'Click, click, click'—then she heard footsteps approaching. It seemed like her doom was imminent. With nowhere to hide, she grabbed onto the vines on the wall ahead and latched onto them, hurriedly pulling herself up. "Please, please just don't catch up!" she chanted inwardly while grabbing onto the tough vines as she climbed. This was something she had never done before, but it didn't seem new to Liora's body. She made her way up the wall, over to the other side, and jumped down without seeing how deep the place was as the men were just about to catch up to her.
"Ack!" She landed on a pile of leaves that were conveniently laying outside. "Haah! Haah!" She breathed a sigh of relief, looking around, her nose suddenly feeling irritated because of the dusty leaves. She tried hard to hold her sneeze and surveyed her surroundings. "That was easy," she thought and slowly got out of the pile. From behind the walls, she heard the shouting of the men who had discovered she had run away. With her life on the line, Viviana got on her feet and ran in a direction she remembered to be the escape route. The surroundings of the mansion were thick with overgrown trees, making it easy to disappear among them and not get caught for a while. She ran and ran, and in the distance, she heard the shouting men. Her throat had grown dry and her heart was beating violently.
"Just a little more, a little more and I will be out of this mess. I will be free," she spoke to herself. Out of desperation, she ran as fast as she could. Finally, she started to see lights in the distance coming from the small street stores. "Yes! Yes!" She rushed towards the road where she saw traffic moving around. Without paying much attention, she continued to run past the cars, barely making it to the other side and causing a minor accident in her wake, but it didn't matter. She was free now.
'Ack!' As Viviana made it past the road, a pang of pain shot through her head, nearly bringing her to her knees. She couldn't collapse there, so she struggled to make it to a dark alley. The pain in her head grew more intense. "D*mn it! Will I get caught?" she muttered as a vision began to form. Viviana cursed under her breath and closed her eyes to see what the vision was about.
"Haah! Haah! Haah!" Viviana panted, slumping against the rough brick wall of the alley. Her hand clutched her chest, still throbbing from the pain. The vision she had seen was horrifying, like a premonition of shattered ribs.
"An accident? All this, and now an accident?" She had seen herself tumbling in front of a fast-moving car after being punched in the ribs. "Who the hell was that?" she hissed, Putting her head against the wall again and looking up at the starless sky. She had been in the alley for over an hour, first recovering from the run and then from the excruciating pain brought on by the vision.
"He didn't seem like one of Magnus's men, so why would a random man try to hurt me? What is with everyone?" Her voice trembled with confusion and anger. "What do I do now? Do I leave? I can't stay here, but—" Her frustration boiled over, her thoughts spinning in every direction. "Gaah!! What on earth does this world want me to do!?" She screamed, her chest tightening painfully as her emotions spiralled out of control. Tears welled up in her eyes but not falling out as if she had not allowed them to flow out.she curled into a ball, pressing her forehead to her knees as she sobbed. "Grandpa! Please get me out of here! I am so done with everything. I hate this, please." She was at her breaking point, the sense of helplessness overwhelming her.
For what felt like an eternity, she stayed like that, until the tears in her eyes retreated and dried out on their own. Eventually, she pushed herself up, using the wall for support. Deciding she had no other choice, she resolved to get to her grandpa as quickly as possible; staying here was doing her no good. Before she could ge tout of the alley something caught her eyes in the corner, It was long a metal rod. With no second thought she grabbed onto it and dragged it behind her. "HAh! What has become of me." She gave out a cold laugh and her nervous hand clenched onto the rod tightly.
Blending into the crowd, she walked quickly, navigating her way out of the main street. She planned to avoid the main road, suspecting that the accident she foresaw might happen there. Wrapping her chequered shirt tightly around her with her spare hand, she wandered the streets, her mind racing.
"What is this place?" she muttered angrily to herself. She glanced at the street signs, none of which she recognized. Frustration boiled over, and she approached a man on the street. "Hey, excuse me," she snapped.
"Yes?" The man turned, his expression puzzled.
"What place is this? I mean, what city is this?" Her voice was sharp, almost desperate.
The man gave her a strange look before answering, "Briarcliff?"
She sighed in relief as the man walked away. "Glad I am in the same city as him," she muttered, but her relief was short-lived. The frustration and confusion hadn't lifted. As she continued down the path something
"What are you doing here? Get out!" Autumn's voice trembled as she gripped a rolling pin tightly in her hand, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Her entire body shook with fear. The man standing before her in the café was a burly figure, with a thick curly beard and bloodshot eyes. He wielded a baseball bat, his eyes glinting with malice.
"You cunning wench!" he growled, swinging the bat at a nearby table.