Chapter 428: First Attempt

Self-preservation is a funny thing, isn't it? I don't even remember moving, telling my brain to fire, my muscles to work, my body to act. In fact, if I'm going to be totally honest, I should have been dead about two seconds after the headlights hit my gaze. Because if I had been in total control of me without instincts or a fight or flight guidance system? I'd have been a hood ornament on the front of that big, terrifying car hurtling toward me.

Instead, I came to from a sort of muddy haze, shaking snow out of my hair from the bank I'd thrown myself into, hands frozen where they braced me deep in the icy stuff, heart pounding, body shaking while the car peeled away out of sight.

Gone too fast for me to catch the license plate, even if I'd had the wherewithal to notice such a detail. I panted my terror out into the freezing air, giant puffs of white exiting my lips, sitting in the snow and trembling as I pulled myself together yet again.