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The cold night air bites in her bare arms like the fangs of a would-be predator but Mari doesn’t have time to grab a coat. She sprints from the Yellowjackets’ camp, casting a worried glance behind her. She can hear movement in the dark. The leaves rustle and the wind blows. But that's not it. It's her. She's coming after her.
“Shauna, leave me alone!” Mari yells. “I’m not playing your stupid games!”
They haven't seen eye to eye in the past months, constantly on each other’s nerves and getting into petty fights and squabbles. Mari herself isn't innocent in this—part of her enjoys pushing Shauna until she snaps. But this is going too far.
Shauna doesn't answer but the wind does. The trees creak around her, beckoning her into their dark embrace, offering safety from the Butcher.
Mari doesn't know where Shauna is but she can tell she's still coming after. She can sense her. Like the feeling of being watched, her skin heats and Mari keeps running.
Her feet are still bare and ache against the rough forest floor. No time for a coat, no time for shoes. She fled into the forest when she saw the dark look in Shauna’s eyes. She’s seen it time and time again and came to know the look of a predator. Their fights are usually petty. She didn't think Shauna would actually want to hurt her.
“Shauna!” she shouts behind her. “Fuck off! I'm not doing this!”
But she's still running.
The hunt is beginning.
A branch cracks to her left and Mari whips her head to peer into the darkness. She can't see anything. It's all silent in that direction. Is she circling her? No, she was chasing after her, that isn't possible. Then what…?
“This isn't funny!” she curses. “What? Do you want an apology? Who cares? It's just a stupid fight. Just stop this!”
She doesn't want to run into the night and accidentally get lost. If Shauna wants an apology, she’ll get one if it makes her leave Mari alone. Then they can go back to arguing tomorrow. She doesn't like this. She just wants it to stop.
Shauna Shipman emerges from the foliage behind her, blocking her way back to camp. In the darkness, it's hard to make out her features with only the light of the moon above them. Her skin prickles uneasily.
“Shauna,” Mari says. “Let's just go back.”
She doesn't like being out at nighttime. The woods seem to come alive in a different way. Each shadow hides a new terror. Each sound sends a shiver down her spine. It's a reminder that even after everything, they are never safe here.
Shauna doesn't say anything as she slows to a walk. Each step is silent against the forest floor but deliberate, like a predator stalking her prey. Her eyes are fixed on Mari and they hold no love for her.
“Shauna. Shauna, come on. Leave it alone,” she tries again.
Again, Shauna doesn’t say anything. She just keeps walking towards her. Her gaze is magnetising, trapping Mari in place. There is something so powerful about Shauna that makes everyone respect her—in spite of how deranged she is. Perhaps that is why Mari enjoys fucking with her. It’s funny to see her exterior crack.
It's only when Mari sees the glint of moonlight off the blade of her knife does she realise just how genuinely not funny this situation is.
“Shauna…” she breathes. “What are you-?”
She growls—actually fucking growls —at her and Shauna’s brows furrow.
And that's enough for her.
Mari turns and bolts.
She crashes through the undergrowth with Shauna right on her heels. God, she didn't know the other girl was so fast. Maybe she wouldn't have tried running if she did. Maybe she should have stayed at camp and tried to find Nat or Tai to help her. Instead, she panicked and ran.
And now she's going to die in the woods like an animal because Shauna can't control her temper.
Fuck. This isn't fucking fair.
This can't be the fate given to her by the Wilderness. She desperately wishes that Lottie was here. She could find a way to calm Shauna down or let her rage out. She would protect her. She protects all of them.
But she isn't here, Mari is all alone and she’s running.
“Mari!” Shauna yells, the first word she's spoken since entering the woods. “Get back here!”
“Fuck you!” Mari yells back. “Fuck off, Shauna! This isn’t a joke!”
But she can’t slow down. She can hear Shauna behind her, no longer silent as she tears after her.
Their hunt for Nat and Javi was a frenzied fever dream. Mari barely remembers how it happened. But she remembers running through the woods, the other girls at her side, like a pack of wolves chasing after a deer, closing in for the kill. She didn’t know what it was like to be on the other side of the hunt.
It's terrifying.
She trips and stumbles her way through bushes and trees, ignoring how they scratch her arms and sting her feet. All she knows is she has to get away from the beast behind her. She doesn't think for a second that Shauna would hesitate to kill her. Perhaps she would enjoy craving up her corpse.
Mari shoves her way through a cluster of brambles and struggles forward. But Shauna keeps coming, keeps chasing. She can hear her panting. She's getting closer.
“Shauna, stop!” she yells. “Please! I'm sorry! I didn't mean-!”
A body crashes into her and sends them both to the ground. Mari shrieks at the sudden weight on her back, at the hands grabbing her roughly.
“Shauna!”
Teeth sink to the fleshy part of her shoulder and Mari screams. Are they too far from camp for the others to hear her? How long was she running for? Maybe they could have woken if she had screamed the moment Shauna started chasing her. Maybe they could have saved her.
Shauna pins her to the ground with a strength Mari didn't know she had. The kiss of her knife against the back of her neck has the struggle leaving her body. Mari freezes in place.
“Fuck you,” Shauna snarls in her ear. “What, do you think you’re funny? That everyone likes you? You're insufferable.”
Mari’s hands tighten on the ground in front of her.
“Because you're such an angel, Shauna,” she spits. “You’re a freak. Scribbling away in your little diary, acting like you're better than all of you. You're not! You're just as messed up as the rest of us, worse. I mean, think about Jackie-”
She cuts off when she's suddenly ripped from the ground. Shauna turns her over with lightning speed and presses the blade hard against her throat.
“Don’t. Ever. Say her name.” Her voice is low as a whisper.
Now face to face, Mari can finally look Shauna in the eye. They're hardset and full of rage, perfectly mirroring the predator that hunted her through the woods. She sees herself reflected in them. Dishevelled but still ready to claw herself out of this.
“What? You gonna kill me? Go ahead.” Mari pushes her neck against the blade, doesn't even flinch when she feels it bite into her skin. “It was only ever going to end like this.”
With one of them pushing too far, where they couldn't come back from. Mari’s not a killer. But like hell if she'll be a passive victim.
Shauna stares at her with those deep dark eyes. Her gaze travels across her face, as if examining her. Perhaps thinking of where she’s going to plunge her knife. She's their Butcher. She's well acquainted with cuts of meat.
Shauna pauses as she takes in her neck. Mari can feel the warm trickle of blood sliding down her skin.
And for a moment, Shauna wavers. She hesitates.
Mari shoves hard and knocks the knife from her hand.
“Get off me!”
But as soon as she's on her feet, Shauna collides with her once. There's no blade this time, she’s tearing into her with her bare hands.
Unfortunately, Shauna is still stronger than her, fiercely determined to prevent her from getting away. She wrestles her down, arms like unmovable iron against her body. Mari lashes out and catches her across the face, tearing thin bloody lines into her skin. Shauna howls in pain. But Mari’s grin is short-lived.
Shauna ends up on top of her again, one hand on each of her wrists, pinning them down by her head.
They're both breathing heavily, clouding the cool night air until they can't tell themselves apart. Mari’s heart roars in her ears. They linger as one, breathing in each other, not speaking. Their eyes are locked together and though Mari desperately tries to explore them, she doesn't understand what she sees.
She cannot tell what Shauna is thinking.
“Well?” she pants. “What are you going to-?”
Shauna surprises her for the first time tonight.
Her mouth crashes against hers roughly with a violent hunger that teethers on the edge of feral. Mari doesn't get a chance to breathe before she's being consumed by her.
Shauna’s a rough kisser. All tongue and teeth, sinking into her bottom lip until Mari bleeds. It's rushed and harsh. Breathlessly insane. Very Shauna Shipman.
And Mari, not to be outdone, bites her back.
She doesn't know when Shauna lets go of her wrists but the next thing she knows are her hands are in her hair, desperately crushing their lips together. It's still a fight, it always is with them. But how does one win a kiss? They're both going to lose in the end.
Shauna’s mouth strays from hers across her neck, peppering bites along her jaw. Mari inhales sharply.
“Fuck, Shauna,” she groans. “What the fuck?”
But those lips are on her neck, tongue rasping across the cut on her throat, lapping at her blood. Warmth simmers in Mari's gut. Her hands tighten in Shauna’s hair. But they do not push her away.
Shauna bites again, near the jugular, and Mari moans. Perhaps she will kill her after all. Except instead of a knife, she's going to tear her throat out with her teeth.
The pain is fresh. She's bleeding on the forest floor with Shauna on top of her.
Shauna’s hands slide down the top of her dress, roughly palming at her chest. Her touch is clumsy, exploratory. Mari briefly wonders if she's ever touched another girl like this. There was Jackie—but none of them ever believed anything happened between them, despite the feelings clearly being there.
Regardless, Mari doesn't want her to be gentle. She wants her to be feral.
As Shauna fumbles with her chest, her mouth strays closer to Mari’s ear. She can hear her panting.
She digs her nails into Shauna’s scalp and she groans, the sound doing terrible things to the warmth between Mari’s legs.
“Come on,” she rasps at her. “Do it like you mean it.”
And Shauna rises before her, like a terrible monster emerging from the dark. Her eyes are dark, her lips are bloody, the nail marks on her cheek are weeping. She looks terrifying but also so beautiful at the same time.
She wraps one hand around Mari’s throat, right over the wound she left.
For a terrible moment, Mari wonders if she's going to strangle her there and then.
But then Shauna’s kissing her again. Fiercely and violently. Both squeezing the breath from her and drinking it from her lips.
Mari moans into her mouth and Shauna takes it from her. Her kiss is devastating. It's been so long since she's felt the touch of another, Mari wondered if she had forgotten what it felt like. Did it always hurt in just the right ways?
Mari reaches out blindly and finds her wrist, tugging her free hand back onto her body. There's too many layers separating them. Her skin burns hot as if being set aflame.
Shauna seems to have the same realisation as she tugs her up, reaching behind her to find the zipper to her dress. She tugs it down her arms until Mari can struggle her upper half out of it. The night air is like ice against her bare skin but it's quickly pushed away by Shauna’s hands and her lips.
Shauna kisses her way down her chest, leaving a splattering of bites in her wake. Her nails dig into her upper ribs as her thumbs swipe across Mari’s hard nipples.
Mari whimpers when her mouth follows the path of hands. It hurts but it hurts so good. Maybe it is Shauna’s first time touching another girl like this but she's instinctual, able to find where she's sensitive and wring every note of pain and pleasure from her. She has Mari arching into her mouth, desperately clawing at her arms for more, harder, anything.
She's bleeding from her injuries but it only seems to delight Shauna more. She licks at the marks she leaves behind, painting her skin slick with saliva and blood. If Mari makes it out of this alive, she's going to be sore and bruised for days. She doesn't even want to think about explaining it to the others.
Shauna’s lips tease against the hark peak of her nipple and Mari moans, hips bucking up against Shauna’s.
“God, Mari,” Shauna groans, the first thing she said since she kissed her. “Fuck…”
She shifts back off her, only to let their thighs slip between each other. Fitting herself between Mari’s legs has her dress rucking up around her waist, exposing her bare thighs to the night air. But Shauna is wrapped around her, hot and burning.
Is it sweat or something more that has their skin sliding against each other? She can feel how hot Shauna is, pressed hard against her as her knee shifts forward. Mari breaks off in another moan at the pressure.
She grabs Shauna by the chin and pulls her up to kiss her again. It's no less ravenous than the others. They sink into each other with tooth and nail.
Shauna’s hands slide down to her waist, thumb rubbing over her hip bone.
“Here,” Mari groans. “At least take this off-”
She pulls at Shauna’s shirt, not wanting to be the only one exposed in this weird tryst.
Shauna obliges, pulling back to tug it over her head. She discards the fabric carelessly as she dives back in resume kissing Mari.
Skin upon skin, she's positively blazing.
Shauna is too skinny. They all are. Mari can feel the press of her ribs against the surface of her skin, far too outlined to be healthy. They've tried to sustain themselves with their little farm and their hunting missions but it isn't easy. Even as she scratches parallel lines down her back, she wonders what the end goal is. Will this hell ever end?
She never dreamed she would end up on her back in the middle of the woods with Shauna Shipman kissing her. Biting her. Destroying her.
Shauna’s hips press against hers, moving in thrusting motion as she pushes herself against Mari’s thigh. Each movement has her knee pressing between Mari’s legs.
She's dizzy.
They move in tandem, roughly colliding together as if they're trying to hurt each other. It shouldn't feel so good. It shouldn't have every inch of her body feeling as though she's been set aflame. But Mari has had a taste and she's not letting it go. She wants her.
Mari lets out a weak shuddering cry as she comes. It crackles through her whole body like a wave of electricity, every nerve burning as she reaches her peak. Her hands tighten around her, holding her close until she can breathe again.
Shauna’s cheek is pressed to hers, head bowed against her as she rocks herself on top of her. She's close, Mari can hear it. Her wild, shuddering exhale is driving her insane.
“Fuck, Shauna,” Mari groans. She digs her nails into Shauna’s lower back, reveling in her tight hiss of pain. “Fuck.”
Shauna’s hand tightens on her bicep until it hurts. But she doesn't stop and Mari doesn't want her to. She wants to see her come undone, to see that fierce wall crack and crumble. She wants to see her driven over the edge.
Mari turns her face, seeking her mouth once again. She kisses Shauna deeply, hands roaming down her back. Each touch, each lurch of their bodies together, she's coaxing her further. Come on, Butcher. Let me see you ruined.
Shauna breaks away in an arch, eyes fluttering closed. She comes with a deep moan, pinning Mari firmly to the ground as she reaches ecstasy. It's a beautiful noise.
Even as Shauna collapses bonelessly on top of her, Mari can't help but wonder what just happened. She lies still, chest rising and falling, feeling every point in which their bodies connect. Her skin is slick with sweat, chasing the chill of the night away with it.
Mari watches as Shauna raises her head. Her hand lets go the vice grip on her arm. But she isn't through with her yet.
Her eyes are dark but almost glow in comparison to the night around them. She gets an elbow under her and finds her position once again. Except this time, her hand trails down between Mari’s legs.
They both can feel how drenched she is. Fabric sticks to skin but Shauna presses against her. She doesn't bother removing her underwear. Instead her hand shoves the flimsy clothing aside as her fingers explore her.
Mari groans and tries to sit up but is stopped. Shauna grips her neck and holds her down.
“No,” Shauna murmurs. “I want to watch your face.”
Mari’s heart is like a drum in her ears. Her blood flows hot through her veins. But with a hand around her throat and fingers pressing inside her, she is powerless to resist her.
Shauna enters her with two fingers, first thrust striking deep into her.
Mari moans. She takes hold of Shauna’s wrist, not to take it away but to have something. To grasp onto.
As if coaxed by her action, Shauna’s fingers tighten ever so slightly. She holds Mari’s very life in grasp. And yet it only makes that tension in her stomach that much hotter.
Shauna withdraws from within her and pushes back in, eyes unable to detach themselves from her face. She watches as Mari writhes and moans from her touch with a strange fascination. And Mari, Mari shifts her hips towards her needily.
“You're going too slow,” she says.
“So demanding,” Shauna says mockingly.
“You're an asshole.”
“You're a bitch,” Shauna retorts.
But her thrusts pick up pace. She strikes deep inside her, fingers curling to hit just the right spot. It doesn't take long for Mari to come.
She does so with Shauna’s name on her lips, pride and sense be damned in the dark. It hits her harder than the last one. Every muscle in her body tenses and releases, making her feel like jelly.
She can feel her eyes on her. Slowly, Shauna’s fingers unwrap from around her throat.
Mari lies on the forest floor underneath her, chest rapidly rising and falling.
She opens her eyes and meets Shauna’s gaze. For a moment, she isn't the predator that hunted her down in the forest but just a girl, wide eyed and confused. It's startling.
Then Shauna is getting to her feet and grabbing her shirt.
“Shauna-”
But Shauna doesn't listen. She picks her knife up and stows it in her belt. Mari can see the red lines she left down her back, stark and ugly against her bare skin. Then Shauna tugs her shirt over her head and turns back towards camp.
Mari watches her walk away and doesn't call after her again. Her footsteps disappear and then she is all alone.
Mari lets her head rest back against the ground and sighs. How close did she come to death tonight, she has to wonder. She believes that Shauna is more than capable of killing her but after everything that happened, she isn't certain.
Around her, the trees creak and Mari is reminded that she's still lying in the middle of the woods in the dead of night.
She pushes herself into a sitting position, wincing at the numerous reminders left by Shauna. Bruises and cuts, from nails, teeth and blade. She hastily tugs her dress back up.
When she reaches camp, Shauna is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps that's for the better. She doesn't know what she could even say to her.
Mari stumbles back to her shelter, managing not to disturb the others as she finds her bed. She is surely a state, skin a mess of bruises and cuts that need attention. That's an issue for the morning.
Nothing has changed, she has to believe. Tomorrow, they will likely be at each other’s throats again. Except this time hopefully, it won't be accompanied by a knife.