Running

Virginia Murphy Grade 7

I’m running, running as fast as I can but it keeps getting closer and closer. I feel a cold sharp pain in my throat, making it harder to breathe every step of the way. They are not going to stop. My legs ache but I still fnd myself running across the bridge and over the hill. Then there is the house. I feel my body moving towards it. My heart is pounding out of my chest as I back into the wall. and then there it is, every step getting closer and closer.

“Sweetie, wake up,” I hear my mom holler.

As I sit up in bed, I replay the nightmare I just had. It was so strange and so real. I walk over to open the window and open it, welcoming the aroma of pumpkins and apple cider. I stick my head out the window to see if my best friend, Katie, is awake yet.

“Katie!”

I stand there for a moment waiting for her to reply. Nothing. Strange. I look down the street to see if she is on a walk. I feel a harsh breeze past my face then I see someone walking down the road. They are pacing back and forth back and forth. It seems like they know I was looking at them because they stop and look up. As they look up I feel my heart begin to race so I sprint down stairs yelling my moms name!

“MOM! MOM! THERE IS SOMEONE ON THE STREET WATCHING ME!”

“Sweetie, calm down. Let’s go and look,” she says calmly. While we walk outside I hide behind my mom, grabbing her sweater every step of the way. I point to where the person was but no one is there.

“Wait, but they were right there...” I say as I look down the street. But still there is no one in sight.

“I told you to stop watching those scary movies, Lola! Now you are imagining things!” she scolds.

“I swear there was someone there! Please believe me!”

As my mom walks back inside, I sit outside for a minute thinking about what I saw and how it disappeared as soon as we came outside. I turn around to walk back inside when I hear a loud bang. I spin around as fast as I can and I see the door is wide open.

Weird. I remember closing that.

I walk inside, trying to forget what just happened. All day I await a call from Katie but it never comes. After two hours of waiting I decide that I’m just going to walk over and see if she can hangout. As I walk over I feel someone’s eyes watching me. Trying to not look suspicious, I begin to run. As soon as I get to Katie’s doorstep I press the doorbell. No response. I try knocking, no response. Then fnally after 5 minutes of waiting I see someone walking in my direction, Katie’s mom.

“Hi!” I say “Is Katie here?”

“She is no longer here,” she says, her eyes looking out into the distance with a sharp, knife-like, stare. I turn around trying to see what she is looking at but no one is there. While turning back around the sky gets dark and a large, dark, cloud consumes the sky.

I look back at Katie’s mom, but she is gone.

Maybe she went inside, I tell myself. But then I feel a cold wind.

I turn and see that they are there. Standing. Waiting. I stife the scream bubbling up in my throat as I begin to run. They are right behind me.

I run.

I run for miles.

At one point, a runner’s stitch forming in my side, I look behind me, sure that they must be gone by now. But then there they are. Gaining on me. Relentless.

I swallow the pain and continue running, running as fast as I can. But they keep getting closer. Closer.

I feel a sharp burn in my throat, a metallic taste in my mouth. With every step I take, it is harder and harder to breathe. But I keep going because they are not going to stop.

As I run across a bridge, the continue to gain ground on me. Closer. Closer.

I see a house and run inside, throwing the door shut behind me and trying to catch my breath. I look around, searching for something to bar the door.

As I do, I notice that somehow this house feels familiar. So familiar, like I have been there before. But before I can complete that thought, pull the memory to the forefront of my mind, the handle of the door turns and long fngers curl around the door, reaching in, reaching towards me.

Closer.

And closer.