How I Died

Runner

I am running so hard. I've survived this long, I can't die now. I have to get back to my family. A girl with hundreds of knives is chasing me. I don't know where to run. My sword is useless against her.

I can't run forever. I look up, ducking under a tree branch. I run further, running out of breath quickly. There is my savior. The sole, leafy green, branch. I put up my arms and swing myself up onto it. Erika Lancing will kill me, or I will walk away a murderess. I stay still, on my branch, my lungs slowly dying as they scream for air.

"Come here, you little snowflake," she taunts, "Alright, Blondie, you can slowly die from hunger and fatigue, or have a quick painless death with me!" I have a dagger in my backpack, but there's no way I can retrieve it without Erika hearing the zipper.

"Scared?" Her voice is relentless.

No escape. No Escape. The voice echoes in my head.

No. No. Escape is possible.

Yeah, from the tree, not from death.

Shut up! I scream internally, fighting myself.

I make my decision. I jump down from the tree, rolling and unsheathing my iron sword before I land on my feet. I am instantly aware of my surroundings. No one is there.

"Too scared to face me?" I call into the silence.

Then cold. Cold. Next to my shoulder blade. A cold, searing sensation. The world spins before me in black, but I won't let it disappear. Red spots twirl across Erika's face.

"Are you afraid of death?" She snarls in my ear, wrenching out what I now know is a dagger in my back. I gasp in pain. The red spots dance across her cruel smile and into the darkness I know I will never return from.