Up Late Reading

{Part 2}

Ice ran through her veins.

All of her thoughts, scattered as they were, came to one conclusion. She knew that she had to do something, or in the least run and call for help, but as hard as she tried she could not move her feet. There were a few mutters and a gunshot. Karlie gasped out of horror, revolted as a body fell to the ground. Tears rimmed her eyes. She felt desperate. She needed to get away from there and into the comfort of her warm bed. She scrambled to get up, whipping her head around and preparing to blast out of there when BANG!

Karlie stopped dead in her tracks. She turned to match two pairs of eyes string her down and a still vibrating garbage can. Her thick braid had  bodily dented the side of it a bit.

"I knew I should have gotten that trim," she laughed uneasily before realizing that the two perpetrators in no way found this a humorous situation. And in that moment Karlie knew that she should have not let herself into this conflict in the first place. The small girl began to sprint away for her life and was going far faster than she had ever run during her hard trained for track meets. There were two shots fired and both missed. One of them kept calling out for her to stop, but she pushed on, and was screaming herself, screaming for anyone to help.

But they were all asleep, and even if they had not been, to her despair they would not have cared.

Her house was only four blocks away. If she could tire her pursuers, she could make it. Her heart was leaping out of her throat, very unpleased with her sudden decision to run a marathon. Unfortunately, these men seemed to have also taken track seriously and the shorter of the two fisted some of her shirt in his hand from behind, consequently bringing her to a halt. He spun her around and the other kept a steady aim on her with his gun.

The streetlight was directly above them and now Karlie could see with more detail, which was far greater than when she could just see silhouettes. Karlie let out another gasp, only this one was not out of horror, this one was in recognition.