Short Stories

Short Story 1- The Open Road

My feet throbbed in pain as my pace became quicker. I wanted to stop, but they were just too close. They would catch me if I stopped now. Occasionally, I would look to see if they were on my tail, but I couldn't see them. But I knew they were there, waiting for the right moment. So I carried on, hoping they wouldn't catch me.

My surroundings went past me so quickly like I was in a car driving at maximum speed. Suddenly, a stabbing pain drove into my side. My running turned to a slight jog then to a walk. My side anchored me to that spot, but I knew I had to carry on or they would get me.

Road. That's all that was in front of me, an endless strip of road. Lamp posts stretched along the edge, lighting up the path for me to follow. Beyond the lamp posts were acres of wooded area, making walls so there was only one way for me to go. The road was damp like it had just been raining and it felt cold under my bare feet. There were no cars driving across the road showing me that I was a long way from civilisation. They had isolated me with one way in and one way out. The darkness of the night hid away the moon and the star leaving me with just the light from the lamp posts.

My side still ached, but I tried to straighten my back to show I wasn't scared. My head held high and I stepped longer strides to gain some distance between me and them. My palms started to feel hot and my mind started to tell me to run, but there was no reason to do this at the moment. I kept on walking. I stopped in my tracks. Snapping my head in the direction in which I heard something, the noise echoed through my ears making me alert. I was not alone. Suddenly noises started to occur all around me.Leaves started to crunch, bushes began to rustle and twigs snapped. They found me.

Then silence.

Alert, I looked around. I knew they were there. Waiting. Waiting to catch their prey like a predator. The wind sliced through the trees, I quickly turned sharply to see if it was them, but my mind was getting the best of me. I started to walk slowly and quietly. Trying to hear for a sign that they were still there or if my paranoia was taunting me to keep my ears on red alert.

A faint rustling of hedges behind me, makes me turn slowly. There he was. The man the led them. His black suite camouflaged with the darkness and his piercing eyes hid behind the shades he wore. My heart began to pound. My knees began to quiver. Was this the end? the same word repeated throughout my mind 'run'.

Stumbling back, trying to keep a distance from me and him, a numbness fills my body and I collapse to the floor. Not keeping my eyes on him I quickly struggle back up onto my feet and start to run. I don't look back. I don't want to look back just in case he's there. Not listening to my head I look to find he's not there not in the place I saw him last standing so confidently like he had just caught his kill. forcefully, I get pushed back. I fall on my ass and hear a crack. a feeling starts to surge round the bottom of my body, a penetrating coldness paralyses me and I find it harder and harder to get up. I scream in agony and hold the bottom of my back. It's broken. He lets out a small chuckle like seeing me in pain was humorous for him.

I roll onto my stomach and started to wriggle away trying still to find some hope that I will be free. CRACK!!! I cry in torture as I feel his foot crushing my back even more. All I could hear his humoured laughs over the cracking of my back and my heart pounding in my eardrums. His hand grabs my hair and forces me to lay on my back and digs his foot into my stomach to even the pain out.  

"Why are you doing this?" I pleaded to him.

Nothing. He just blanks my question and puts his hands in his pockets and studies me like I was a creature splattered on a slab in a science lab. I see him quickly look up and hear him say his first words to me.

"Well, well, well. The Calvary is here." He grabs my hair and pulls me closer to his face and says "Now we're going to have some fun," He lets go off my head and it smashes into the road. I feel my head and feel that my head is wet. I look at my hand and see the red liquid drowning my hand.

The others join him standing over me. They all look at me with the same insane look. What's going to happen to me?