Running. Why am I running? I don’t know. What I do know is that I can’t stop. I feel a pressure as though something’s there--right behind me--yet, I just don’t know what it is or why it’s after me.

I press on, weaving through the trees that I can just barely see in the moonlight. I glance behind me and find nothing.

I slow to a stop and listen. nothing again. Not even a breath of wind. Slowly I feel my way around the nearest tree and slide myself down the rough bark until I am resting on the ground. I gently tug at the burs and twigs that have lodged themselves between my toes, wincing when i pull out a few long thorns from the various bushes I’ve encountered on my way here.

I wonder briefly how I’d managed to leave the house without any shoes but my train of thought was interrupted by the sharp sound of a twig snapping.

My entire body tenses. I sit there on high alert, waiting and listening. My hands begin to shake involuntarily with adrenaline. I shift until my body is flat to the ground and lay on my hands to prevent any sound.

I stay there listening as time stands still, hoping with every inch of my being that it was just an animal. It’s only an animal.

I realize I’m holding my breath. I let it out in a way so slowly it’s almost painful. Just as I do, I hear another faint shuffle. It couldn’t have been more than a few feet away from where I lay.

I spot a small ditch in the ground at the tree not three feet away from where I had planted myself. I listen again and hear the shuffling moving away from my tree so I decide to move. Quickly and cautiously, I make my way over to the ditch and slip inside, just out of view of whoever, or whatever, may be following me.

I hold my breath and listen again, waiting to hear more. Almost hoping to hear a faint shuffle again. But there’s nothing. I curl into a tight ball and begin to weep softly. Hot, salty tears flow from my eyes and down my cheeks, into my mouth. I taste something foreign, almost metallic. I wipe away at my face and glance at my hands. In the faint moonlight I can just make out blood on my hands. I wipe at my face again to find the origin and find a small gash in my forehead. How did that get there?

Shuffling again. I pause, hand still pressed to my face and listen, trying to pinpoint where exactly the shuffling is coming from. Then I realize, it’s not coming from just one position. Two, maybe three feet shuffle slowly and quietly in the brush around me. I cover my eyes and weep silently, much harder than before, knowing that I’m fully surrounded and that there was no way out of this.

Once more the shuffling stops. I lay there continuing to sob into my hands. Eventually I pull myself together and wipe the tears from my eyes. Slowly I look around and see nothing.

I sigh a breath of relief but only a moment too soon. I look up and hovering above me are a set of piercing, blue eyes.