Jamie's Day

Home

Faster it came. It was chasing him. Still coming for him. Whatever it was, it was stalking him, hunting him like a predator, never before had Jamie considered how it felt to be prey, but now he was, now he knew and he didn't like it. The fear in itself felt sure enough to be able to kill him.

On Jamie ran, ever faster he went. Faster and faster, until the trees, foliage and dirty undergrowth were little more than blurs of swirling mass to his eyes as he raced by them, fast as his feet could carry him. He kept running, on and on, his speed such now that his legs were beginning to feel like jelly, causing his centre of balance to be altered so that it was barely on the edge of certainty all the time. He felt sure that he would trip over at any moment and then it would be all over, he would be fed upon just as soon as he realised he was on the floor. But no matter how fast Jamie travelled, the noises seemed to be right there behind him.

Jamie turned his head, looking over his shoulder as he ran. But he couldn't see anything. He turned his head back in the direction he was going and kept on running. Yet something wasn't right. Something urged him to look back again. Suddenly a howl broke through the sound of the branches whipping and snapping and the sound of the leaves under foot. Jamie stopped running and slid to a stop, grabbing a hold of a tree trunk to help keep himself upright. He spun on the spot, whatever it was that made that horrendous bellow, it sounded big, huge even and it was almost upon him. Jamie leapt back into motion and launched himself into his fastest sprint he had ever managed, this time he didn't care about which direction he was going, he just wanted out of this place and away from whatever this thing was. He put his head down and raced forward as fast as he possibly could.

The leaves and foliage crunched underneath his feet. Then out of nowhere, Jamie felt a tug at his right ankle, strong and definite. He yanked hard, as hard as he could as he pulled forward, fearing the worst as he looked up ahead of him. Jamie saw nothing, just a brief glimpse of the ground below as it came up to meet him. He felt a large and powerful thump to the back of his head and then everything disappeared.

Jamie slowly opened his eyes again. A white haze flooded his vision before slowly, gradually clearing away. As his sight returned Jamie could begin to make out the scenery before him. The forest he had only just previously inhabited in a blind panic to escape, was no more, replaced with the pure white of a ceramic cereal bowl, sitting on the dining table before him, housing a half eaten portion of milky cereal.

It had all been nothing but a dream. But it had been the most realistic and terrifying one he had ever had before, that was for sure. Was it dream or something else. Was it something more? Was it a vision? Something even more powerful. He just didn't know. Jamie just couldn't tell anymore. All he knew was that he felt groggy and sick. He got up, went up to the bathroom and vomited into the toilet. Jamie looked back at himself in the mirror as he splashed his face with cold water, then made his way back down to the lounge.