Coral

Prologue: Run

I ran, aiming for the treeline. It was my only hope of escape – no, living - because being back there was only surviving.

I could hear Erasers behind me, panting heavily through their muzzles. Erasers – half-human, half-wolf, all evil slathering… evil.

Adrenaline racing, I burst through the trees, being scratched by reaching briars and brambles. I glanced back, hoping not to see any Erasers. They were gaining. Damn!

I looked round, hoping for an escape route.

I took a running jump, and grabbed a low branch. I pulled myself up, and grabbed another, higher branch. I kept climbing, even when the Erasers – four of them – exploded out of the bushes. One snarled menacingly.

I was up in the higher branches by then, and swayed alarmingly in the slightest breeze. I tried not to look down.

"Are you coming down, little mutant?" one asked tauntingly.

"I'm never going back to that hellhole!" I shout angrily.

"But you are," he said, and launched himself at the tree.

There's only one last thing I can do, I think.

I take a deep breath, and I…

…jump …

from the tree…