Chapter 21

{{ Kiwi's POV 🍈 }}
Kiwi ducked, barely dodging the blood-red shards of glass that shot toward her. She had to get out of there, but all her exits were blocked. Their hideout had been very convenient for spying and entertainment but right now, Kiwi wished they had chosen a more open location. She wished that she hadn’t made that stupid alliance with that brat. She wished that she had never been put in the same cell as that child. All she wanted now was a way to escape. There was no way that little girl was going to kill her.
She swerved, narrowly missing a shard that was aimed at her shoulder. Think, Kiwi, think. She couldn't get close enough to knock Sonya down without getting a million burning pieces of glass embedded into her skull.
Then the idea came to her. She had somehow managed to block the glass before by conjuring a holographic shield. Before Kiwi could properly think about what she was doing, she had thrown up her arms in defense as she was sprayed with glass. She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping, praying that the seemingly inevitable pain wouldn't come. She opened her eyes and directly in front of her an image of a shield hovered, deflecting the spray of shards.
Feeling more confident, Kiwi shut her eyes and pictured a long, shining sword. She opened her eyes, clutched the newly materialized blade, and changed towards Sonya. Her new weapon must have caught the small girl off guard because Kiwi managed to knock Sonya off her feet. She slammed her body into the gremlin’s small frame and collapsed on top of her, her momentum knocking her off her feet too. She pushed herself up and started toward the wide expanse of forest, stumbling over her feet.
Kiwi's ears were ringing and her head was swimming and all she could do was run. She didn't know if Sonya was chasing her, but she didn't care. She had to keep going. She didn't know how long it had been since she had escaped. Her mind was clouded over from exhaustion and without realizing she had let the sword disappear.
Kiwi could barely see her numb feet as she continued to stumble through the woods. She was shrouded in darkness, whether from the lack of moonlight or lack of blood flow to her head, she didn't know. Her feet were led and her legs were immovable stone blocks.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that she wasn't being followed and crumpled to the ground. A few feet away a huge tree stood with its roots protruding from the earth. The roots made a sort of cage that would serve as the perfect resting spot for a delirious, aching, girl. Kiwi drew herself up off the ground with a tremendous effort and crawled inside the small haven. She only had one thought circling through her head as she faded into sleep: that brat would die.

{{ Sophie's POV 💫 }}
Sophie started and turned to face the rustling bush. The bush was really more of a mountain than a bush, spanning the width of more than a dozen trees and forming a wall of leaves. As she watched, the span of leaves and branches quaked, filling the forest with noise.
Sophie turned to face Willow who looked just like she felt. Terrified.
"You're not doing this, right?" Sophie checked, her voice trembling.
All she got was a slight shake of Willow's head. She braced herself for what would come, balling her hands into fists.
With the most demonic scream she had ever heard, an equally demonic creature burst through the foliage, claws slashing at anything it could reach.
Instantly, Willow grabbed her arm and they were sprinting through the trees.
As they pressed farther into the forest, the sunlight became more prominent and the leaves covering the ground gave way to grass. Sophie could hear the monster tearing through the trees behind them but she didn’t dare look back. The ground shook with every step it took and it wouldn’t stop screaming. Each time it screamed, Sophie’s steps faltered and it was all she could do to not curl into a ball and cry. She was too terrified to see how the noise was affecting Willow, but she assumed her reaction was similar to hers.
The grass led to the valley, where a group of people were facing two monsters of their own. Sophie knew they couldn’t go down the slope and involve themselves with more chaos so she turned and started running along the treeline, Willow still holding tight to her arm. She wasn’t sure how much longer they could run and she could tell the monster was gaining on them. Please, please don’t let us die.