Page 66 of Lost to the Woods

“You see, little bunny,” he begins, tugging at my hair to lift my face. My eyes lock on the figures emerging from the tree shadows. “I always share with my brothers.”

17. Bunny

Ican’t quite understand what I’m looking at initially. Humans? Animals? Their shapes blur with the shadows. One has a distinct feline walk, sleek and graceful, that should be beautiful, if it weren’t so wrong. Cats shouldn’t walk on two legs.

Then, amongst them, I recognize Dev as he slowly approaches. And Nate is following right behind him.

Relief floods me so fast it makes me dizzy. I forget that I’m naked. Humiliated. Used. It doesn’t matter.

Thank God.

It was a stupid joke, just some awful fucked-up prank, boys being boys, a scare. They’re here now. It’ll stop. Ghost will stop. This is over.

But as they get closer, something feels wrong. They aren’t moving right. Their arms twitch out of rhythm with their legs. Their heads tilt too far. Like their bones are breaking and reforming as they walk. Like something else is crawling beneath their skin.

My stomach flips. I can’t breathe.

“Nate?” I whisper, the name breaking like glass in my throat, my voice barely audible. “Please, don’t do this…”

He stops. His head snaps toward me, eyes locking onto mine in an almost mechanical motion.

And for a single, shuddering heartbeat, something lightens his expression. A flicker of emotion, recognition, something familiar. I’m not sure, but his hesitation is mirrored in the others. Dev falters, only slightly. The others behind them stay still in the shadows like someone hit pause.

Even Ghost’s grip on my hair slackens. His weight shifts off my thighs.

This is it.

I don’t think twice about it.

With everything I have in me, I lurch forward, my shoulder wrenching painfully, my legs kicking, as I twist out from under him. Scream breaks out of my throat as I shove against the dirt, then I’m up. Moving. Running.

My body is in survival mode, every nerve wired to the single goal of escape. My bare feet tear through moss, rocks, and pine needles, branches whip at my face, sharp twigs slash across my arms, legs burn with literal hell’s fire, but the pain is distant. Background noise. The forest looks the same in every direction—green, black, endless. I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t care. I just know I have to move. I have to get away.

Behind me, the movement explodes. I hear them. All of them. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard. Not human footsteps, but something faster, heavier, wrong.

Ghost’s voice—that low, raspy gravel of his—is somehow distant and right in my ear at the same time. “What did I tell you about running in the woods, little bunny?”

I risk a glance over my shoulder.

And I almost fall.

They’re gaining. Dev is the closest one behind me, too tall, his limbs are too long, as if he’s shedding his human features. And his eyes—God—his eyes are black now, like there’s nothing behind them but hunger.

Nate is practically running on all fours like an animal, his hands grow claws as his clothes rip to reveal dark patches of fur.

“Tease.” His teeth snap with a loud snarl. “Making us chase you.”

What the fuck is going on?

I make a sharp turn, then a shape drops in front of me out of nowhere—Kendra is standing right there, all bloody and pale. Her arm is ripped off, her other hand holding her stomach, and one of her legs is all torn up and twisted backward at the hip.

“Look what you did to me, Bunny.” Blood spews from her mouth as she speaks. Her hand trembles, unable to handle the pressure, then her intestines spill out of her torso.

Bile rises in my throat, but I turn and run the other way.

The forest hits me like a wall—thicker here, darker. Tangled with vines and rot and heat. I can’t see the sky. I can’t tell how far I’ve gone. My lungs can’t keep up. My vision tunnels. But I don’t have time to think, or scream, or even breathe. The only thought in my head is to push forward.

I just want to live. I want to wake up. I want this to end.

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