chapter 153

Bri

I had made my way along the outside of the island inside the tangle of trees as I avoided using the machete so as to not pinpoint that someone had recently been there. A barred owl called and I looked up where it perched on a branch next to a gaping hollow. The ache in my head throbbed and pulsed as I squinted up at the cypress branches calculating if I could make the climb with the load of bags on my back. I had to try. My darkness was on edge, its tendrils flowing into my veins as I strained with the effort of pulling myself from one awkward branch to another. Until the owl fluttered away and I found the hollow to be vacant of anything unsavory. I dropped the bags inside and curled on top of them, the stillness and the quiet were suddenly unnatural.

A heavy oily aura was creeping over the land. Darker and larger than I remembered that power that held me back so often from lashing out, from defending myself. The Dog’s presence was announced through the territory’s map in my mind