My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 27

Nina

I didn’t stick around long enough to find out what would happen if I didn’t run, and I didn’t look over my shoulder. I focused on the sidewalk ahead, running as fast as I could as my fear came true: I heard the sound of feet running behind me. They were getting closer, and I knew that the stranger was pursuing me.

“Help!” I yelled, but the streets were deserted. No one was around to hear me, and even if they were, I had heard stories about women’s cries for help being ignored before. I couldn’t even call the police since I lost my phone.

“Slow down!” the stranger called from behind me. I picked up my pace, my heart pounding harder and faster with every step, my legs pumping as fast as I could make them.

Suddenly, the stranger picked up his speed and caught up to me, circling around me and cutting me off. I shrieked and turned around to run in the other direction, but he grabbed my wrist and held me fast.

“Let go!” I screamed, wrenching my arm as hard as I could. My wrist burned and throbbed, but I got away.

I had two options: keep running in a straight line out in the open in the hopes that he would either give up or someone would come along to help me, although he would probably catch me again just as easily, or… I could dart into the woods next to us and use the darkness to my advantage. Maybe I could lose him between the trees, plus the campus was right on the other side of this patch of woods, so I could possibly find a public safety officer once I got there.

I knew it wasn’t the smartest option, but it made sense in my terrified mind.

Without taking longer to think about it, I sprinted as fast as I could into the woods.

“Hey!” the stranger yelled, crashing into the woods after me as I wove around trees in an attempt to lose him. “You’re not gonna get far. I can smell you!”

My heart leaped up in my throat. He could… smell me?

This guy was really nuts!

I kept running, darting through the dark woods in the hopes that I would lose him, but his footsteps never sounded far off. My lungs and my legs burned, but still I picked up speed. Just a little more distance and I would come out on the other side of the woods…

It was dark, and I didn’t see the ravine.

Suddenly, I was falling down a hill, my limbs scraping against rocks and tree roots as I tumbled down. I felt my head hit against something hard, then everything went black.

When I came to, I was laying in the bottom of the ravine. I groaned and sat up, mud caked to my face and my clothes, and frantically looked around. The stranger was nowhere to be found; had I lost him, or had he just not caught up yet?

I attempted to stand. Thankfully, my body wasn’t completely broken, although I felt dizzy from hitting my head.

The side of the ravine was steep, and when I tried to climb it, my sore and trembling limbs couldn’t muster up enough strength to haul myself up. I would have to find an area that was less steep, but it was hard to see in the darkness down here without a flashlight.

I started to walk carefully, my shoes soaked with water and mud. Every step ached more and more, but I had to keep going in case the stranger was going to catch up, and even if he did give up and leave, I couldn’t spend the night out here in the woods.

The further I walked, the sounds of the woods became more pronounced and frightening. Every sound of the wind creaking through the pine trees, the hoot of an owl, and the scurrying of a weasel made me jump like a scared animal, but I did my best to calm my nerves and just keep going.

There was one sound, however, that was different from the rest.

It sounded like a low growl.

I turned in a full circle, my eyes scanning my surroundings as best they could in the dark. There was nothing there that I could see, but I felt like… prey.

The growling grew louder. Was it a bear? A mountain lion? A wolf? I had never thought that such animals would linger so close to town and to campus, but it wasn’t unheard of here in Canada. I felt incredibly stupid for coming out here in the middle of the night like this, but what other choice did I have?

“Don’t… move.”

The stranger’s voice came right from behind me. I went to scream, but a gloved hand clapped over my mouth and a thin arm wrapped around my waist. All I could do was squeeze my eyes shut tight and hope that my fate would at least be quick and painless.

The growling grew in volume. It didn’t sound like any animal I had heard before. It sounded… human and catlike at the same time, and it wasn’t coming from the stranger.

“Stay back!” the stranger shouted. “She’s protected.”

Protected?