Runner

Chapter 2.

It was him, the guy I'd been running from. Stephen. He leaned in and slightly over the counter and whispered in my ear "Relax Sierra. I just want to work out." He chuckled and stood back up to look at me. I nodded my head slowly as he stood straight again while I started to work on his first pass, asking for the information that I needed from him knowing that my dumb ass would forget it all within the hour. His whisper sent shivers down my spine, the chuckle he let out would have been enough to cause me to drop to my knees, and his tone sent goosebumps to cover my arms. It was weird and I couldn't think of a reason as to why other than the fact that he terrified me.

I handed him the membership card and gave him a soft but fake smile, today was going to be a long and very stressful day. When he walked away I began to clean the front desk again, pausing only to sign in members of the gym.

My head felt weird as if I had been in overdrive with thinking, thoughts of Stephen flooded my mind, and it was starting to drive me mad. These thoughts turned into questions, and dangerous scenarios, just a lot of things all at once, that were making me uncomfortable and I needed a minute to just breathe. Taking a deep breath she would

I put the cleaning supplies away and made sure other members of staff were out of the break room, on the floor, and at the front desk before I walked outside to catch my breath and try to put my mind at ease. I leaned my back against the building, and ran my fingers through my hair, trying to even out my breathing as I felt like I was gonna start to panic, I'd slide down the wall of the building, and rest my head against my knees as I would continue to try my best to focus on my breathing, grounding myself but it got harder to do so and it started to overwhelm me. Minutes later as I started hyperventilating and crying, I could hear the door to the gym open and close. I did anything I could think of to make myself smaller in my little ball but knew that would do nothing, it just made me feel worse.

My face was wet with tears, my body ached from being so tensed up, and I was beginning to feel like I had been shoved into a small cage. I could hear someone kneel down beside me, my co-worker probably.

Then I felt someone wrap their arms wrap around me, which caused me to start sobbing. I could tell that it was Stephen, none of the people I worked with had muscular arms like he did "Shh." He'd whisper softly as he rocked us side to side. He was running his fingers through my hair, as I cried into him. Letting go of my own hair I wrapped my arms around him, holding onto him as he began to play with my hair and continued to rock us. I needed this, I needed to be held and allowed to cry on someone's shoulder. I may not have wanted that someone to be him as he was the cause of this, but I needed this. The small amount of pressure he gave with his arms, squeezing me as he hugged me was helping a lot, I was slowly starting to unwind, and not be as tensed as I was.

The attack died down, but I was still worked up, overwhelmed and I had felt overstimulated, the tears didn't want to stop, my hyperventilating was slowing down as I continued to calm down, my eyes stayed closed as I hugged him and he squeezed me.