Fight for Me

Layla’s POV

Great. Just great.

I sit up looking around me at the dark, foggy and misty realm. I say realm, because it looks just like the woods, but a bit different with all the dark mist flowing around. Not a star or moon in sight.

I straighten up, dusting myself off, not knowing what for, and start walking.

This is what always happens. Every time I die, I wake up ‘here’. Thing’s look the same, but they don’t. It’s like an abandoned hell version of reality, with no one in sight. But the moment I find my body, where I ‘died’, I get sucked back in, just to wake up again, alive, and all healed.

I never knew how to explain it, even to myself, until I made reference to a video-game. It’s like I live a normal life, - live, breathe and bleed like every other human. I bruise and heal like any human does. But the moment I die, I start over with a new life and a new body, -all past scars and injuries gone. Like a reset button. But that thought just freaked me out, because I don’t know how many lives I have before I reach game over.

But so far, so good. I think.

My first accident was when I was about six and we went camping. I woke up and my parents just about freaked out. Apparently, I fell out of a tree and hit my head against a rock. I don’t remember much of it though. My mom said I broke my neck and cracked my skull. She showed me all the blood on her shirt. Well, she was more speaking to my dad than me. I was just listening. But knowing that she’s a doctor, I kind of freaked out too. Their faces made me think something was wrong with me. I just cried. When they both suddenly looked at me, they snapped out of their conversation and just hugged me and said soothing words to me.

After that, I was practically on constant watch by my parents. Not because they were freaked out by me, but because they were worried about the world we lived in. That was a few years after supernaturals came out into the open. It was still chaos then.

My mom went into genetics to figure it out, wondering if I could be some kind of supernatural too. She was a fanatic when it came to knowledge, and she thought it would be easier for me to understand this, if I knew what it was. My dad left his law firm and started going into the political side of things and practice supernatural law. He wanted to create a future where I could be protected, should it come out that I am one.

And things were great for a while, until the car accident a few years back. We all died. But I wasn’t dead for long. The accident was definitely not an accident, seeing we were already on the run. But ever since then, I’ve been on my own and on the go.

I still don’t really know what this is, but I know there is a lot to find out.

I’m still walking in this ominous forest, trying to pin point my body. I’m getting restless. I don’t like being here. This is the first place I saw that shadow. I was a kid back then, and it gave me nightmares. So, I never forgot it.

I sigh. “Dammit.” I stop and look around.

Why did this have to happen in the woods?

These trees are really starting to all look alike. It’s already been like ten minutes. But then again, I shouldn’t really stress about that. Time works differently here anyway.

Whenever I wind up here, I always wake up at a different spot. Sometimes I wake up right next to my body, other times, I wake up very far away from it. One time it felt like I was here for hours. But when I woke up, only a few minutes had gone by in reality. It really is weird.

Squinting, I spot something behind a tree far ahead. I walk that way. I sigh a breath of relief when I see my body. Damn. Is that what I look like?

I definitely look like a murder victim. My face is covered in splattered blood drops. Blood is covering my throat. My clothes are torn up and soaked in blood. Even my jean has claw marks ripping it to shreds.

From the corner of my eye, I can see that dark shadow behind one of the trees. It’s watching me, again. I try to not pay attention to it.

I bend down and reach a hand out to my body and instantly, I feel myself being absorbed into it like a gasp.

My eyes shoot open as I awake with a deep gasp. I look around me and see the same dark woods. But looking up, I can see the moon and the stars. I sigh, knowing I’m back to reality.

I get up, not feeling an ounce of pain. Looking down, I see all my wounds are healed, as I expected. But my breasts are practically falling out and I’m completely covered in blood, from head to toe.

I look around, trying to listen to any noise. I don’t know if there are any more wolves. I’m definitely not in the mood to feel the pain of death again. I guess the only way to go is the way Cody sent me running. But I don’t even know where that is or how far. I should rather go back and see if Cody is fine. At least I know what’s back that way. He might be hurt.

Before walking off, I pull my face in disgust when I see the dead wolf lying not so far away.

Damn. The circle of life is gruesome.

There is so much crunching sounds coming from my steps on dead leaves and twigs, I settled for walking rather than running.