7. Another Rogue

VALERIA

Immediately he left, I got busy with packing my things. It had been a while since I had felt fear at the intensity at which his cousin made me feel. There was some kind of mischief in his eyes that threw me off, something about him that did not just sit well with me.

So I packed my backpack and collapsed my tent. I was going to move deeper into the woods.

And as I walked deeper and deeper, with the hopes that he would never find me again, I ignored the part of me that wanted to turn back. Since my parents died, that was the only place that had felt like home to me. The river, the canopy trees, everything came together for my comfort, and the fact that I had to leave weighed me down.

Now, I was in a bald patch of grass and, just to the right of the space, were trees that had thick shades underneath them. I took the opportunity to rest as I had already covered a reasonable distance and the sun was going to be out in an hour or two.

But as soon as I sat down, I felt a pre