Page 249 of Primal

And me? I do nothing.

Nothing.

She doesn’t get far. Another ragged cough. Her eyes flick to me. Her lips move. No sound comes out—just a bubble of blood that pops wetly.

My vision blurs. My chest tightens.

The wet gurgling slows … stops.

“J-Jessica?”

Kristy’s words echo through my head—‘Karma’s coming for her tonight.’

No. Fuck no. She isn’t dead yet. She can’t be.

Do something. Check her pulse.

But those eyes keep staring at me. No, through me. Empty. Gone.

The hunter steps over the inhaler.

Toward me.

My pulse roars in my ears.

Run.

My legs wobble. I back up a step, then another.

Move, damn it.

I turn and finally—finally—my body obeys. I crash through the underbrush. No path. No plan. Just away.

Branches scrape my arms, snag at my clothes. Leaves crunch. Twigs snap.

He’s behind me—picking up pace.

Faster.

My lungs scream. My thighs burn. Something snags my ankle. I sprawl forward, palms slamming into mud.

Get up get up get up—

I scramble to my feet. Slip. Fall again. My knee cracks against a rock. Pain shoots up my leg, white-hot.

A twig cracks—right behind me.

I don’t look back.

Get up. Now.

A distant crack splits the sky. For one blinding second, the forest flares white—

The hunter’s shadow stretches toward me, knife glinting.

Then darkness swallows us again.

Thunder. Closer this time.