Run - a short story by Alexa de Roode

Run

It was a cold winter day.
There was snow everywhere, so school was canceled.
I woke up at 7 in the morning. I yawned, stretching my legs as far as possible. Then, when one of my many attempts to get out of bed finally succeeded, I stumbled to the mirror. I looked in it, and 2 weary and tired eyes stared back. After standing like this for quite a while, I decided to go downstairs. So, there I was, carefully walking on my toes, afraid to wake anyone. When I was finally in the living room, I watched some TV.
I was eating my breakfast when it happened. The TV suddenly turned black, and a word in big white letters appeared. I tried to zap away, but it was on every channel. It was one word that, unbeknownst to me, would change my life for good. "Run".

I got up with a shock, which made me drop my breakfast. The plate broke, and produced a loud noise doing it. I ran upstairs and burst through my parents door, only to find out that they weren't in their bed anymore. My eyes quickly scanned the area, and I noticed the windows were open. The curtains waved in the wind. Scared, I reached for my phone. When I turned it on, the same black image with the same white word appeared. Run.

I started to walk back slowly, afraid and confused about what I just saw. I walked downstairs again, trying to ignore the voice in my head repeating the word "run". My hand grabbed the doorknob, which opened with a simple click. My toes felt the cold snow, because in the rush I hadn't bothered to put on shoes, let alone normal clothes. I felt my heart pounding in my throat as I looked in every direction I could possibly think of. And just like that, something caught my eye. Someone, to be exact. A man, wearing a suit and sunglasses (in the winter?!) looked at me, frowning. His hand went up to his ear, and I assumed it was to press in an earpiece. He started mumbling, his gaze never wandering away from me.

Suddenly I felt a jolt of energy spreading through my body.
I sprinted away as fast as I could, repeating the same word to myself. Run. Run! RUN!

***

I didn't dare to look behind me, afraid to slow down, afraid of what I'd see. Then, I saw another man in a suit in front of me. I turned right, but there was another. On my left was a wall, which was attached to a house. The three of them were closing in on me when I realised there was only one option. I had to go over the roofs. I waited a few seconds before climbing up the wall on my left, hoping that they would crash into each other. It worked. At the last moment I ran to the wall, trying to grip it tight. When my fingers reached the top, I placed my feet on the wall and pushed. After that, it was easy to reach the roof of one of the many small houses in the area.

I ran and ran, sometimes jumping over small gaps between the houses.
I was so distracted by being the fastest that I didn't realise I was heading straight towards the big, dark and threatening forest surrounding the village. Before the men even climbed the wall, I jumped off on the other side. I knew I had to use this moment of invisibility. I ran even harder than before, determined to reach the forest. The noise behind me slowly faded away as I went deeper, running through the towering trees.

The adrenaline that had pumped through my body went away,
And I suddenly realised how tired I was. There was a big chance the men didn't see or even expected me to enter the forest. They'd have a hard time trying to track me down anyway. The leaves above me stopped the lightbeams from breaking through, but also the snow, which meant they couldn't follow my footsteps. I leant against one of the trees, but quickly fell down to sit. I heard a few birds singing, and leaves waving in the soft breeze. My eyelids were heavy, and I fell asleep fast.

***

It wasn't a sound that woke me. It was the absence of it. The birds had suddenly stopped singing their songs, and even the trees were oddly silent, as if they were waiting for something to happen. Suddenly I was alert, and I decided to follow their lead. I perked my ears up, as far as a human can do that, in hopes of improving my hearing. But it was too late. The last thing I felt was someone hitting me hard on the back of my head, and then everything turned black.

***

I opened my eyes, and after a short while they were used to the dark room that I found myself to be in. I scanned the area when I realised that this was my own bedroom. I sought out if my phone was on the desk beside me. It was. I opened it, only to find out it was the exact same date and time as it was a while ago, when this adventure started. I looked out of the window and saw the streets covered in snow. Then I realised I was sweating like crazy. I sighed, relieved that it had only been a dream. Well, a nightmare.

I sneaked downstairs, so that I didn't wake up my parents. I was still scared because of the nightmare that seemed all too real. To my surprise, nothing weird happened. I decided to make myself some tea and distract me with some good ol' television. Lucky enough for me, it actually worked out. I calmed down pretty quickly. My pyjamas were soft, and so was the couch. Everything was great, until something happened.
My eyes widened as I saw the TV turn black, displaying a word in big white letters. The one that scared me the most.
Run.