Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Me
Yep. This imagination is wild. I should be an author.
River
You know what they say, truth is stranger than fiction.
Another warning. The man was forever pushing me away all while drawing me in. He might as well have had a leash around my neck.
I had my fingers poised on the screen when something tripped me up.
A creeping awareness that rustled through on the breeze. The breeze that suddenly felt hot and sticky.
I glanced around, trying to pinpoint what it might be that had made me uneasy. Uneasy enough that I couldn’t do anything but slow to a complete stop in the middle of the sidewalk.
A few people moved around me, casting me curious glances, while I tried to steady myself.
Apprehension gusted, coming at me in waves, and the fine hairs lifted on the back of my neck.
Spiky pinpricks that raised like defensive quills. Licking out for whatever had caused the shift in the air.
I felt caught in the middle of it, though I put my head down and forced myself to keep moving.
Covertly, my gaze darted all around as I walked, searching every direction.
The cars.
The sidewalk.
The buildings.
Nothing seemed out of order, but the sense wouldn’t abate. It was the same sense that normally would send me packing my things and leaving town. The same sense I’d gotten a couple weeks ago at the festival.
Was it paranoia?
Nothing less than a coping mechanism that clicked into action when I slowed for too long?
When my spirit warned I’d spent too much time idle?
Demanding I put one foot in front of the other since it was the only way I knew how to survive?
Except I didn’t want to leave. Couldn’t.
Drawing in a steadying breath, I kept my head down but my attention keen as I hurried down the sidewalk.
At just after five, the street was busy with those leaving work, and a ton of people were coming in and out of the buildings I passed.
I could find no comfort in the numbers, though.
The safety I’d been feeling a moment ago had been ripped out from under me.
I increased my pace, hustling by the commercial buildings that surrounded on each side.
Medical clinics, the lab, and a few offices.
They soon fell away as I headed in the direction of my apartment.
When I got to the intersection, the crosswalk light was red, and I paused, keeping my head low but trying to inconspicuously glance around at my surroundings. I scanned through the faces, over the cars, trying to understand what it was that set me on edge.
The problem was, the tiniest thing could do it.
Only this time, I swore I saw the shape of someone duck behind the wall of the building just in the distance.
Dread washed through me on a current, a crashing of desperation that dumped into my stomach. The red light changed, and I rushed across the crosswalk to the other side.
Though rather than continuing down the block to my building like I normally would do, I hurried across the intersecting road.
If someone was there? After me? I couldn’t lead them back to my apartment. Raven would be at Moonflower, watching for me out the window.
There was no way I’d bring danger to her door. And if it was nothing? I couldn’t stomach the idea of her seeing me this way again.
Shivering and afraid.
Running.
I kept peeking over my shoulder as I hurried by the buildings that ran along Broadway, which was the street that connected 9th and Culberry.
I silently chanted, praying that I was only making things up.
Letting panic set in the way I’d done for years.
For so long, I’d allowed it to own me.
But I didn’t want that.
Not anymore.
I wanted to stay.
I wanted to stay.
But how could I do that if there was a chance I’d been found? Discovered?
I looked again, peering through the mass of people who were traveling the streets.
I glimpsed him again.
A man loitering back about a hundred yards, though I was sure it was the same person who’d hidden themselves behind the wall a minute ago.
A shadow.
A wraith.
A ghost catching up to me.
No.
No, no, no, no.
Panic rose in a tide of stinging bile, filling my chest and climbing up my throat. Breaths panted from my spasming lungs, and the air wheezed in and out.
I glanced again.
He was there.
A man wearing a khaki jacket and brown pants.
He’d grown nearer, though I still couldn’t fully make out his features with the glare of the sun.
But I was sure of it. He was tracking me.
Terror tore through my bloodstream, setting fire to my nerves, and I started to jog. Pushing between people, jostling them aside in my haste.
“Hey, watch where you’re going,” a man shouted as I knocked into him from the side.
I didn’t slow to apologize.
I couldn’t.
I had to get away. I had to get away.
I made it to the next street.
Culberry.
I didn’t wait for the light to turn, I darted across it. A car horn blared and tires screeched. A startled scream burst out of me, and I whirled that way, my hands pushed out in front of me like they might protect me from the impact.