Running Red

Chapter 7 - Hell On My Heels

I think this chapter speaks for itself. I don't have a lot to say, except that I scared mysel a couple times while I wrote it. TheMiddleChild helped me edit, so thanks to her! Apologies for the wait. My week was crazy busy. I had three scholarships due and some afterschool practices that were unantipated and couldn't be avoided or else I would have uploaded this last weekend. Sorry @Wishingal! :(

Have fun reading! Leave me comments! Don't be haters! Fly on! -FlyOn97

I ran as if the ground wall falling away behind me. I ran as if I were a criminal who knew he was about to be caught. I ran as if Hell were on my heels.  I ran as if I was going to die.

Because, for all I knew, I was.

The chasm was the easiest part. I blazed through it without looking behind me, my footsteps echoing eerily quiet in comparison to the screams that I had just abandoned. At the end of the chasm, however, I stopped abruptly before I entered the forest.

My heart was pounding hard in my chest, partly from adrenaline, partly from exercise, but mostly because I was more scared than I had been in my life.

I had never left the city like this. Not fleeing. Never after noon. I would never be able to return before the sun set. I would be trapped.

I took a deep breath and surveyed the trees. Nothing seemed to be there, but I couldn’t help notice that the shadows were lengthening, and slowly the sky was beginning to grey with what looked like incoming clouds. Already the trees looked less lush and more scraggly, shadows exaggerating their size and angles. The floor looked less like leaves and more like a carpet of rocks and thistles. The rocky walls looked sinister and dark as sunlight struggled to reach the cavities riddling the sides.

I took a second deep breath, steeled myself, and took my first step away from the granite channel. I did not run. I took deliberate steps, looking left and right.

The forest was deathly quiet, as if the whole earth had decided to suck in its breath. I followed the rugged path, watching for sticks and rocks that would crack the silence that blanketed my world. I scanned every bush, tree, and stone as I walked, expecting the worst to happen at any second. Expecting to see something. A rustle. A flash. A print in the soft dirt. Anything to tell me of a second presence.

Shivers crawled up my back.

I spun around, swishing leaves and dirt in my haste. I was half crouched, my hands up, my heart pounding viciously in my chest.

Nothing was there.

I suddenly felt as if I were being watched. As if I was being spied upon by the whole forest. My whole body was wracked in chills that had nothing to do with the temperature and I took my first running step in the opposite direction. Away from the imagined eyes in the forest.

I ran hard.

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For my entire life, I had feared the night. Just as any child in Anultic would, I feared what could be under my bed, what could be outside the window, what could have made the creaks and groans of old houses, what might be lurking. . .

My father had always been there for me in those times. He was quick to say that I had a reason to fear, and to never forget why I feared, but also to never let my fear take control of my actions.

I tried to remember this as I saw the sun fade away. I tried hard to remember that I could not let my fear control me. I had to focus and never quit. I tried to remember these things.

But I would be lying if I said I didn’t push myself that much harder when the sun left my sight. When I wasn’t able to see the rays breaking through the leaves, I stretched my legs that extra inch and forced them to take the next step with precision and speed, hoping with everything that I could reach the end of the forest before the sun left completely.