Aisle of Terror
I stood by the cash register with a look of complete boredom on my face, drumming my fingers on the cart as the cashier tried to fix his broken register. I fought back a yawn while he kept flashing me a sheepish grin. If I weren't in such a rush to leave, I would have stopped to talk to him because he was really cute with his brown, messy curls and brown eyes.
'Next time, I think I'll go to Wal-Mart,' I thought to myself as I looked around the empty Winn-Dixie. I was literally the only customer left in the store. A few minutes later, after they had switched out registers and rung me up, I walked out of the store with a huge sigh of relief.
"It's almost 11:30 at night!" I started to push the cart faster towards my car. I looked around and noticed a tinted car parked nearby, although its lights were on. I started to unload my cart into my trunk, and the streetlight suddenly flickered twice and burnt out. My car was covered in darkness, and I shuddered with apprehension. I closed my trunk and took the cart over to the other carts.
I jiggled my keys as I walked back to my car, humming. I stepped towards the driver's side when I heard a van door being thrown open behind me. I had no time to see who it was because two arms wrapped around my body and started to pull me into the van. I started to scream and throw my body around, my instincts kicking in. The person was probably a man, judging by the strength of the arms grabbing me, and he tightened his hold on me even more. I winced in pain as his nails dug into the skin of my arms.
He stuffed an old rag into my mouth, but I kept trying to spit it out. I thrashed around, hitting any body part I could. He yelped in pain as my elbow collided with his face, and he let me go while he tried to see if he nose was bleeding, which it probably was, because my elbow was covered in blood. I took the gag from my mouth as I ran from the cars and across the parking lot, rasping and gasping for breath. My heart pounded in my throat, and my side was tearing with pain, but I couldn't stop. I heard his running footsteps behind me, and I turned my head back to look at him. His face was shrouded in darkness, but the glinting object in his hand was obvious. He had a knife. I screamed when I saw it and kept running, my desperation to live taking over. He always seemed to catch up, always seemed to run faster than me. He was coming closer and closer, and I was getting tired and slowing down.
"Why are there no flashing lights? Where are the workers?" I asked myself. "Why can't I wake up?! Am I even dreaming?" I was so focused on arguing with myself that I didn't see the speed bump below me. As I went sprawling to the ground with a cry, I heard the man still behind me. I flipped to face him with wide eyes and a shivering body, which wasn't because I was cold, either. I tried to crawl backwards, away from him, but I fell to my back again as a shot of pain went up my arm. I saw a trickle of scarlet on my shoulder through a hole in my shirt and looked back up at the man. I saw his arm raised towards my head, a shout of my name from another guy, and I blacked out.
"Sweetheart!" a shout from a distance jolted me awake, and I sat up with a cry. My heart was hammering and my whole body was drenched in sweat. My sheets were in a tangle around my waist. I glanced around frantically for the killer, but he wasn't there. No light was coming from the window, so I figured that it must be nighttime.
"Was it just a nightmare?" I asked my room. I turned my head to look at my shoulder, but the shirt was perfectly intact. I exhaled a long, deep sigh of relief and stood up to stretch. I heard my name being called again and walked over to my door.
"Yeah, Mom?" I opened the door and shouted right back down the stairs to her.
"I know that it's almost ten at night, but do you mind going to get some emergency groceries at Winn-Dixie for me?"
