me through to the bone and, now that my adrenaline had subsided, I was shivering uncontrollably.
Perhaps another twenty minutes passed before my resolve finally broke.
Taking the matches from my bag, I stripped off small pieces of the box, gathering them into a pile before arranging them beneath the most salvageable log. I crumbled the charred ends of it so more kindling was added to the cardboard before striking the first match. It took three more to set the log alight, but it burned bright, crackling with red sparks as the bark was devoured.
If the spectators were watching, and no doubt they were, many probably just ripped up their betting slips for having chosen me as their winner. I tapped the cuff on my wrist, illuminating the map. Perhaps no more than a hundred acres was highlighted in blue on the hologram. Far to the west of the castle, on a corner of the island that tapered into a sharp point, sat a flashing red beacon: our first checkpoint. I had eleven hours left to make it there. And right then, that didn't seem like much time.
As the fire grew, I shed my cloak, laying it out to dry beside it. My hands soon regained feeling and my lips no longer felt like two lumps of ice clinging to my face.
My instincts told me fire and smoke were bound to draw the attention of my hunters. I just had to hope they had more easy targets to occupy them. However dark that thought was.
Soon, the constant gushing of the waterfall and the flicker of the firelight offered the illusion of safety. I curled up like a child before the flames, thinking over my next move. I couldn't waste much more time. Reaching my fingers toward the fire as close as I could manage without burning myself, I resolved to give myself a little longer in its embrace before I moved. Besides, it seemed like a reasonable idea to wait until some of the girls had journeyed away from this area, drawing the Vs away with them.
Every new sound that reached my ears made my body twitch and jolt. Soon I'd be plunged into darkness, forced to face the cold once more.
A noise made me sit up; a pebble overturned by a shoe. Standing, I readied myself to face whatever came at me. It was too late to douse the fire. If a Vampire was close, it already knew I was here.