Run as Fast as You Can

terror. The thing was almost upon me, and I had no way to escape. Still I pushed myself up and

Then something wispy light touched my foot and I lost it. I jerked and started twisting, kicking, and generally flailing about. The airy creature slid up my leg with ease while I screamed my head off.

Instead, it was a voice filled with concern, echoing and rattling inside their skull with its sharp pitch. Their eyes fluttered open to see an unrecognizable face swimming across their vision among an array of color.

My feet aching, I plodded along as cars rushed by. I wondered what the drivers of those cars would be thinking if they saw such a small child walking by himself. As terrible possible situations played out in my mind, I reached the one story building that was my home. For some reason that I will never know, I did not go and knock or ring the doorbell. Reaching the house only increased the horrible feeling in my chest. This was probably one of the strangest things that I have ever done in my life and stands testament to the ability that fear has to completely alter our thinking capacities. Normally, all my life I have been known has fairly level-headed, but now I was reduced to an illogical

I was about to turn around to face the familiarity of the voice when I hear a deafening explosion to my right. I did what anyone would under the circumstances. I cowered beneath my arms, ready to anticipate the blazing heat of the flames.

Run! Run! “ Jem screamed…. From somewhere nearby came scuffling, kicking sounds, sounds of shoes and flushed scraping dirt and roots. Someone rolled against me and I felt Jem.

people to stand up and come forward I started to hear another voice. That voice became louder

I could feel it in my fingertips, the ends of my hair, and everywhere in between. It stretched inside of me like a coiling snake, ready to lash out.

I know that voice. Stopping dead in my tracks I hesitantly turned exactly ninety degrees to my left, coming face to face with the one person I did not want to see right now. Heck, no one wanted to see him at any time of day. “Hi . . . Mr. Oakridge,” I said, seeing my voice echo out into a foggy mist from the cold air. “How are you?” I quickly added, remembering

“Who are you and why are you doing this?” I kept turning to find the person but the voice seemed to come from everywhere.

My foot started a steady tapping rhythm on the floor, and I could no longer stay seated. Time was not my ally, and my inevitable departure was looming over me. I gathered what was left of myself up off the floor and took one last tour of my

was lost for words, the creature creeping closer by the second. My mouth was gaped open like a fish, the animal directly above me, so close that I could hear the humming breaths of the animal.

I jumped into action and had no choice but to start running. My heart skipped a beat as a bullet whistled past my head and thudded into the wall behind me and I knew I couldn’t stop running. I heard thousands of footsteps in pursuit and I needed some place to hide. I flew through the first door I saw, ducked down and cowered behind a desk. I hid and waited to hear the footsteps pass by. My heartbeat was banging as loud as a drum as I breathed a huge sigh relief only to jump out of my skin as I felt a hand reach out and grab me from

Sophie backed up into the leaves of the tree. I was still dangling there with nowhere to go. The voices started to get closer until I finally seen who they were coming from. A man and a tiny

The ground came toward me very fast as if running on a treadmill. What seemed so slow became very fast and tiring. My body began to feel heavy, where pain started to burn on my thighs but the pushing of speed did not begin yet. Sweat collected against my forehead, and my back. My breathing began to hitch, but I could not have stopped when I just began.