All Chapters of Surviving the World to Escape Him: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

49 Chapters

CHAPTER 11– WHISPER OF DEATH

HELENA I couldn’t breathe. Its weight pressed into me, cold and unsteady. Like it didn’t fully belong in its own body. That broken breath hovered at my neck, stuttering in and out. too close, too real. Evey instinct screamed at me to fight, to push it off, to run. but my body had a mind of its own. It wouldn’t move. Not from fear, from something else. Its hand, if it could still be called that, shifted against my shoulder and the moment it touched my bared skin, everything shattered. Not outward but inward. A flood of something not mine tore through me, images, sensations, fragments of a life that didn’t belong to me. walking into the village, relief, hunger, trust, warmth and healing. Too fast, skin knitting, pain fading and something else slipping beneath it all. A forgetting, names, faces and itself. I gasped, choking on it, my fingers clawing weakly at the ground as more forced its way in. darkness behind closed doors. Voices that spoke gently but never answered. The slow reali

CHAPTER 12 – THE TRUTH

HELENA The clearing had gone silent. Not the natural kind of silence that came with nightfall in the woods. This was a heavy silence, watching. The villagers stood frozen between the trees, lantern light trembling in their hands as they stared at me and the creature beside me like they could no longer tell which one of us they feared more.The thing behind me let out a low, uneven sound. Not anger, not warning. It almost sounded like grief. Nobody moved. My chest rose sharply with each breath, blood still dripping from my arm where I had touched it.The place burned beneath my skin, something alive twisting underneath it now, responding to the creature’s presence like it had been asleep for years and had finally opened its eyes. I could still feel the memories clawing through my head. Cold water, chanting voices, hands forcing me down while something ancient wrapped itself around my body like smoke.I staggered back a step. An old woman near the front gasped quietly, the sound breaki

CHAPTER 13 – MOTHER

HELENA The elder hesitated, his eyes darting around before falling on me again. I wasn’t backing down. I needed the truth. “She fell in love.” the answer caught me completely off guard. “She met a traveller from the outside village.” He continued. “She wanted a life beyond this place. She believed distance could weaken what was inside her.”His expression darkened. “For a while it did.” my throat tightened painfully. “She came back for me.” it was not really a question. The elder nodded slowly. “When you started showing signs, she panicked. The hearing, the dreams. The way animals reacted to you.” he looked sick saying it. “She tried to take you away before the village could choose you.”Memory struck suddenly and sharp. My mother running through the woods carrying me. rain hammering against the trees. Men shouting behind us. Her crying while gripping my face so tightly it hurt. Run. The word echoed through my skull like it had been buried there all these years.Run and never come ba

CHAPTER 14 – LEAVING IT ALL BEHIND

HELENA The forest didn’t stop me and that was the first thing that terrified me. No whispers followed between the trees. No shadows moved beside me. Even the wind had gone still, as though the woods had finally taken what it wanted and no lingered cared whether I loved or died. But that didn’t put me at ease, not in the slightest, instead. It terrified me to the core.I walked until my legs trembled beneath me. branches clawed at my arms as I pushed through the dark, but I barely felt them. my mind replayed the expressions from the clearing, over and over again. The fear in their eyes, the way they stepped back from me, the silence that followed every word I spoke.They looked at me the way villagers looked at cursed ruins and burial grounds. Like something alive and wrong. A bitter laugh escaped my throat. After everything the forest had done to me, after everything it had turned me into, I should have felt angry. Instead, I felt empty.Hollow, like some important piece of me had be

CHAPTER 15 – NEW BEGINNING

HELENABy the time I woke up, three days had passed. I groggily opened my eyes then quickly closed them. A ray of sunlight streamed through the window, landing right on my face. I kept my eyes closed for a moment listening to my body. My throat felt dry like sandpaper. I still sting on my foot and hand, but it was bearable.I tried again but now with my hand blocking the sun. I then scanning my surroundings. Relief hit me when I realized I was home. A small smile tugged on my lips. The smell of food hit my nostrils and my stomach growled loudly. I chuckled pushing myself trying to sit up, my head spun and I closed my eyes once again waiting.Finally, it stopped and pushed myself up once again, sitting on the bed leaning with my back against the wall.I looked down at my foot, it was bandaged, my hand as well. Just then I heard people talking right in front of the door. “What if she doesn’t make it?” came a woman’s voice, soft and sad. “Don’t talk like that, you know how strong she is.

CHAPTER 16 – PEACE

HELENA My grandmother didn’t ask me questions that day. All she asked was if I was alright and if I was home to stay. She didn’t ask what happened at the palace or why I came back home looking the way I did. None of that, instead. She gave me love, support and warmth. My friends were there everyday until Melinda went back to the duke’s estate to work. I was left with Zane. My external wounds healed slowly but the wounds inside stayed with me. I was constantly worried that someone from the palace would appear anytime to take me back. Or the forest would call me back to the village. But months passed and none of that happened. I healed and started going hunting with Zane. Being in the forest felt like home for some reason. Like I belonged there, hunting came easy to me. it felt like prey submitted to me, with each hunting trip I would come back with rabbits, pheasants, wild boar and the like. Grandma and I started eating meat with each meal. I would spend my evenings sitting by the

CHAPTER 17 – UNEXPECTED ENDING

HELENA“You have been quiet since we got here, are you not feeling well?” Zane asked with so much concern. I was feeling fine, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. “I am not sick, just don’t feel like myself today. Can we get grandma’s buns and leave?” he quickly nodded leading me to the stall to buy the buns.After that we rode home in silence. Zane could tell something was wrong with me but could say what. I didn’t know what was wrong with me either, so I couldn’t tell him even if he asked. What I felt was not something I could put into words. We got back to the village before noon.I got off my horse and rushed inside. Leaving Zane tying the horses. The house was the same as I had left it in the morning. Which made me wonder why grandma had not woken up. with the buns in hand, I rushed to her room. only to find it cold for some reason. I rushed to the bed and there she laid.Looking peaceful. My hands trembled slightly for some unknown reason. “Grandma.” I cal

CHAPTER 18 - GRIEF

HELENA Zane stayed with me until I fell asleep. I didn’t know when he left or if he did. But by the time I woke up the next day. The whole house was draped in white mourning cloth, seeing it made the death real, so real that my knees buckled, and I had to use the door frame to balance myself.When I woke up, I had forgotten what happened and I was planning to go and make porridge for grandma. That while cloth hanging there brought everything rushing back. I stood there for a while not knowing what to do. My mind went back to the pouch I had found under grandma’s pillow.I went back into the room, under the covers on my bed, I took it out and opened it. inside lay a coin pouch and papers. They were deeds, one was the deed to our house and the other was for land. the one used by the village chief. I folded them and placed them back inside. I opened the pouch and inside was more than a hundred tails of silver.Grandma had been saving all the money I gave her from selling the animal hide

CHAPTER 19 – START AGAIN

HELENA It had been a month since grandma passed. I was still not used to not having her around. I still dished her porridge in the morning then remember after getting to her room that she was no longer there. The pain of losing her would come right back as if it had just happened. It wasn’t easy but I kept going. Kept living, kept eating, kept sleeping. She said to live well, eat well and sleep well. I was trying to keep my promise. That was the only thing I could do. “Hey, Helena!” Zane’s voice rang out in the yard and I walked out. he was busy tying his horse with his hunting gear on. “Come, let’s go hunting.”I had not gone hunting since, I was still in mourning, but the mourning period had passed now that the month was over. He came in after tying his horse. “Get ready, I met some guys from the next village while hunting a few days go. They would not believe me when I told them you are the best hunter there. today, I want us to show them.”I knew he was trying to cheer me up, he

CHAPTER 20 – LEARNING TO BREATHE

HELENAThree months had passed since grandma’s death. The ache in my chest had not disappeared, but it had changed. It no longer felt like a knife twisting between my ribs. Now it was a dull weight I carried everywhere, as familiar as my own shadow.Some mornings I still reached for the second bowl when making breakfast. Some nights I still found myself listening for her soft hamming form the kitchen. Then my heart would break when the silence sang louder than her humming ever was. Reminding me that I would never hear that humming again But life kept moving, whether I wanted it to or not.I started tending to the garden and crop like she did. woke up before sunrise like she used. Start a fire and put porridge on to cook. while it simmered, I would go to the garden, water the crops and flowers. Cleaning the yard and fetching water from the well. At first, I did all that because it needed to be done. But as time went by, I realized that I did them because it made me feel closer to her

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