I puffed like a steam engine, the cold night air making my exhaled breath visible. My untied shoes slapped the street as I ran. Slap, slap, slap. I tripped a couple of times before I came to rest by a tree. Leaning against it, I panted heavily. I had been running for a good fifteen minutes before the cramps had come. My entire body ached, being out of shape for a while now; I had a thin frame and my mild asthma added to my pain and exhaustion. I sat down on the ground, making a crunching sound as I did, thanks to the dry, dead leaves scattered everywhere by the wind.
After I had been sitting for a while, I surveyed my surroundings for the first time. I sat about ten feet from the road at the very edge of a forest. The forest itself was silent and dark, the leafy canopy blocking out the moonlight; it was still the beginning of fall, so most of the leaves on the trees had yet to detach. Strangely, no nocturnal animals could be heard scampering about. There was only silence.
My hair stood on end and my body tensed. Both cold and afraid, I stood back up, and was about to return to the road, when I saw it. A silhouette in the moonlight, standing only thirty feet away on the other side of the road. I jumped back behind the tree, silently cursing myself for resting too long. But that didn't matter anymore. He was here, and I needed to run away as fast as I could before He got me. I slowly peeked out from my hiding spot like a child playing hide-and-seek. If I was, then it would be one twisted game because the dark figure was now fifteen feet away. He had closed half of the distance between us in less than five seconds, and He was still coming. I turned around and ran into the forest.
The darkness enveloped me and I was blind. In my panic, I couldn't hear or speak, and my body was numb. I could hardly feel the scratches I received from the bushes I leaped over and the tree branches I unsuccessfully tried to dodge. I ran for a long time, not caring where I was going, instead focusing on the distance between us- the farther away, the better. I leaped over a fallen tree, scraping my knees against its bark before stumbling onto the ground on the other side. My left shoe got caught on a branch of the dead tree, and I cried out in agony as my leg was twisted in the other direction. I heard a loud snap, and pain shot up my leg: it was broken. Barely managing to stop a scream from escaping my mouth, I stayed sprawled out on the ground, tears rolling down the sides of my face. As the worst of the pain subsided, I slowly removed my shoe from the branch, and- while moaning- I used the dead tree trunk to stand myself up. After my gasping from the pain stopped, I heard it. A faint crunching of the leaves. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Panicking, I started to limp as quickly as I could, which wasn't very fast. The crunching of the leaves became louder. Crunch, crunch, crunch. My breath quickened, and I tried to go faster. My bad leg's foot hit a rock, and I started to fall. I reached out in the darkness, and managed to grab hold of a nearby tree. Clinging to it, I lifted myself back up. I silently rejoiced, until I realized something. The crunching had stopped. I slowly turned around. Moonlight shone through a small flaw in the canopy, illuminating His snarling face. Two hands wrapped around my throat, and started to squeeze…