Animosity

0

Some Unfortunate Summer Night, 2022

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I ducked behind a an old oak tree, my heart pounding hard in my ears. Looking down at my where once was my sneakers, my feet burned. There were bare on the mulch, crunching as I slowly leant over to catch my breath. Beads of sweat rolled from my forehead onto the ground as I rubbed my eyes, blurry from my sleep deprivation. 

This couldn't be fucking happening to me. 

With a long breath I stood straight again, my back pressed against the birch. The path ahead of me was lit by the moonlight shining through the branches above, leaving little visibility on this cold night. I had ditched my jacket about 20 minutes ago, ripping it off of my body as it caught on a naked bush. 

He would find that. 

I placed my hand over my mouth as I let out an empty cry, no sound filling the air around me. I needed to get my shit together. He couldn't have been too far behind, but I knew the jacket would give him motivation. Taking a short look around, I continued to run across the broken branches on the ground. Every snap sent a wave of pain up my body, but I couldn't care about that anymore. Navigating blindly through a patch of fallen trees, I went off the trail. He would follow the path of the broken branches, following me out of this forest. Just as I turned around the corner, I heard a distant shuffling. 

I froze. 

The sound continued, making me drop to my chest on the ground at the trunk of an old tree. I curled into a fetal position, disguised behind the wall of bushes I had just passed. Covering my mouth, the only thing I could hear was my own breathing. The sharp wet grass dug into my side, the branches sticking to sweat of my ribcage. 

The sound started to get closer. 

I squeezed my eyes shut in defeat, knowing this might be the end. Everything that I had ran from, everything that I had done had finally caught up to me. Opening my eyes slowly, I bring my hand to right hand to my face. A thick gold ring sat on my middle finger, covered in splotches of dried blood. I slid it off, reading the name engraved on the inside. I felt a wash of guilt run through my body, filling my eyes with tears. 

Maybe this is what I was meant to be. 

I held the ring to my chest, my heart pounding against the gold. My eyes closed once again, no longer running a mile a minute. My thoughts were just.. silent. I felt numb as I heard footsteps crunching a few feet away from my head, the bushes moving along my back. The defeat finally set in when a pair of black rubber boots stepped in front of my face.

" They weren't lying when they said you were a runner."