I felt the freezing night air as I slipped through the doors. I breathed easily for the first time in weeks.
I will be free...
I walked into the woods and the castle vanished behind me. In the moonlight, the branches of the tall trees stretched out like bony fingers. The forest seemed more cosy than the castle walls ever had, even though it was silent but for the odd rustle of leaves.
I didn’t have a concrete plan.
I didn’t know how far I would have to walk or how I would return to the human world, but I didn’t care. All I wanted was to leave this nightmare behind.
I felt lighter the farther I went, as if the bonds that held me here were gradually coming loose. By this point, my tears had dried up and been replaced by an odd resolve.
I stopped to gaze at the sky when I came to a clearing. The stars served as a constant reminder of the world's immense size.
“This is where I belong,” I whispered to myself.
I had thought I could be part of Jacques’s world, that I could find a place among the wolves. But I was wrong.
I'm a human, and the human world was where I was meant to be.