Chapter 25 ANIKA
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE | ANIKA
LYRA
The yells and noises behind me faded as I kept running after the person. I didn't know where I was going; the environment was foreign to me, but at that point, I didn't care.
All I cared about was finding out if that person was truly Anika and clearing my name. If she wasn't truly missing, why was she declared missing, and why was I the suspect?
“Anika, stop!” I yelled, getting tired.
I paused, resting on a tree to catch my breath, and it was only then that I realized we were now in the forest, far away from civilization.
The recklessness of my action hit me when it was too late, and I wanted to run back to the party. I knew I would be safe from attack if I was there, but when I turned around, I saw the hooded figure again.
For the few days I hadn't seen him, I had completely forgotten about him. I couldn’t believe I forgot that there were people out there who were after my life.
Again, he repeated the same words he always did, reminding me how I shouldn't have seen it. “You shouldn't have seen it. I'll have to kill you now.”
This time, maybe it was the frustration of everything…the bounty, Orion coming back, and also the fact that I knew my child might be taken away from me if I didn't play my cards right, but I wasn't as scared of the mystery man as I had been the other times I came across him. I only wanted to know why he believed I shouldn't have found the painting.
“Who are you, and what do you want from me?” I asked, slowly approaching the man.
My body shook as I got closer, because he was also approaching me, and the dagger was in his hands. “You shouldn't have seen it. I'll have to kill you,” he repeated, acting as if he didn't hear my question.
I was so confused, so scared, but still, I kept moving closer to him.
When we were finally only a step away from each other, he paused, and I took the cue to stop too. “Who are you?” I asked again, but got no response.
This time, for the first time, I wasn’t running or scared… well, scared, but not as terrified as I had been the last few times he attacked me. He wasn't trying to stab me.
The man just held the knife. When I lifted my hands, he lifted his too, mimicking my movements.
“What the heck,” I exclaimed, lifting my legs too to see, and once again, he lifted his legs too.
For one final test, I rubbed my stomach, and he copied me. I took this chance to also pretend to remove the hood off my face. Since he was copying me, I wanted to see if he’d follow my movements too and take off the hood that was stopping me from seeing his face.
And he did it without hesitation, looking up. The color drained from my face when I realized that the person wasn't a man but a woman, and not just any woman, but me. I was staring at myself.
“Who are you?” My head tilted to the side in wonder as I assessed the person standing in front of me.
She mirrored my movements, not the words I said. She blinked when I blinked, followed the same pattern of breathing I did, along with every other subtle and noticeable movement I made, but she never repeated my statements.
“Why have you been trying to kill me?” Again, I got no response, just silence.
Everything was creepy, to say the least, and I didn't know what to make of it, but I kept going anyway.
An idea hit me, and even though I didn't know what the outcome might be, I wanted to try it. I raised my hands, the same hands she was using to hold the dagger, and acted as if I stabbed myself. She did the same thing, but when the tip of the knife was just a few inches away from stabbing her, she let out a piercing scream that hurt my ears.
I covered my ears, shuffling backward and stumbling in horror. The fear I had toward her was back, and I realized my mistake. I tried to run, but I stumbled and fell, and she was already charging toward me, knife raised in the air.
A gunshot rang, and the bullet shot straight to her skull, spreading black liquid all over my body. A scream ripped out of me, because it wasn't blood.
I wanted to throw up, but I held it together, looking at whatever that thing was with my face. She didn't even flinch at the shot. She just sneered at me and did the same thing she usually did when someone else was with me… she disappeared.
“Lyra, are you okay?” I heard Anika's voice unmistakably.
She rushed out of the bush she had been hiding in, gun in hand.
“Did you see that? You saw it, didn’t you?” I asked quickly. She nodded her head.
“I saw everything. What was that?” she asked, helping me up.
“I don't know what it was. When you shot it, black... it wasn't blood. I don't think it's human.”
She nodded in agreement, still obviously shaken up by the sight.
“It was so scary to watch,” she stated, looking around to make sure whatever that was wasn’t anywhere near us again.
Due to my fright, I had forgotten everything about who I was speaking to…how she had always hated me, bullied me, and wished me nothing but death. How she was currently declared missing and I was the suspect, and how she just shot someone, or something, and was still holding the gun.
I was simply grateful that she had come right in time to save me, and at that moment, she felt more like a sister to me than she had ever been in her whole life.
But reality always comes crashing down, and it soon did when I looked toward her after catching my breath, and she was pointing the gun straight at me.
“I heard Orion made you the Luna of Crescent Pack.”