Shadowless by Kareca (the reading strategies book txt) 📕

effect. You would be surprised how many people are like that. In this town it should be easier to find. So either she works with me... or I kill her. Either way is fine with me, now it is all about decisions. I do not plan to kill at the moment. I have a feeling there is someone else trying to work an angle. So first on my list is figuring out who it is. As well as making sure he does not get to my prey before I can.

Chapter 5: Mirages

The sounds are what I first notice. The pitter patter in my ear notifies me that I am not where I was earlier. I can smell lilies and roses nearby. Did I stumble into a garden? Wait what happened earlier? My brain is to foggy at the moment for me to decipher anything. I can smell rain that explains the pattering and sploshing sounds. I am outside definitely, otherwise these things would not be so strong.
I try to move my arm but a sharp pain goes up to my shoulder. There is something sticking in my arm. I pull back a little but regret it instantly. I can feel my skin tear... With that I open my eyes and notice that my surroundings are strange. The pain dulls down as I look around to confused to think of anything else. I can see the raindrops coming down towards my face. The sky is filled with tree branches and leaves. There are few openings for the rain to fall through. The sight is mesmerizing but it makes my eyes twist around.
I close my eyes to focus on something else. Then the pain comes back to me with twice as much force. I try sitting up but something stings my sides. I feel paralyzed I can barely move and when I do I am in pain. I open my eyes again but I do not focus on the rain. Instead I survey my surroundings. I am in the forest and there are various flowers surrounding me. It looks as though they were almost strategically placed here. The flowers have thorns on them... maybe that is what keeps sticking me. I feel as though I am in a coffin of flowers.
I have to get out of here fast, even if that means getting stuck with more thorns. I quickly pull my hand up to my face. It was not thorns which were poking my skin. It was metal shaving, which some seem to still be stuck in my skin. I now see the blood trailing down my skin. The color is beautiful, especially when it pools in one area it turns into a deep crimson.
Someone must have put me here on purpose then. This is not just by some freak accident. Someone was trying to kill me... maybe I am dying but I have to try to get out of here. I pull my other hand up to my face. It is less bloody but there is a note tied to my hand. I will look at that later. I try to pull myself up almost imagining the blood pouring out of my body. I am going to need a blood transfusion by the end of this. If I can find the right type. Or if I can get out of here in time.
My body is slow to come up because of the pain mixed with weariness. I can see more clearly around me. I can see the dirt laying around which was freshly dug up. My legs are wound under vines, or something that looks like vines. I turn my head slowly to see behind me. There were metal blades lying around me. No wonder I was in so much pain. They really must had taken time to do this. I take a deep breath and start moving again.
This is probably not good for the wounds I have. Yet I did not feel like getting more. So either it was stay there bleed more, or get up and hopefully bleed less. I wonder how far from town I am? Wait if I go to the hospital like this they will question me. Which may not be good under the current circumstances. Who could I go to though? I need to think of this after I get free.
I move the vines aside to get a good look at the damage done to my feet and legs. A knife is protruding out from my ankle. How did I not feel that? Is it the you make yourself feel pain or things? Like delusions, except hm... I need to stop thinking so much. My head is starting to hurt, either from blood loss or thinking to much.
Who had planned this? Was it Alex? He did say that he would give no warning. Yet the person who talked earlier to me with the "gotcha" was not him. That person's voice was higher pitched than his. Unless he can change his voice. I also wonder how I slept through all of that? Was there some sort knock out gas or antistetic?
I pull the knife out of my leg... I can not feel it. There is no feeling in that leg. I touch the other leg which seems to have survived unharmed, I can feel my fingers on that leg. The other leg seems numb. Which I guess is a good thing.

'Cherel.'

I look around to see who sait that. There is no one around. I must be dying... or going insane. I examine my body for any other injured places. So far it looks as though I found all of them. I push myself off the ground, not an easy task. I wobble a little but regain my balance when I slam into a tree. My feelings seem to blend together now. I can not tell what is pain and what is not. I must go forward. If I stop then what does that say about me? That I give up easily, that I am such a simple person to kill. Yeah that is not who I am. I have to at least get somewhere first to warn someone. After that if my body wants to shut down and die then it can. I keep walking through the trees. It seems that was the only place with flowers. Every other place looks like a normal forest, with brown ground and some dying greenery wilting.
I push through all of this towards what I hope is town. Any sort of town will do. My feet give way under me and I slide down a slope. Where did that come from. I cough a little and try to catch my breath. I close my eyes for a little bit. Before I know it I am drifting off. I try to regain my consciousness but it seems to have ran away. Somehow when I thought of running away I thought of a nursery rhyme. The one where the cow jumped over the moon...
I hear the crunching of shoes nearby... or at least what I imagine is someone with shoes. It may be a wild animal. At least let me pretend for a moment. For a moment I can believe that someone is here to rescue me. I tried being strong... somehow I knew I was not cut out for it. I am pathetic giving up so easily...

Chapter 6: A New Predator

It was my thing to kill others. Then someone comes in and takes that away. Someone who seems to be much better at this than I am. I can not believe they took my target. I crinkle my nose and lay back in my chair. I need to think more seriously about all of this. My only question now is what did he do with her. I also want to know who it is exactly. I believe it is someone after me, maybe a family member of someone I killed previously? I wonder if she was just as easy to kill as her best friend. I doubt, she had much more of a personality.
Oh poor Cherel... she was kidnapped by some person not even I know. As you should remember I said previously that I liked the adrenaline rush... Well this is not what I meant by that. I am not really sure what I meant now. If Cherel is dead then I guess I will have to find a new target. I guess that friend of hers who has an annoying voice. I guess maybe it is what she says that is annoying.
So now what is my next move. This reminds me of chess in some ways. Except extreme chess... which my pawns are the people around me. My Knights are probably the people I "hypnotize" into working for me. My Queen well, would have been Cherel I guess. So which pawn should I move first? I put my fingers into the shape of a temple. This needs a lot of extra thinking.

Chapter 7: My Grasp on Insanity

I open my eyes a little to see what has happened. The last thing I remembered I was dying in the woods. Before that I was being kidnapped you could say. So now where am I? This is really problematic because I was going to go over to visit Autumn's brother. This delays some things... I do not think I died. I mean if I had why would my surroundings look like this. Kind of dark but I can see out a window at the sunset. Which when I was in the forest it was mid-day I am guessing. Yet that does not mean much. I take a deep breath but that is when these voices start entering my head.

'Cherel, cherel, cherel, cherel...'

I am insane that is it. I look around finally opening my eyes all the way but I see nothing. No one anywhere, maybe there is a speaker somewhere. I sit up but I lay back down because there is still pain. My body feels sore. I look at my hands and notice they are bandaged. So maybe that shoe like noise I heard was a person. Which if the person bandaged me up they can not be that bad right? I look at the walls, why does this place look familiar? I feel as though I have been here before. I know that not many people have a poster of a crazy monkey on their wall.

'Cherel are you feeling better?'

I look around this time and see someone. Which once I recognize who it is I understand why this place looks familiar. It is Autumn's brother he is holding a bag of Frito's in one hand and a notebook in the other. I must have gotten lucky. Why was he in the forest though?

'Yeah...'

I look around feeling lost. I need to sort this all out. Okay I was at school on my way to my fourth period class. Then someone comes up behind me and I loose consciousness. Then when I wake up I am in the process of dying. Or being tortured I guess you could say. After getting loose and walking around half dazed and insane I fall down this slope in the forest. I hear a noise which sounds like footsteps. Then when I wake up again I am in Benji's room. We always called him that, though that is not his name. I can understand as well now why I am bandaged so well. He is wanting to become a doctor... which he is going through some courses after school to help with that.
He sits down in