Page 1 of Hunting for her Heart
Chapter One
Willow
Every step sends a jolt of pain through my heel and up into my body. I’m not sure if there’s any part of me that doesn’t hurt right now.
Eyes widen as I pass along the sidewalk, their stares clinging to me. I fold my arms tighter around myself and quicken my pace, lowering my gaze to avoid meeting anyone’s eyes.
I can only imagine what they see when they look at me. I’m filthy, covered in bruises, and wearing only a dirty, thin nightgown. Malnourishment has left its mark on me. I look more like a gaunt teenager than a twenty-three-year-old woman.
The bruises are courtesy of my father and Paul, but the dirt covering my clothes, skin, and hair is thanks to my escape through the woods. I didn’t have a choice, though, and I’d do it all over again for this chance at freedom.
I glance at my arm and see it’s covered in small scratches, some still bleeding. I’m not surprised. I ran so fast throughthat forest. I didn't care about anything other than getting away from him. Fromthem.
Someone bumps into my shoulder, sending a fresh wave of pain through my body. But I don’t stop moving.I can’t.I have no idea where I am, or where I’m going, except that something in my gut tells me to keep heading down this street.
It’s not logic that’s telling me to go in this direction, but with no better alternative, I trust my gut, turning left at the next intersection.
I wish it was logic driving me, but I’ve never stepped foot off the compound before; everything I know about the real world I learned from eavesdropping on others or from my older sister, Isabella.
Thinking about her makes my heart ache. She managed to escape the compound six months ago and left me a note promising to find a way to break me out too. It was impossible for me to go with her at the time. We were never left alone together, as if they knew we’d run the first chance we got.
I knew things were bad for her. She’d been forced to marry a man she despised, although we hatedallthe men at the compound. They were mean and treated us like slaves. At least that was what Izzy told me when she snuck back in a week ago. She said she’s been trying to free me the entire time she’d been out in the real world, and that everything we’d been taught was a lie.
She tried to free me, but hadn’t accounted for my new leash. I glance down at my left wrist, where the broken skin looks raw and red. The only reason she came back was to help me escape, and she felt terrible having to leave again when we heard someone approaching my room. Shepromised to return and find a way to help me escape, but after last night, I knew I had to take action for my own life for once.
Suddenly, that gut instinct I’ve been following lurches to my left and I come to a stop, gasping at the strange sensation. I look at the door beside me and see it’s a small store.Once Upon a Spineis scrawled across the door, and when I look through the glass, I can see rows of bookshelves.
I take a quick glance over my shoulder to make sure nobody is following me, then yank the door open and step inside. My gaze moves quickly over the store, making sure there’s no threat in here.
“Hey, are you okay?” a woman asks. I glance in her direction as she moves around the counter and steps toward me. She has long, wavy, pale pink hair that looks so perfect it’s as if she was born with it that color.
She’s wearing an old-fashioned blue dress and stops a few feet from me, looking concerned at my appearance. Right now, I need help, and she looks safer than anyone else I’ve seen since I ran.
I push my long, messy blonde hair behind my ear and shake my head as I look around the store.
“N-no. I… I need help,” I tell her nervously.
“Okay, one second,” she says before moving past me to flip the open sign to closed and locking the door. “Come with me to the back. You’ll be safe here.”
I follow her through the rows of bookshelves, marveling at so many books. I wish I could stay here and read all of them. The only books we were allowed to read on the compound were textbooks and the sacred texts. When she stops in front of a door, I glance over my shoulder, making sure nobody is coming up behind us.
When I look back, she’s ushering me inside.
“Sit anywhere you like. I’ll get you some water,” she tells me before grabbing two bottles from the fridge.
I perch on the edge of the couch, afraid of getting it dirty, as she sits across from me, placing the bottles on the table. My eyes won’t stop moving around the room, waiting for a threat to pop up at any moment.
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe here.” I look at her and believe that she means what she says. I nod, trying to stop myself from continually glancing around. “Do you want to tell me your name?”
“W-Willow,” I tell her before licking my dry lips.
“Hi Willow, I’m Aribella. I’m not sure what’s going on, or how you ended up here, but you’re safe. I’ll help you figure it out.”
Her name reminds me of my sister, Isabella. I wish I knew where she was. I know she’d help me.
After looking me over, Aribella stands and grabs a sweater with a hood from the cupboard and passes it to me.
“T-thank you,” I whisper, quickly pulling it on to hide the marks on my arms and help me warm up.
