The Run

One

Me

When I'm running, no matter how fast I go, time seems to slow. The sand jostling up and down appears to rearrange itself in hours instead of seconds. My feet, in my worn out shoes, seem to be producing the chemical energy needed to propel my frame down the beach only a day at a time. I'm not running for an hour; it's been days. But the sun remains in the high noon sky, dappling the seas with her daily, glistening shine that bounces off my skin. Yet, it's cold. The ocean throws up a violent wind, causing me to shiver. I keep running. It's like there's a piece of my destiny standing at the point where exhaustion takes over. Like I'm running for my life. Like this is practice for when I do. For when I do.
I taste the salty air on my tongue. The smell of seawater is beckoning me over into the wet, but I'm solely here for the run. I stop, having reached that point— where I can't run anymore— and take a glance around me. She's standing there, like she can't breathe. Her eyes on mine, and mine on hers. Her hazel orbs look down to the body in her arms. It doesn't take long for me to run over there; adrenaline kicked forward the point where I can't go anymore. The clouds begin to fight with the sun for space in the sky. They cover the lustrous sphere, causing a dark in the atmosphere , with little spots of shine bursting through the clouds. The ocean attacks us with a angrier wind now, and everything is happening so rapidly.
"What's goin' on!" I say with a boisterous yell, deep breathing, in a in vain attempt to catch my breath.
"M-y my son!" she says her eyes traveling this way in that. Like she doesn't believe she's touching sand like she doesn't know whether she's dead or a phantom. She inhales a dose of air, and speaks again.
"He, got this fever. I-I can barely touch 'em, it almost burns. Almost hurts."
"Let's take 'em to the hospital."
"No. No. No. I can't." she says frantically
"Why?"
"Please, help us." she says with an undertone, showing me the reasons without the movement of her fingertips, no explanation, but I know. I think of where I am. Only a few hundred miles from Cuba. I look at her bare dirty feet. The rags that she wears atop her skin. The ones I used to cover myself. I recognize the easily recognizable accent, and I nod my head at her.
"C'mon."
I get her off the barren beach as the clouds tell me of the rain to come.
"My house is just up the hill. I'm Sebastian."
"Linda, and this is Marco."
We run. The adrenaline kicks in both of us, and for the first time in my life I'm running, and everything around me is disturbed, rapid, quick. I feel the sand between my toes. I feel the quake in my body, as muscle after muscle pushes me propels me forward. I feel it all, and I know this is the end of something. I just can't tell what. Is it this child's life. Is it mine? This woman's? Maybe it's something bigger. Maybe it's something I don't want to know. Maybe I wish I wasn't here anymore.

•<***>•

Someone Else

"I'm getting anxious. He needs to hurry up." I say, with a swirl falling over me. Get the money and go. Octavio's words rumble in my head. I run my hands through my messy mess of wavy and curly. And feel like I'm going to puke.
"It's easy. Nobody's home. They somewhere in downtown Santo Domingo. As soon as the car is here, we go in and get out." Alexis says overconfidently that almost makes me shudder—it's odd how easily these things come to him.
"Here's the car. Let's go."
"We go in, and I touch my side where my gun lay. It's a peculiar thing holding a gun. I'm holding Death in my fingertips. I have control of him.
"The necklace is probably in the bedroom upstairs."
"Of course, dumbass."
"Let's just do this."
We walk in the obscurity up the stairs, and I almost chuckle at the simplicity of all of this. Getting in was easy, and getting it, the necklace that'll make us some good cash, can't be much more difficult either.
"Alright, it gotta be this room." Alexis says holding the doorknob, showing the position of door to the bathroom to me, and I give a soft nod. We walk in. And we look dead into the eyes of a woman, with a child, a girl, in the bed fast asleep.
"I'm not gonna hide. I'll fight you, fuckers."
She's holding a knife, and we in unison know that we have her outmatched. By the looks of it she's the babysitter, of the child we had no knowledge of, and she's in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Come on, this isn't about you. We're here just for the necklace."
"I don't give a fuck what you're here for." she's speaking angrily, pleadingly, whispering and yelling at the same time.
"We'll leave you alive, if you act like this never happened." Alexis says dubiously, and I give him a glare.
"Nobody has to die." I say begging the woman.
"Wait." Alexis whispers in my ear, "Imagine how much the family will pay for there poor, poor little girl."
I give him a stare. Tears well up in my eyes over the indecisiveness.
"You said you wanted money, and you'd do anything for it. Imagine how fast Carlos will promote us. The money."
"You can't take her!" the babysitter says, "She is like my own; I'll die for her. That's why I'm here. I'll kill for her. That's why I'm here."
My face turns cold. My cheeks go pale. I'd do anything for it.
"Don't try to stop us! Nobody has to die!" I say with a noticeable quiver and sway in my voice.
Alexis runs over to the girl, and the babysitter hurriedly stomps over. The knife so close to Alexis, I feel it.
I take out Death and walk over and point it to the girl. She pushes the knife closer. It's touching his stomach, and he throws a look my way, and I shake my head.
"Nobody has to die! Just stop!"
"She looks at me. This is why I'm here."
She jolts her knife-holding hand back then forward bursting through his stomach.
I shoot. The sound leaves a heavy ringing in my ears, but it quickly vanishes as the screaming in my head takes over.
I'm not screaming in my head. It's a real cry. It's not only mine. My eyes don't listen to my brain as I yell at them not to look down. The little girl is wide awake. Her beautiful, brown eyes staring into the orbs of a monster. Alexis picks her up. He would have given her to me, but I know my shaking is vibrating the whole room.
"Let's go. We don't need the necklace. She's worth way more. It's not that deep. I'll be fine."

I'd said I'd do anything.