Running.

Running, running, running.

My heart was pounding so hard in my chest I thought it might explode. My legs were burning, but I just had to keep them moving. Faster, faster, faster. My lungs were threatening to burst, I could barely get in air, I could barely see, I could barely think. Black spots were beginning to cloud my vision.

But I couldn’t outrun them forever.

Two burly men with guns screamed curses not far behind me. They both had scars running across their faces, and one of them had a skull down tattooed across his right arm.

Don’t ask me how I noticed something like that when I was running so fast. It’s just some weird quirk I have where I notice these little details about people.

I rounded another corner and crammed myself under a thorn bush. Thorns pierced my arms and legs, but I barely registered them. And I thought I was going to have a heart attack when the men paused, barely three feet from my hiding spot.

The guy with the skull tattoo growled. “Where is she?”

“Probably hiding,” the other answered. His voice had a thick, gravelly quality to it that made a chill run up my spine. “The scoundrel. Search the area. We are not disappointing Lord Simon again.”

Skull tattoo cocked his gun. The two split up, but to my relief, both were walking in the opposite direction as me.

I inhaled some much needed air. So far this going-on-the-run plan was not going too well. I still didn’t fully understand why Lord Simon wanted me, but basically he had locked me in a facility since birth and told me he planned to “use me” whenever I came of age.

Which was today.

And last night I’d made a deal with myself that I would take a chance and run. I knew where the key was; my guard was kidding himself if he thought I really wasn’t going to find his terrible hiding spot. Then again, he wasn’t exactly the smartest guard I knew. But he was the biggest; and that’s why he was chosen to guard my cell.

Because I’m “important.”

“HEY!” screamed skull tattoo. “Over here!” I heard the other guy sprint towards him. At least they weren’t smart enough to find me.

I wiggled out of bush the opposite end I had come in. I was now standing in a clearing, and though it was still daylight, much of the sun was blocked by thick, leafy trees that stretched from their thick trunks and up over my head like canopies. At least if the burly men got in here it would be too dark for them to see.

I headed further into the clearing. It was amazing that such a depressing facility could be hidden by such a beautiful island. I wonder what else lie out here, waiting to be discovered.

I mean, it’s not like Lord Simon ever let me outside. I just—

“AHHHH!” I shrieked. I stumbled forwards, panting heavily. There was a searing pain burning in my leg. I glanced down, and there was a huge thorn poking its way ....

THROUGH my ankle.

As in, in one end and out the other.

“Oh no,” I muttered as I lowered myself shakily to the ground. “Oh no oh no...”

I blinked back the tears that were burning in my eyes. I hated the fact that I was so sensitive to pain. At least, that’s what Lord Simon told me. One time I tripped when I was five and I had to stay in bed for a week.

And this... this was not good.

I bit my lip so hard it turned white from lack of blood. I took a deep breath, grabbed the thorn, and yanked as hard as I possibly could.

“AHHHH!”

“I heard her!” Skull tattoo shouted. “She’s back there somewhere!”

I winced, and dropped the thorn on the ground. I closed my eyes tight and tried to focus on the details around me, as Lord Simon had taught me to do when I experienced pain. Not that I actually liked him or anything. I definitely thought he was an evil, experimenting creep. But he did have some valid theories.

I calmed myself down enough to bring my hand to the wound. I opened one of my eyes cautiously... and then I really thought I was going to faint.

Because there wasn’t any blood or bones or anything.

Just... wires.