Nine Lives

Chapter One

A/N Please Comment. Nine Lives is different to the other books I’ve written on Wattpad, This one is loosely based on my life. So be nice, be thoughtful when you comment. Because however hard your life is, there’s always someone else struggling just as much

I needed to keep running, running through the suburban territory I had stumbled upon; I couldn’t let him catch me… If I did, he’ll kill me.. My heart was pounding hard inside my chest. Half out of fear, half out of exhaustion, and my legs were cramping up, I could feel them. But I still couldn’t stop, not today, not ever. I turned down an dark alley just to get away from him, I felt my legs giving in but I knew I had to get to the end, it didn’t matter where it took me, as long as it took me somewhere.

Glancing back for a few seconds before I heard the gut churning sound of flesh hitting a brick wall, pain rippled through the left side of my face as I, in a panicked flurry tried to find a magical lever in the bricks that lead to a different place, a haven. No such thing happened.

My whole life had depended on outrunning, outsmarting him. Death. The one being that I truly feared, the one who had been after me for so long, hunting me, a constant game of cat and mouse, a never ending hide-and-go seek, and now it was all over for me as I stood my ground, accepting my fate.

All my life I have been told “Everything on this earth is born and then it dies”, “All things die, it’s the way of life”, “If you are naughty, the grim reaper will come for you…”. The grim reaper will come for you… That single sentence has haunted me, maybe because my expiry date has been and gone. But I live on… sometimes I ask myself is it fair that people die every day that don’t deserve to die and I still live? Yes.. Yes it’s fair. Because I fight, I fight for the right to be alive, even when I’m at my lowest because I know…. I’m not even supposed to be here. On this earth, truth be told I was never supposed to be born….

And for that reason Death is hunting me now, chasing me down. So he can remove the one soul that was never supposed to be, but now I couldn’t ignore the cold, miserable feeling that overwhelmed me, the feeling he was drawing nearer and nearer. Until he was so close I could feel his freezing, life sucking breath on my neck and his long, cold, skeletal fingers grip tightly around my main organ, squeezing it slightly before pulling it out of my chest. I could feel my precious life, the one I swore I’d protect pour away from me, light was fading from my vision as I fell from where I stood. The last image I saw before my world went dark, which would always be imprinted into my mind, was the deep black eyes against smooth, pale bone covered by a black hood as the long cold fingers stroked my cheek that was getting ever colder as life left my body.

My eyes flew open as I shot upright; my left hand clung to my chest as fearful, sharp breaths escaped from my throat with sweat dripping from my forehead. Sighing heavily, I tried to calm my frenzied heart rate whilst my eyes trailed around my small studio flat bedroom. The sun peeked through my partially closed curtains, blinding me momentarily as I winced to avoid the pure sunlight damaging my delicate eyes.

The dreams… No, not dreams, nightmares, they were getting worse. I maneuvered myself so my legs were dangling over the side of the bed, slipping my feet into my cute, baby pink slipper socks before a yawn escaped my lips.

Stretching, I glanced over at my alarm clock, not at all sure what time I expected it to show. 7:30 AM, I groaned halfheartedly, half tempted to bury myself under my duvet, my head under my pillows.

Dragging my lazy, half asleep body up, shuffling my feet towards the bathroom as I gripped the door knob, pushing the door wide open, and exposed the best part of a cheap flat in the UK. The bath was in dire need of repair, the toilet needed more than one flush and not to mention the shower was nearly always cold. But it was better than nothing. Twisting the valve on the shower, I watched as it spluttered into life, shooting deathly cold water, so cold as it hit the tiled wall opposite it bounced back.