The black horse came to a stop beside an old cabin.<\/p>\n
Lydia slowly climbed down.<\/p>\n
Her hands still rested gently on the horse’s neck.<\/p>\n
The man with the rifle kept watch over the tree line.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe won’t quit,\u201d he said quietly.<\/p>\n
Lydia nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wind rustled through the pines.<\/p>\n
Then\u2014<\/p>\n
a single gunshot echoed across the valley.<\/p>\n
The horse reared.<\/p>\n
The man spun toward the ridge, raising his rifle.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet inside!\u201d<\/p>\n
Lydia didn’t move.<\/p>\n
She was staring at something in the dirt.<\/p>\n
A strange symbol had been carved into the trail.<\/p>\n
Fresh.<\/p>\n
Her face turned pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s been here before us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does it mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
Lydia took a slow breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn’t a warning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a message.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just then\u2014<\/p>\n
the outlaw’s voice drifted through the trees.<\/p>\n
Calm.<\/p>\n
Mocking.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can hide from me…\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you can’t hide from what she is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man stepped in front of Lydia, rifle aimed into the forest.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe isn’t facing you alone anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence answered him.<\/p>\n
Only the wind moved through the pines.<\/p>\n
Lydia looked toward the dark woods.<\/p>\n
Her voice was barely a whisper.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn’t hate me because I ran.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hates me because I know the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
And somewhere beyond the trees\u2014<\/p>\n
the outlaw smiled.<\/p>\n
Because he knew the next time they met…<\/p>\n
there would be no running left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The black horse came to a stop beside an old cabin. Lydia slowly climbed down. Her hands still rested gently on the horse’s neck. The man with the rifle kept watch over the tree line. \u201cHe won’t quit,\u201d he said quietly. Lydia nodded. \u201cI know.\u201d The wind rustled through the pines. Then\u2014 a single gunshot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}