Five minutes into the longest, scariest run of my life, Ethan let go of me. That doesn't mean I stopped, though. Nope; I continued to run for all that I was worth. Those were red and blue lights that were flashing atop those cars back there; why would I stick around to see what happened? Another good question was: Why was I following him?
Ethan had gotten ahead of me after he told me to run, and I didn't have the courage to ask him why we were running; I already had a pretty good idea. Was I going to voice it in the state we were in? Me running at his heels from a house that the police were inspecting? No. I kept my eyes on him the entire time, somehow afraid that if I looked anywhere else besides the back of his head I would see policemen flanking us.
He jumped boulders and fallen logs as if he had done it dozens of times before, once in a while twisting around as if to make sure I was still following him. After a few minutes, I grew frustrated with that, and picked up the pace so that I was running alongside him. He skidded to a sudden halt, and I slowed my pace, running into a tree just to stop myself. I turned myself around and jogged to meet him crouched behind yet another fallen log. I glared at him again, but he didn't notice. He was looking back from where we had come.
"See anything interesting?" I said, annoyed. Rising to his feet, he blinked at me and shook his head.
"Nothing," he replied calmly, and began walking down the slope. "Which is a good thing. If the police had seen us, we'd be in a ton of trouble."
"So I was right," I said absentmindedly, covering my mouth after I said it. Wrong thing to say, wrong time. Ethan whirled around and glared at me, stepping forwards. That's when I paled; I could see the darkness in his eyes, that spark that let me know he was dangerous. There was no way I was going to go back. "I heard someone screaming the other night." His strides became longer and before I could turn myself around and run back, he grabbed onto my wrist and yanked me back. Wincing only a little, I continued. "You murdered some--" He twisted me wrist, driving me back into a tree.
My heart thudded in my chest as I felt the knife he held press against my neck. I could see the knife but I could also see something next to the darkness in his eyes; regret. There was that regret and something else telling him--no, screaming--at him not to do what he was doing, to pull back and drop that knife. The hand that held the knife was wavering, shaking, pale looking. The grip on my wrist loosened, eventually the hand dropped, and the pressure on my neck went away. My heart didn't stop pounding in my chest, however, and I did nothing but stare at him in both fear and shock. I should have kept my mouth shut. I really, really should have kept my mouth shut.
Ethan stepped back a couple of feet, and the knife disappeared into his jacket. His head was down, but his cheeks, as I could see, were red. "Yes, I killed someone," he said quietly. "Feel free to run back to the police, and lead them to me. But I'm not just going to give in." He turned around once more, keeping his back to me. My mouth dropped open, shut, opened again, and then shut. I swallowed a lump in my throat, and my throat felt raw afterwards. "You'll probably tell them about how I tried to murder you."
"I won't,"
The words were out of my mouth just like that. I couldn't suck them back in, unfortunately, and I knew they would get me into a lot more trouble than I wanted. Ethan chuckled at that, and he turned his head so that he could smile at me. It wasn't fake, it looked real, and genuine. It was something I found strange. "Go back," he said. My eyebrows rose. "Find away around if you want to avoid the police, and then get home."
"After what just happened?" I smiled, disbelieving. Ethan rolled his eyes. "You're the one who dragged me out here, and now you're telling me to go back? No way, I'm staying." His cheeks flushed red and he opened his mouth to respond, but not before an ear ringing shot exploded through the land. I ducked my head and with wide, distraught, eyes, Ethan came forward, yanked on my hand--looking back only a moment as he did so--and began to run again.
