Chapter 5 Escape Attempt

Trigger Warning: Emotional trauma, parental rejection, abandonment)

She stayed there long after they were gone. The door had clicked shut. The sound still rang in her ears. She didn't move. She didn't cry at first. She just... sat.

Her knees were curled to her chest, her arms hugging them so tightly her nails dug into her skin. Her face pressed into her thighs. Her breath shallow and wet, each inhale a struggle, like she had to teach her body to survive again.

Then the silence broke. And she did too. Her mouth opened but no sound came at first. Just a gasp. A small, aching little hiccup from the back of her throat. Then another. Then a sob, sharp and sudden, like a wound had been torn open inside her chest.

She curled tighter and let it pour out. Her cries weren't gentle. They weren't soft. They were ugly. Loud. Raw. She sobbed until her throat burned. Until her stomach cramped.

Until she couldn't breathe without it hurting. And through it all, she kept shaking her head, whispering the same thing over and over again like a broken prayer.

"No. No. No. No." Her voice cracked. "You can't do this to me." She slammed her hand against the tile. "I didn't do anything wrong." She was shaking violently now. Her tears soaked through the front of her nightgown.

Her breath hitched. "I tried. I tried so fucking hard." She pulled at her hair, rocked in place, her body pulsing with pain that no one else could see. "I trained. I listened. I kept my mouth shut when they hurt me. I smiled when they laughed. I was good. I was obedient. I didn't complain. I didn't ask for more. I didn't ask for anything." She looked up at the ceiling, her voice sharp and shaking.

"Why wasn't I enough?" Her eyes landed on the window. The moon was out. A pale silver sliver in the dark sky. Her breathing slowed. Her voice fell to a whisper again.

"Moon Goddess..." She blinked through her tears and stared at the sky. "Are you listening?" The silence answered.

"I never asked you for anything. Never once. I didn't blame you when I didn't shift. I didn't curse you when I was weaker. I thought maybe... maybe I was just different. Maybe I needed more time. I thought one day you'd show me. That you'd pick me too." Her lips trembled.

"I thought you were just waiting for the right moment." She let out a sound. Somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "I thought you loved me." Her voice broke again.

"I used to look up at you every night and talk to you. When I couldn't sleep. When Sylvana hurt me. When Thorne locked me outside. I thought you were watching.

I thought maybe one day you'd answer me." She shook her head slowly. "But you didn't." She wiped her face with both hands. It didn't help. The tears kept coming.

"I'm going to die tomorrow." Her voice was barely a whisper now. "They're sending me to him. I don't even know what I am. I haven't shifted. I just started bleeding.

I still sleep with the lights on sometimes. I'm just a girl. I'm just..." She closed her eyes tight. "I'm just a girl." And then- Her voice changed. Softer. More fragile. Like a child calling into the dark. "Mom..." She swallowed hard.

"Mom, if you're there... if you're listening... please. Please tell me what to do." She crawled toward the window, slow and weak, her hands dragging across the floor. She knelt beneath the moonlight and pressed her forehead to the glass.

"I remember your voice. I remember the way you used to hum when you brushed my hair. I remember you said I was born under a quiet moon. That it meant I'd grow slow but shine bright." A tear rolled down her cheek. "I believed you." She opened her eyes and stared at the stars.

"I don't know who I am. I don't know what's inside me. But I know this isn't right. I know I'm not meant to die like this." She pressed her palm against the glass.

"Please tell me what to do. Please help me." Silence. She sat back. Took a breath. Then another. And then something shifted in her. She didn't know what it was.

But it was small. And angry. And alive. She stood up slowly. Her legs wobbled, but she stayed upright. She looked around her room. At the books she never got to finish. The cracked mirror.

The quilt her mother once made. The only place that had ever belonged to her. And she said it. Out loud.

"I must not let this happen." Her voice didn't shake this time. "I need to get out of here." She turned toward her bed and opened the drawer. Pulled out her satchel. Shoved the last of her clothes inside. A flask. Two apples.

The worn handkerchief that smelled like old lavender and something warm she couldn't name. She tied it tight. She went to the wardrobe and took her boots.

Then stood in front of the window once more. She looked up at the moon. Her heart was still broken. Her eyes still red. Her chest still tight with grief. But her voice came steady now. "I'm scared." A breath.

"But I want to live." Another breath. "I have to escape." She nodded once. "It's for my own good." Her hand gripped the strap of her bag. Her jaw clenched.

"I can do this."

**

Sera stood in her room, staring at the door. Her bag was packed. Her boots were not yet laced. Her hands were trembling. Her heart raised like a war drum inside her chest.

She couldn't breath properly as she felt her heartbeat in her mouth. "You have to move," she whispered to herself. "Now. Before they wake up." She stepped toward the door, every inch of her body tensed like it expected to be struck. Her fingers hovered over the knob.

"Just get to the woods." Her voice was hoarse. "You can figure it out from there." Her fingers reached for the bag she had already packed. It waited by the bed, small and worn, stuffed with the only clothes she owned that weren't torn. Her boots were beside it.

She slid them on without tying them, not yet. Not until she was past the stone walk. She couldn't risk the sound.

Her heart pounded louder than her footsteps. She opened her bedroom door. Just a crack. Just enough to see the hallway.

Dark. Still. The entire house slept. She exhaled, quiet and slow. Then moved. She crept past Sylvana's door. Then Thorne's. Her father's. The scent of his cologne reached her nose as her stomach twisted.

Her feet were silent against the wood Then the stairs creaked once. She froze. Waited. No footsteps above. No one stirred. She kept moving. The kitchen was empty.

The room where she had once eaten with her mother in secret. Hidden laughter. Whispered stories over burnt toast. She looked at the table and felt something tighten in her chest.

Not now. She could not let her emotions ger the best of her. She crossed to the pantry. Her fingers found the latch to the servant's door. The knob turned with a soft click.

Then boom she was out. The air that hit her face was cold as the wind kissed her cheeks and curled around her curls.

The moon hung like a watching eye. Pale. Full. Silent. She stepped outside and closed the door behind her. Then ran. She didn't know where she was going. She just knew it had to be far. Her boots hit dirt.She didn't stop.

Branches scraped her arms. Brambles tore at her skirt. The bag bounced against her back. Every breath came hard. Her lungs ached. Her legs burned. But she kept running. "I can do this," she whispered to herself, voice raw, chest heaving.

"I can do this. I have to." The trees whispered around her. The wind curled through the branches like it knew her name. Her feet found a familiar path toward the eastern ridge. Beyond it, freedom. Or at least something that wasn't him.

"Just get over the ridge," she breathed. "Just get past it and don't look back." Her mother's voice echoed in her head.

That soft hum. The way she used to stroke her hair and tell her stories of wolves made of starlight and girls who burned brighter than the moon. She had believed it.

"I'm not ready to die," she whispered. "I'm not ready to be anyone's anything." Her boot caught a rock. She stumbled, caught herself, and kept going. Her hands clutched her bag straps tighter.

"I'm not theirs," she whispered. "I'm not his." She pushed harder. Faster. "Moon Goddess, please," she whispered. "Please let me go. Please let me get out." The woods grew thicker. Darker.

The wind shifted. A sound. Too close. She stopped. Her breath caught. Her body went still. She turned, eyes wide, chest rising and falling too fast. Nothing. Only trees.

Only darkness. She swallowed and turned forward again. Another sound. Closer this time. She panicked as she gulped but she couldn't waste more time so she ran faster! Oh wait scratch that. She bolted.

Branches whipped against her face. Her legs pumped. Her lungs burned. But she didn't stop. Don't look back. Just run. "I'm almost there," she gasped.

"Please, please just let me go. Just a little more." She could see the ridge now. She could see the gap in the trees where the hill dipped. She could feel hope breaking through her panic.

Finally she escaped. Finally!!! No one would get her! Then. A snap. A breath. A shadow behind her. Then a hand. It shot out from the dark and tangled in her hair.

Fingers twisted hard into the roots. She screamed, loud and raw, as her body was yanked backward with force. She hit the ground. Hard. Her back slammed against the dirt. Her boots kicked wildly. Her scalp burned.

Her hands reached up to claw at the grip in her hair. "Let go of me!!!" She barely had time to breathe before a voice whispered behind her. Right behind her ear.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?"