princess // percy jackson

i. one - pretty pity

words : 2072

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sobbing, the young girl broke into a run.

she burst through the back door, her face instantly whipped by freezing autumn air. she shivered from the absence of a coat and boots, but the adrenaline in her veins kept her legs mobile and moving.

"get the kid!" she heard someone call out from behind.

she let out a gasp of both air and tears as she broke into the woods nearby. their house had been set right at the edge of town, the last house before the forest, which happened to be located right by their yard.

cold and unable to see in the dark, she raced into the trees.

she blindly stumbled around, trying to avoid twigs, rocks and other sharp objects out to stab her. teeth chattering, she settled on ducking behind one of the thicker trees she'd somehow been able to find in the dark.

foosteps followed behind her as she did, but they froze for a second - he'd lost her.

"dammit..." he muttered under his breath.

she could hear him fishing through his pockets for something.

her heart stopped when she saw the bright glare of a phone's flashlight a few trees away from her.

"alright, ya little brat!" he called out nastily. "come out, and we don't need to make this harder than it has to be!"

the young girl covered her mouth with her hand and clamped it shut. she held her breath and tried to force her heart pounding out of her chest to stay pounding in. she could hear it beating in her eardrums and for a second, she considered the possibilities of her going deaf from the bass of it - if that was even actually medically possible.

"come out, kid, i can hear ya..."

alliah stifled a sob through her small hands, afraid she might actually suffocate from the combination of not breathing and her racing heart.

how much stress can an eight year old undergo before dropping dead, was what she wondered in that moment. she chose to block out the thoughts of her dying, and possibly now dead, father laying in their kitchen surrounded by the ugliest and most disgusting men she'd ever known - she was afraid she would actually start hyperventilating.

then her spine went cold.

"gotcha." the man stated.

alliah froze when she saw the beam of light move from the trunk of the tree, to her. she had to squint in the blinding light but she could blindly and barely make out the figure of that man, holding the flashlight - and to her horror, a gun in his free hand.

she began to burst into tears - a childish instinct that still remained, a normal thing seeing as she was still just that : a child.

"please don't hurt me!" she pleaded through sobs. "leave me alone!"

she braced herself for the gunshot. she summoned every positive thought she could possibly muster up - her reunion with her father, the speed of the bullet, hopefully the speed of her death? quick and painless, she'd hoped?

but it all stood defenseless against the overwhelming dread she felt in her chest - she wasn't ready to die. not at all, not now.

she waited for the bullet like a toddler waiting for their meal. in a way, she was waiting for her meal - a bite of the bullet, which was more than what she'd had to eat for the past week.