What Mandy Busyman Did

Finding Stacia

Taylor

Stacia. I faintly remembered the name, but it didn't ring any bells. I walked down the cold and scraping streets, the thoughts of Jenna, the note, and Stacia spinning endlessly like a tornado in my head. I remembered Jenna yelling and unfolding that puny piece of pathetic paper, a wasted effort and a lost cause. I didn't know why I was walking to Jenna's in the first place, I mean, after all, she screamed and revolted for no reason, or none that I could think of. I remembered her warm smile as I walked down the biting streets, quickly digging my face deeper into my scarf. The black yarn surrounded my face as I stuffed my hands quickly into my pockets, gazing at the empty streets. Faint orange light poured from a kitchen window, a man hustling his kids to the table as a women brought a plate of lasagna. The houses were aligned perfectly down the street, circling at the very end. A faint smile caught my lips and I quickly pushed it away. I walked hastily towards her house as my mind came back to Stacia and the strange woman who handed me the note.

I remembered it too clearly. Her red high heels walking purposefully, her chin up confidently while she passed me the note. She had looked wrinkly under her chipping foundation, her blush too pink and rosy for her withering face. I walked carelessly down the street, not listening to my surroundings or anything around me. Suddenly I heard a loud honk.  

I turned my head slowly and met eye-to-eye with a black jeep, the headlights glaring brightly at me as I stood like a deer in headlights. I mentally told myself to run, But my body wouldn't go. My legs felt like noodles as I took my face out of the scarf hurriedly. Suddenly, the car door opened. No, no! 

A tall, coated figure stood right in front of me, slamming the car door. No one to save you now, I thought. I started to run. My legs felt like jello as my breath ran away from me, turning into fog in the gray colored sky. I looked back behind me, partially not wanting to know what was behind me. The stalking figure was still on my tail, the shadow lurking over me like a monster. The sky was getting darker as I ran down trails and streets, the houses and speckled snow in a blur as I looked nervously around me. Nobody was out here in the cold. Just me and this figure, this figure that was chasing me. 

I had no time to catch my breath as I saw them looming over me, even though my lungs begged for a breath and my muscles burned in agony. I was far away from Jenna now, there was no point in going back. I felt myself collapse under the lack of breath, and I sprinted one last time and fell, the tar colliding with my face. I got up, my jeans ripped at the knees. 

I looked anxiously around me. No one. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief as I wiped tiny pebbles off my face and put pressure to my scraped knee. Ow. I lifted my hand and almost fainted at the sight of bright red blood against my palm. 

"Get up," a raspy voice echoed against the empty outside. 

I bolted at the sound of it, running from pure panic. 

"Hey! Get back here!" I heard them yell as I run faster, grunting furiously as I tried to salvage my last breaths. 

I ran so fast I passed my house, regretting the twists and turns I had made. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't hear the thumping of their shoes as they ran closer to me, tackling me onto the street. 

"YOU!" a voice yelled from above me. Ah! I struggled to get free, but they were right on top of me, my only sight their black coat covering the rest of the world as I laid my face against the pavement, giving up on surviving. 

"You can't get away from me! You're too late!"

"Argghh!"I grunted as they wrestled me further into the ground. 

They stopped suddenly, and I fought back slightly, wondering if I could ever escape from their tight grasp. Then they twisted my arm, and I knew all hope was lost.