•Running Forever•

Chapter 4. Fourth Step.

The wet snowball fell to the sidewalk with sickening slop.

Char had dropped it, his hands momentarily wide open.

"Right..I-uh." He fumbled and faltered.

His hands buried their way into his pockets.

His eyes ducked down, I noticed a bright pink forming across his face.

"You don't have to come home with me. .  . I was just worried about you. I don't know. You seem-Harley?"

He had noticed me, frozen in place, staring off down the street. At the van, the van.

The black van.

It was His.

It had to be.

My breathing caught in my throat, it was coming this way.

He was going to catch me.

Heart-pumping, stomach twisting, I spun around, and started to run.

I could feel my feet pounding on the slippery pavement, it was dangerous to run in the snow, but I needed to get away.

Something prickled behind my eyes, it made my vision swim, I could taste blood.

I had no energy to run, I hadn't slept, I'd hardly eaten.

My body screamed with each step, soon enough I could hear myself screaming.

"Harley!" Someone's voice behind me...

A patch of death awaited my incoming heel.

I hit the ice and went flying.

Flying, flying, back to Earth.

My eyes shut as I waited for the impact that never came.

Arms went around my armpits, breaking my personal bubble.

"Careful," A voiced panted beside my ear. It muttered instructions I didn't hear. All I could feel was His hands on me. I yelled protests, flailing, hitting, struggling. My fists made contact with the flesh of His face. Wrong move, I shielded myself, expecting the usual punch in the face when I resisted.

"Ouch, Harley. Calm down."

The arms locked firmly around my waist, heaving me up onto my feet.

I couldn't feel my legs, useless as jelly. 

Reaching around, I grabbed ahold of His hair and tugged feverishly.

I don't care if He hit me, I just wanted to get away this time.

But this hair under my hands, it wasn't His.

"Charles?"

"Yeah. Who'd you think it was?" A laugh tickled my ear.

I bent my head over, the ground behind my feet turned black as I shut my eyes. Hot tears raced down my cheeks, my breathing hitched and hiccuped with my sobs, which grew loud as my body shivered in Char's embrace.

Crying hurt so much, but I couldn't stop it.

Char said something, my feet were no longer touching the ground. Air rushed around me for a moment. I weakly curled up into a shaking ball, I was up against a warm chest, suspended and kept from falling by his arms.

Running wasn't required, for the moment, Charles carried me.