Bare feet pad through the wet underbrush, each step thumps thumps along rhythmically with my pounding heart. Branches claw at my coat, my arms batting absently behind me - the force forward is enough. They will not keep me here, no, no one will keep me here. It is not where I belong.

Not anymore.

I haven’t heard them in awhile. That unsettles me more than their shrieking wails. Keeping quiet mea...