"If you define cowardice as running away at the first sign of danger, screaming and tripping and begging for mercy, then yes, Mr Brave man, I guess I'm a coward."  - Jack Handy.

Breathes rapid and steps mismatched. Shaking pupils and trembling hands to aware of the wood of the trees they touched. Same couldn't be said for the scampering feet that stumbled over fallen branches and jutting out rocks. How long was it until sundown? Why was she running again? What had her so frantic?

That's right. It was because of him. He who she thought she had been able to escape. But he had come back again, taken her while her parents weren't around to bring her to this deserted road with the explanation of no one having her if he couldn't have her.

Oh, how she didn't want to remember that. 

She could hear him coming from somewhere behind her. He was yelling out her name and she had never hated her name so much until this moment. It was so much more terrifying hearing it fall from his lips than it ever had been before. She wished something would scoop her up and disappear to a safer place with her. She wanted safety and shelter again but it was so far away.

She had no idea where she was. All she had was the woods full of trees and bushes and rocks with all these other pointy things that pricked and cut through her skin as she haphazardly stumbled from tree to tree and over rock after rock and fallen branches.

"You can't leave me!" He yelled and it seemed to echo all around her. She looked left to right.

He was closer than she thought he was and that meant she hadn't been moving quickly enough. She saw a drop in the ground and the safety of being invisible to the eye sounded like her best option. Without another thought, she ran for the drop in the ground. She didn't care how she got down there, just as long as she was there and not anywhere that she could be seen by him.

Something cut through the flesh of her shin. Something else slapped her in the face, a branch, she later realised. She pushed herself off her back with shaky arms, looking around again as she winced in pain, finding no time that she could waste rolling on the ground dwelling over the pain she had just caused herself.

"The more you run the worse it will be for you, honey! We've been through this already!" He exclaimed and her head flicked up, the bushes around her rustled as she got up, limping before she could take off in a full run with a stiff jaw that clenched harder with every move she made to push herself forward through the pain searing across her body. She couldn't tell if adrenaline was causing her to disregard her pain or if her pain was controlling her. Her movements were jerky and lacked fluidity as she moved one direction and then the other in hopes of losing him.

She turned, changing direction for the right as she weaved through the trees. Somehow she couldn't lose him, even after taking that tumble downhill. His footsteps were loud and heavy and they gained on her as she crashed into another body. She screamed louder than she ever had before as the first thought crossing her mind was that it was him she was slamming into.

Instead, someone else screamed.

It was wilder and deeper than hers but it was a scream that followed with the same quick-paced ragged breaths that she was taking as she curled up on the floor of the woods, knowing she was doomed with her chance to escape him flying out the window. There was nowhere to run and there was nowhere to hide as something scrambled around her, hissing and snarling, filled with fear that was causing her own body to tremble. She covered her ears and curled into a ball, hiding her face in her knees as she squeezed her eyes shut, preparing for what she knew we coming for her.

A young girl.

What was she doing out in this part of the world? The new figure was confused, distressed and worried for his own safety, threat, his inner voice repeated to him as he jumped back from the collision. Looking at her, curling into a ball and hiding instead of facing him head-on, told him that she felt the same way if not ten times worse than what he was feeling. It made him think that she was running away from something and it all made sense, her demeanour and lack of will towards fighting when another figure loomed over the strangers, his shadow taking the light away from him and the young girl that he was faced with.

"There you are" He chuckled. He looked sick, crazed and overjoyed by the power he was feeling looming over the both of them and he realised why the young girl was running away from the other male, he was a danger to her. He was sickly pale, his eyes had red veins and his lips were passed chapped, cracking with dry blood visible, and that was just his face. 

The crouched figure growled defensively when the male raised his hand holding a baseball bat tightly. There was no way that he was going to get hit with that thing. There was no way the young girl was going to face the wood of the sports equipment either, his instincts told him and his mind panicked over why he was protecting someone weaker than himself suddenly. The other male faltered, the defensive growls coming out of another who looked human but acted otherwise had thrown him off, not noticing that he was there, on all fours in a defensive stance near the hunched body of what belonged to him.

Too much danger. Run away.

His mind screamed at him.

"Scram if you know what's good for you" His eyes widened at the other male but he only received a louder growl, a more persistent warning than the first sound. 

"Very well. I'll show you what happens when what I own tries to leave me" The bat was swinging.

But the looming figure was never able to make contact with their target. Finally standing to his full height, the new male jumped forward and with his arms crossed defensively in front of himself, he took the swing of the bat against his raised arms. The force of the hit had his feet scraping back against the floor of the earth. But he planted his feet steadily and didn't let the hit push him any further. He did his job to shield the hit from landing on the shivering figure at his feet and through his arms he looked up with dark eyes, glinting with the clear desire to end the life of the person in front of him. 

Another growl rumbled out of his mouth from his chest and the bat was raised again. But he snarled and lunged forward to throw himself on the other male this time. The animalistic sounds had the young woman opening her eyes with fear. She looked up and almost screamed because of what she saw. The strikes made were quick, strong and impactful, knocking down the one she had spent all this time trying to run from. The new figure hunched over him bearing his teeth to let out a warning snarl.

His eyes, dark and dangerous snapped to hers, wide and terrified, then he lunged forward again. She screamed, using her hands to cover her face. She was grabbed by those same hands and forced onto her feet with a rough pull that evoked all the pain to jolt over her body and spark to life again. She cried out loudly and her wide eyes looked at the hunched figure that shot forward in nimble actions that looked exactly as if he knew where he was going.

"Let me go! I said let me go!" She screamed at him. But she was ignored. He pulled her back up the way she came, even as she slipped and slid, he still made sure she got back up to high ground before the other person, who was clearly a danger, was able to get up and follow them. She looked back after getting up from another stumble as her eyes shimmered with terror and landed on the one that was supposed to be her lover. He was getting up, pushing himself to his feet.

Sensing her hesitance, the new figure growled, making her snap to look at him, hands trembling as her breath tumbled out of unevenly. He swept her feet off the ground in time for a roar of anger to follow them, then he ran away faster than she was capable of doing.

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He had a pale face, that was covered in grime, there was the same look of terror in his eyes that she could recognise from looking in the mirror on the days that he would find his way into her hiding spot suddenly. His hair hung low and tangled around his face and the grime covered the rest of his body that was visible to her eyes, hiding under his nails that were longer than her own. She took in a sharp breath looking him in the eyes again, though the eye contact made both of them flinch, they held it as her lips parted and her voice followed after a pause.

"Who are you?" She asked, her voice was shaking, and he remained silent, not speaking as he hunched down in front of her, cautiously watching for if she would pose as a danger to him. His hands grazed over the ground, hanging low enough to brush aside the leaves his fingers came in contact with. Though he didn't pay that any mind and instead kept his eyes on hers, sharp and piercing, alert as he watched her for any sudden moves that he should be wary of.

"I see, I wouldn't tell a stranger my name either" She sniffled, attempting to wipe away the tears the streaked down her cheeks. The movement of her hands coming to her cheeks had the male across from her going rigid, tensing in preparation for something