Things No One Knew

I’m off the sidewalk that follows the main road around the hospital and cutting through the grass behind toward the trees. Every step getting faster and faster until I’m no longer walking but full on sprinting toward the forest. I won’t stop. I can’t.

Goddess, why did you do this to me?

Why am I being tortured for something I didn’t do?

I want to curse the heavens and the moon itself. Why am I Makayla Pride, daughter of Nemora? Why couldn’t I have been Quinn Iverson? Or Annabelle Lucas? Or any one of the beautiful girls of River Crest who were loved by their parents and cherished by their pack?

I break through the tree line and the dense canopy overhead blocks the sun. I’m still running, legs pumping furiously as I charge toward the unknown. But I can breathe a little easier.

Or so I thought. My chest burns with every painful breath and my throat aches the deeper into the woods I go. Pulling the stranger’s hoodie from around me, I throw it into the bushes as I retreat farthe