Double Take

 

 

Breathing hard, I tried to stand up properly again. My poor kidneys and stomach had received a battering. I hurt badly, all over.

 

“Stop being such a god damn sook”, I muttered to myself.

 

Dragging a hand across my face, I ended up smearing blood and wincing when I touched my broken nose.

 

I quickly tried to make an inventory of my wounds.

 

Gash above my eyebrows, dripping blood into my eyes. Not too serious.

 

Ringing in my left ear. Hopefully only temporary.

 

Definite broken nose. The main source of blood.

 

Possibly broken ribs. It hurt when I breathed.

 

A few chipped teeth. The least of my worries.

 

Trying to control the frantic beating of my heart, I peered around the edge of the doorway, my latest hiding spot. The brick hallways of the school looked deserted, to my relief. My good right ear couldn’t detect any sounds of movement.

 

I took off my shoes- the rubber soles squeaked against the linoleum floor, and it was essential I wasn’t found.

 

It was a matter of life and death.

 

I padded down the hallway in my socks, my breathing sounding too loud, the sound of it bouncing off the walls back to me.

 

Holding my breath didn’t help either. The frantic pounding of my heart made it impossible to hear anything except for the rush of blood in my head.

 

Suddenly, noise. Concentrating hard, and slowly revolving on the spot, I figured it came from a hallway, a few paces behind me, on the right.

 

Was it friend or enemy? I couldn’t stick around to find out.

 

I was exhausted, only running off pure adrenalin now. Keeping as quiet as possible, I limped my way towards the closest hallway. Walking faster now, I was too busy looking behind me to notice the cleaners cart ahead of me. I ran into it, ramming the edge of it into my ribs.

 

Sucking in a sharp breath, I willed myself no to cry out in pain, to not make any noise whatsoever. Slowly, carefully, I pulled myself up by using the cart. It was one of those wheelie ones, so it moved forward a little when I got up.

 

Which wouldn’t have been such a big deal if there hadn’t been an empty metal bucket in front of it. It clattered loudly down the hall, and the footsteps quickened behind me.

 

“Shit shit shit shit.” I was almost sobbing. I didn’t want to die. Not here, not now.

 

Now that my follower knew my exact whereabouts, it didn’t matter if I was loud or not.  So I ran. Because of my injuries, the broken ribs throbbing painfully, and my deaf ear screwing with my co-ordination, me running resembled Freddy Krueger’s running in Nightmare on Elm Street. You know, all wonky, with arms swinging everywhere.

 

There was a set of doors at the end of the corridor. If only I could make it to there, I would be safe. If I got outside, I could live.

 

The chances of that happening were becoming smaller and smaller by the second, as the footsteps behind me got closer and closer. I was certain it was an enemy now. Any normal person would have called out to stop me running, tried to help me.

 

I could hear their panting breath now. They were close, but I was still too far from the doors.

 

I wasn’t going to make it.

 

With that realisation, I made my decision. I didn’t want to die, running like a coward. I wanted to stand up and fight, to damage them as much as I could before they finished me off. Sucking in a breath, I skidded to halt, and turned to face my attacker. They stopped about 10meters behind me, shock written all over her face.

 

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer?

 

My enemy was right here in front of me.

 

My enemy was me.