Page 18 of Hateful
And they all want something from me.
Chapter Eight
I pauseon the hiking trail to catch my breath. I’ve taken a different path today; these trails snake all over these woods, tangling over themselves, but they always lead back to the same entrance point. I imagine it would be easy to get lost in these words, but so far I’ve always ended up back at the school.
Whether or not that’s a good thing.
I haven’t told anyone about my conversation with Headmistress Robin, not even Rafael. I remember what happened the last time he heard a threat aimed towards him because of me … and I don’t think I could handle him abandoning me right now.
Not when everything has started to feel socomplicatedagain.
Breath caught, I start running once more, heading back toward the main trail that will take me to the school. I’ve been out here for what must be close to an hour, not that it feels like it. I haven’t been running the entire time, sometimes I just pause beneath a tree and enjoy the cold and the sight of the crisp white snow all around me.
The silence is what gets me the most, though.
Out here among the trees it’s just me and … well … myself, I guess. Anything else that might be alive out here in this forest has long since fled or gone into hibernation. It’s become a welcome break from the ever-more-stifling halls of Bleakwood.
It’s been about two weeks since I started this, and my leg muscles are already getting tighter. It hasn’t been enough time for me to notice any difference in my weight. But the more I run, the more running I can do, and even if my butt doesn’t magically melt away, I’ll at least be able to outrun anyone who tries to come after me.
Whether that be The Brotherhood or Headmistress Robin herself in those high-heels of hers, I’ll be prepared this time.
My thoughts are interrupted with the sound of abnormal rustling in the trees up head, my head immediately snapping forward to investigate the sound as I skid to a halt and lean against a tree to catch my breath for a moment. It doesn’t sound like wind or an animal. It sounds like a human crunching through the underbrush.
I push myself off the trunk I’ve been leaning against and look around suspiciously. I don’t see anything right away, nothing out of the ordinary, anyway, but I decide it’s better to be safe than sorry. It’s probably time for me to start heading back.
Just as I’m ready to start running, none other thanHeathsteps out onto the trail up ahead.
I freeze, and he grins.
“Hey!” he calls out, raising one arm up over his head in greeting.
I have to squint at him through the bright reflections off the snow. His face is red, and his breathing is coming to him heavily.
“Have you been chasing me?” I snap, taking a half step back away from him.
He just shrugs. “Not really, but—damn, you’refast. I’ve just been trying to catch up.”
“Why?” I look around. I’m alone. There’s not another soul for miles, unless you count the people at Bleakwood, and I doubt they’d hear me if I scream.
Even if they did, I doubt even more that they would do anything about it.
“I wanted to talk to you.”
The words make my stomach knot up in a betraying way.No.No more of this.
But I also know there’s no avoiding him. If Heath—or any other member of The Brotherhood—has something he wants to say to me, I might as well let him say it.
“Talk while you jog,” I say, picking back up and running past him, expecting him to stay behind to catch his breath. To my surprise, he pulls up beside me, still panting.
“Why are you running so much?”
“Seriously? That’s what you wanted to talk about?” I shoot him an incredulous look. “You wanted to ask me why I’m our exercising?”
“Well—” He pauses to pant a little, and I hate the way my body reacts to the sound. “I just wanted to tell you that what happened the other day was just a joke.”
As if I needed any reminders. My stomach drops, but I keep pushing on. The image of his face so close to mine flashes into my head, but I have to force it away.
“Okay.”
