I have written a novella and below is the first chapter. It is a fantasy YA novella. Let me know your thoughts:
Chapter 1
Hell finds me. She always does. No matter where I am, what I’m doing, or what time of day, she always finds me. She has been hunting me for the past three years, two months and eight days, and I still don’t know why. She first appeared the night after my mom died. I received my first scar from her that night too, on my thigh that has remained plump and rose-red, unlike my other scars.
It has been forty-six hours and not enough minutes since our last tango. When she meets me, it never ends well, at least for me. She always comes on my worst days, and this one has been particularly vile. On nights like this, I force my mind to clear by running through the woods behind my house. Sometimes, I run to the middle of the woods and scream. Other times, I pound a poor thick oak with my fists. Sometimes I sit on the shores of the lake, crushing the course sand in the palm of my clenched hand. Tonight is no different. I don’t want to be even in the same town as my Father.
I am standing on a twenty-foot cliff at the edge of the woods. The lake is below, but I don’t hear its lapping waves. I fling my bangs from my eyes and glare at Hell. Hell stands between me and freedom. Hell is shadowy, darker than the night that surrounds her. She resembles a tall, powerful female. Her hair thrashes around her head like tentacles, thick and angry. Her almond shaped eyes glow a smoldering scarlet. Her fingernails—more like claws—are tipped in the same scarlet as her eyes as if she had just finished a fresh kill. The left side of her face is chiseled as only shadows can be. A crater exuding a crimson glow replaces her cheek, as if someone before me had crushed the entire right side of her face. Lines crackle from the crater across her face, pulsing scarlet in rhythm with my heartbeat.
She stands to my right, blocking my escape route to go deeper into the woods. I only have two options to escape. I can try to run past Hell, but I have the scars to prove that I will fail. I can go to my left, but that leads me back to my Father. She knows I have no desire to go there. I back up to the edge of the cliff. Hell starts walking toward me. Maybe I have a third option. I look over my shoulder at the calm water below. I suddenly wish there is a fourth option.
The stars and moon cower behind dark clouds. The crickets which I heard only a few minutes ago are silent and likely hiding beneath the fallen leaves. The once cool, crisp air is now electric and heavy. I take a deep breath. The scent of Hell fills my lungs; she smells like jasmine but only sweeter, lighter. I realize now that I will not escape her tonight. I will not make it to sunrise without another scar.
Hell stops ten feet from me. Her right arm reaches out to me. Her crimson face pulses faster and faster as my heartbeat punches my chest to escape. Her body stretches wider as she slinks closer.
My feet bob, telling me that I can race past her, but my head tells me that while I am seventeen and invincible, I am not foolish. What little hair I have on my arms tingles. My stomach tightens, and every muscle in my body stiffens for battle. But I will not win. I never win against Hell.
So I do the only thing I can.
I jump.