The first thing I felt when I regained consciousness was the agonizing pain in my shoulder as I moved against it.

I nearly slipped on the vinyl seats, because of my sweaty palms, when I tried to get my body upright. My vision was still hazy, from the blackout and still adjusting to the darkness surrounding me, but from the slight hum of an engine, the momentum, and an odd rhythmic tapping of fingers against something, I assumed I was in a car.

Too disoriented to even react to the possibility of me being kidnapped, I let out a groan as I shifted in my seat. The tapping stopped and I looked up to see Golden Eyes, sitting at the wheel, glance at me through the rear view mirror as he tried to keep his eyes on the road as well.

"Stop the car! Where are you taking me?" I yelled, as loud as my voice would get, from being unused for who knows how long. I felt like I just woke up from hibernation. There was a slight throb at the back of my head and I rubbed at it, only to feel a small but tender lump.

"Hey, hey! Relax, you're pretty bashed up so I suggest you lie down before you make the concussion even worse." He reprimanded, glaring at me through the mirror.

I returned the glare and settled against one of the doors, stretching my legs across the back seat. I felt pretty woozy, hungover of sorts, but my thoughts unitedly pointed in one direction.

Run.

I had never seen this guy before and here he comes showing up at my door claiming to be some secret 'stalkerish' bodyguard. Who then flung me out a window, got me chased by a freaky woman with wings, and is now probably kidnapping me to somewhere I'd rather not even think about. No way, this guy was bad news.

I cleared my throat aloud which made him turn around in his seat to look at me.

"Need anything? Are you feeling dizzy or nauseous or something?"

The hell? Was he actually concerned or was this some secret kidnapper technique? I couldn't tell so I just gaped at him like a fool. He went back to driving, with a sigh and turned on the indicator.

Stifling a gasp, I realised he was gonna park the car along the road. This was my chance.

My head felt like it was barely there on my neck and my limbs were sore but I had to risk the run. I looked through the window to see that we were somewhere at the city outskirts with only trees lining up both sides of the road. There wasnt a building in sight or any lights that gave away signs of human life.

I placed my feet down and tried putting weight on them and thankfully, they were still in function, other than being a little wobbly.

Soon enough, he swerved off the road and parked the car and turned on the headlights. Then he opened his door and came to my side of the door, against which I leaned. Just as he reached to open the door, I jumped towards the opposite door, wrenched it open and tumbled out of the car and into the woods.

At the first step, my legs almost gave away but I held on to the little balance I had and ran. I felt like i was using my legs for the very first time, like a new born lamb. Adrenaline spiked through my body, and I felt like my legs were finally starting to cooperate.

Pushing through the closely knit trees and swatting stray branches away from my face, I sped off without once looking back. As I got deeper in, my steps were starting to falter, and I felt like I was breathing fire, but I was too scared.

To scared to stop, in case he happened to catch up with me. He had claws and glowing eyes the last time I saw him, so anything could be possible. And yet another part of me was scared to run further away,  from the one thing that held the possibility of providing light amidst all this darkness I had landed in.

I meant the car, of course.

The adrenaline was starting to wear off as I slowed down, hardly keeping myself from tripping over tree roots and stones.
A mottled tree stump stood in a small clearing and I collapsed on top of it, gulping in large amounts of air.

Placing my hands on my chest, I felt for my heart beat. It was pounding against my fingers like a rhythmic drumbeat. Unconsciously, I attempted to figure out the rhythm.

I snorted at how out of place my thoughts were, and chuckled to myself but soon stopped when I heard a taunting voice speak.

"Care to share the joke?"

I swerved towards the direction in which the voice came from. A set of fiery eyes glowed back at me, from amidst the shadows in the trees. I gasped, backing away, and in result tripped over the stump and landed on my butt.

Letting out a snarky laugh, the owner of those eyes stepped a little closer to the clearing, but remained in the shadows. I could make out a faint outline of what seemed to be a man, a little lanky but tall, the outline of his hood framing his face, which was all dark except for those eyes. And there was just one person I knew who had that kind of eyes.

"It's you," I sighed, dropping my tense shoulders and slumping to the forest floor.

"It is me", he said, and his voice sounded different. Sure I've just known the guy for a night, but right now, I could make out the underlying threat in his voice. It also sounded like he was mocking me.

"I am not going anywhere with you", I bit out. Just so I could hear him speak, and clarify my doubt. And there it was again, that snarky laugh.

Those eyes were really starting to unnerve me. In the pitch darkness of the shadows, they nearly looked orange. Like fire. Hell fire. For a moment, I was taken aback from his penetrating gaze. Something didn't feel right here. And it wasn't just the difference in his voice and the hue of his irises.

I rose up from my sprawled out position to a crouch, never once losing eye contact. His eyes seemed to follow my every move.

Standing up I moved a few steps to the side of the stump, and simultaneously he moved too, never leaving the cloak the trees provided.

"Who are you?" I finally asked, my voice coming out raspy, from in between my chapped lips.

At the question, his eyes seemed to shine brighter, so bright that I could see malicious flames dancing in them, wanting to swallow me whole. And then he smiled. He looked right into my eyes and gave a full wide grin, like he had been waiting for me to ask that. It almost looked comical. But my body responded with chills running down my spine and a shudder ran through my body.

"I think what you were meaning to ask was, What am I?"

My eyebrows shot up at his reply. He knew what I was thinking! But how? Maybe he was another assassin, like the one that came after me back home. Except that he gave off a vibe, several times more deadly than the bird woman. My palms began to sweat in dread when I realised what I had landed myself into.

If only I hadn't run out into the woods. If only I hadn't tried to escape Golden Eyes. If only I had listened to his warnings. If only I had never peeked into that alley.

Thoughts rushed through my mind, and all I wanted to do was run back to where Golden Eyes was. The man, or thing, was starting to circle me from within the shadows. Closing my eyes, I willed for my saviour to somehow find me and save me once again. It was stupid but it was all I could think of.

"LENA!" A shout echoed through the forest. My eyes shot open at the voice. The same voice that ensured me my safety. I almost cried in relief. Turning to the shadows, I saw that the man wasn't there anymore. There was no trace of him, or his amber eyes.

Blinking I looked further into the shadows, confused as to how he disappeared so quick. Was I maybe dreaming? What if he was still here and was hiding so he could kill the both of us? The last thought seemed probable.

There was a great rustling of leaves and snapping of branches from behind where I stood, followed by a very flustered looking "bodyguard slash kidnapper" of mine. Despite the precarious situation, I couldn't help but laugh at his appearance. His hair stood at awkward angles, with leaves sticking out of them. But the expression on his face wiped away the smile on mine.

His eyes were golden again. It would have looked alluring if it wasn't for the anger and anxiety refelcted in them. His chest was rose and fell, with every breath, as he attempted to gain control of his emotions.I gulped audibly and took a few hesitant steps towards him.

"Listen, before you go all Hulk on me, there's someone here. I mean there was. And he isn't there now. But I have a feeling he's still out there. Probably waiting to strike. Maybe it's another assassin", my breathing was getting shorter and more laboured as I voiced out my panic.

His eyes never left mine, and I could see the rage dissolving down to worry. Once I had finished with my rambling, his eyes flitted to the trees as he scanned the shadows.

"Get behind me", his voice was ever so low. And I obliged for the very first time. He took a protective stance before me, and walked to the edge of the clearing. He lifted his head up in the air, as if he was trying to sniff out something.

"What are you doing?!" I couldn't help but ask, but he shushed at me like I was a little kid. Folding my hands across my chest, I glared at him as he continued his wierd head movements.

After a minute, it was evident that the threat had passed because his shoulders were no longer tense, when he turned around to look at me. His eyes were back to grey, but the look in them said that he wasn't handling this situation too well.

"There's no one out there, and definitely no assassin. Now care to tell me why you, so recklessly, ran into the woods in the middle of the night, when you know you're being HUNTED?!"

With every word his voice got louder, until he was practically yelling at me, and his eyes flickered with golden flecks. But I refused to back down. I glared back at him with as much defiance as I could muster.

"If you must know, I ran because I was being kidnapped by a creepy stalker, who claims to know all about me, whereas I don't even know his name! And secondly! There was someone here! I thought it was you, but he sounded different and the colour of his eyes were all wrong and...."

"Wait, what? The colour of his eyes, what were they?" He all but demanded. Why did I feel like he was dreading the answer that he already knew I was gonna give?

"They were the colour of fire. Like..."

"...hell fire", he completed. I looked up at him in confusion. His eyes were glazed over, like he was somewhere else, like he was reliving a memory.

"Something wrong?"

He looked at me and that's when I realised everything was wrong.

"That was no assassin. Its Him. He was here."

*****************************

The pic in the media is somewhat how I imagined the clearing to be, except there's no tree stump and the foliage is a bit more denser.