Stay With Me

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

­I rounded the corner and leaned my back flat against the wall. I was already gasping for air, my hand on my chest, trying to calm my racing heart. I inhaled as deep as I could but it seemed that there was not enough air to breathe in. Closing my eyes, I clenched my fist and forced my legs to move.

He was going to find me soon if I stayed here. But I couldn’t breathe, my heart felt like it was going to explode. My body was trembling, and I could feel the chilly breeze of the night prickling every inch of my skin through the thin fabric of my shirt. The ground was damp and cold beneath my bare feet. My hands were shaking, either from anger or fear, I didn’t know.

The pounding in my chest was getting louder and louder. My ragged breathing was an eerie scraping sound against the cold air. It sounded like a sandpaper being raked against a wall. I was hiding behind an alley, in an abandoned part of a street. I was trying hard to remember how I got here when I heard a faint rustling of shoes against hard, granite floor. He found me.

Run, run, run.

I pushed myself away from the wall and ran blindly. I kept on running and turned left to the first alley I saw. An echoing noise of footsteps told me that he saw me and was now on my trail. A sound of a gun going off resonated on the walls, and I felt something whizzed by my left ear. I heard someone whimper and realized that it was me.

Another bullet whizzed and this time it hit the ground a few inches ahead of my foot. Panic surged in, and I ducked my head as low as I could, still running instinctively. I was running up to my limit, but it wasn’t fast enough. I felt like I was running and at the same time carrying something heavy being dragged on the floor.

I spotted another alley on the right several metres ahead and decided that I could hide there. I ran as fast as I could until my limbs allow. I made a sharp turn to the right and a cold metal touching my forehead stopped me on my tracks. It was not later when I realized what the metal was.

It was a gun pointed directly at my forehead.

I stopped breathing as if it would stop the man from pulling the trigger. I looked at him and knew that the chase was over. He finally had me at the end point of his gun. A grin slowly slithered up his face, emphasizing the wrinkles of the long scar on his cheek. His eyes glittered in determination.

His finger moved, ready to pull the trigger. I stood frozen, unable to run for my life. I watched as his fingers tightened its hold on the trigger. I was about to die. This couldn’t be happening. No… no, no, no—

“NO!” I screamed, my own voice filling the room. My bedroom. I was breathing hard, heart hammering against my chest, sweat trickling down my forehead. I closed my eyes and calmed myself. It was just a dream, I told myself repeatedly. It was just a dream but it felt real. Too real.

My limbs were trembling and I clambered out of bed. My foot caught up in the tangled sheets and I tripped but managed to hold onto the chair nearby. I kicked the blanket knotted on my feet and it went flying back to my bed. I scrambled to my computer.

The computer screens flickered to life and I entered my password. My hands shook as I pressed the keys. I cursed under my breath when a notification popped up, telling me that I entered a wrong password. I typed it again, carefully this time. The screens changed, noting me that the login was successful.

I stared at the three monitors which had twelve different area views from the security cameras of my apartment building. I installed some cameras in my flat, so it was the first view that I looked at. It was a view from my apartment’s living room. The other cameras were located in the kitchen, and some were overlooking the windows. Soft, dim light filled both areas, and nothing looked disturbed.