The Run

The Run Chapter 1

Dedicated to: Bertiebert for the amazing cover! :D

Chapter 1

Coming up behind me, I could see the shadow of the man as he came closer and closer.  So I did the only thing I could do at the time, I ran.  I ran faster than I ever have; faster than I ever thought I could.  My long brown hair was hitting me in the face, but I took no notice of it.  I was running away from my past, in an attempt to keep it from becoming my future.  I knew that I couldn't live like that, not again.  Not with that man.

No matter how fast I ran it still seemed like he was keeping up with me, maybe even getting closer.  He was about twenty feet behind me.  Now he was fifteen.  Now he was ten.  He was getting closer by the second.  I tried to put on more speed, but I knew that I was either at my limit or really close to it.  It seemed the more speed I put on he matched it.  It was a despairing feeling knowing that he could catch up with me at any second.  I resisted the urge to turn around again; years as a runner had taught me that you can run faster if you aren't looking to see if the person behind you is still there.  I didn't need to turn around to know that he was still chasing me.

I knew if I had any chance of escaping I had to lose him.  That would be hard though; he was a seasoned runner as well.  He ran as part of his job, if you could call it a job.  Most of his time was spent chasing me around.  Sometimes I almost felt bad for him, but then I remembered why I needed to escape in the first place.  Those thoughts pushed me to run harder, stretching my muscles as though I never had before.  I knew that I had to get away, at all costs.

We were currently running down a sidewalk in a small town. I would say which one, but I don't know.  I don't even know what state I'm in.  All I know is that there are a lot of corners, and I might be able to lose him around one.  If I could take a corner fast enough, I might be able to hide somewhere for him to go right past me.  Then after he went by, I could come out of my hiding place and go the other direction.  That is, if he hasn't called in his lackeys by now.  If he has, then the game will have changed drastically.  But all I could do is try my plan and hope that it worked; I had the bad feeling that he was starting to get closer.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could still see the man’s shadow running behind mine ominously.  I saw a corner approaching quickly and decided to put my plan into action.  I put on even more speed, more than I thought was even possible.  I was at a dead sprint when I turned the corner; I had to be a large enough distance in front of him, or at least I hoped I was.

When I looked at my surroundings quickly, I noticed a small store to my right. It had a large display of books in the window and I took it to be a bookstore.  I had wanted somewhere more crowded, but I was running out of time so it had to do.  I ducked inside quickly, walking away from the windows and into one of the aisles.  After a moment, I went back to look out one of the windows.  I backed up a bit when I saw the man standing on the sidewalk, not even ten feet from where I stood.  Only the wall of the store stood between us.  He looked around for me quickly, his dark hair shaking with his head.  I could see his dark eyes flash with anger from where I stood and I knew he was angry over loosing me.  I backed up a little more, swallowing nervously.  After a moment more of looking around him, he shook his head and left, pulling out a cell phone to tell his boss that he lost me.

I sighed and stepped back from the window to take in my surroundings.  The store I was in was quant, it had the cute little hometown store feel to it that I liked.  There were about ten shelves that were stocked from floor to ceiling with books, and every shelf was entirely full.  If I could say nothing else about the store, I could tell that it must have a pretty wide selection.  I love books; I always have, I just normally don't have the time for them.  I'm usually running from creeps like the guy that was chasing me earlier.  Speaking of creeps...