General Fiction Short Stories

Run Baby, Run! (Contest)

mystery ... Contest 15 - It Must have Been Love ... "Damn ..." You mumble to yourself. "Not again ..." as you help lift her/him and run. (Write in 1500 words what happens next).

It had to be the meds, I thought as I staggered under the weight of his tall frame. I felt things on the meds and I saw things on the meds that I didn't see or feel when I wasn't locked up in that godforsaken rat lab. I didn't have time ... we didn't have time for this. Whatever this déjà vu was.

I grasped the belt loops of his blue jeans, half pulling and half dragging him forward. He had a head wound and his legs weren't cooperating. I cursed under my breath as I tried to keep us moving while my heart was beating erratically in my chest from the fear of being caught any minute. The hounds were going to be nipping at more than our heals if I couldn't get us both going.

Two more steps and we stumbled, falling face first into the ferns that carpeted the forest. If I had the luxury of lying there feeling stunned, I would have, but not today. Today, I was running for my life.

I shot up to my hands and knees and looked down at my new partner in escape. I felt it again, that strange magnetic pull toward him. What was wrong with me? Crushing on a stranger, in the middle of the woods, while orderlies were in hot pursuit of me, of us, was not okay! I was losing my mind!

It had to be some kind of drug that was affecting my brain. It wouldn't be the first time I had been shot up with a poisonous concoction in the name of my mental health. Nothing was ever right when they medicated me. Nothing felt right now.

There was no time to worry about it. I had to see if my new best bud here was still with me. I rolled him over onto his back. He was cradling his bleeding head with a hand and his eyes were shut - his face contorted by pain.

Was I doing him more harm than good by dragging him with me? Surly he wouldn't want to be left for the orderlies to find? Heaven only knew what kind of torture they had waiting for him. No, I thought, I was doing the right thing. I couldn't leave him here for the hounds.

"Hey," I whispered to him trying to get his attention so we could get going again.

His dark chocolate brown eyes flashed open and my heart began to pound hard in my chest. It was like a fist on the inside of my breast bone banging against it - wanting out. Did my heart recognize him? I had this strange tingling sensation at the back of my neck and a feeling in my gut like I'd seen these eyes before, but when? Where?

Oh, this was madness! I didn't have time to be going crazy.

Unable to think straight, while my heart was hammering away and my mind was scattered trying to track down images of the long, narrow and mildly handsome face in front of me, I asked, "Do I know you?" His response was to groan and shut his eyes while clasping his head-wound again.

That wound on his head was my wake-up call. It was still oozing blood and I realized I had to get us going. I couldn't just gawk at the man until my memories returned - until my brain recognized him and could fill me in on the details. No matter how important I thought those details might be, no matter how my heart ached to fill in the blanks, my gut was telling me to run!