Favored by God

We ran.

The sound of Micah's death echoed behind us—a terrible, wet crunch that would haunt my dreams forever. Maya lay unconscious on Rowan's back, her body limp and broken. The night stretched endlessly before us, dark and unfamiliar.

Neither of us dared look back. The orphanage's glow painted the forest in hellish orange light, and distant screams grew fainter with each passing minute. My lungs burned. My legs ached. But we couldn't stop.

"K-Kai," Rowan gasped between breaths, "I need... to rest..."

"We can't," I managed, though my own body screamed for relief. "It might... still be..."

A howl pierced the night—distant, but not distant enough. We pushed harder.

Maya stirred slightly on Rowan's back, a quiet moan escaping her lips. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and her breathing was shallow and ragged. Each step Rowan took seemed to cause her pain, but we had no choice but to keep moving.

The forest grew denser. Branches whipped at our faces. Roots threatened to trip us. The moon occasionally broke through the canopy, casting strange shadows that made every tree look like a monster ready to strike.

Hours passed. Or maybe minutes. Time lost all meaning as we fled deeper into the wilderness. The only constants were the burning in our muscles and the weight of our grief.

Finally, when Rowan's legs gave out, we collapsed in a small clearing. Maya rolled off his back, still unconscious but breathing. We lay there, gasping, our bodies trembling from exhaustion and shock.

"Do you..." Rowan wheezed, "think we're... safe?"

I couldn't answer. The truth was, I didn't know if we'd ever be safe again. The world I thought I understood had shattered. Monsters weren't just stories in books. Death wasn't just something that happened to other people.

Instead of responding, I crawled over to check on Maya. Her skin felt cold, and bruises were beginning to darken across her visible skin. At least three of her ribs felt broken beneath my gentle touch.

"We need to stay awake," I whispered, though exhaustion pulled at my consciousness. "We need to..."

But Rowan was already drifting off, his body having reached its limit. I tried to fight it, tried to keep watch, but the darkness at the edges of my vision grew heavier and heavier.

The last thing I saw before sleep took me was the first light of dawn breaking through the trees. We had survived the night, but at what cost? And what horrors would tomorrow bring?

When I next opened my eyes, the sun would be high in the sky, and our new reality would begin. But in those final moments of consciousness, all I could think about was Micah's sacrifice, Ms. Clementine's tears, and the home we'd never see again.

Sleep came like a mercy, but even in dreams, I couldn't escape the image of those burning ruby eyes and the sound of Micah's final, unfinished words.