Running

Suspense Stories | Mar 19, 2014 | 8 min read
0 Votes, average: 0 out of 5
You're running. You don't know what or who from, but you know you're terrified. You know that if you stop running, the thing chasing you will catch you and do horrible things to you. You don't know how you got here, or where you are running to or even who you are. You just know that you must keep running. Faster and faster you run, dodging trees and rocks as you flee. But you don't see the large snake crossing your path and you trip and fall to the ground, arms and legs sprawled everywhere. And then IT catches you…

And you wake up.

Sunlight falls into your eyes and you squint, trying to turn back the clock for just 5 more minutes of peaceful, refreshing sleep. You mother comes into the room and pulls the covers off of our bed, forcing you to get up. You strip off your pajamas and grab some clothes from your closet. The dream still haunts you, though. You ponder it while you eat breakfast and wait for the bus. Why would you have that sort of nightmare? Was it a premonition? A warning? A sign? You're not sure. The bus arrives and you leap up the stairs, eager to forget the dream and enjoy a new school day. You find an empty seat at the back of the bus and sit down. You always sit by yourself on the bus, but it doesn't bother you. Today, though, the bus stops at a new street you've never seen before. A new boy gets on the bus and heads straight for your seat. "Hello," he says, "is this seat taken?" You shake your head in an awed silence. The bus starts moving again and you start a conversation with the new boy. He says his name is Jack and he just moved here. He won't tell you where, though. He seems like a perfectly nice kid, but something tells you he's bad news. You ask him what his interests are and he tells you he likes animals. Before you can ask more the bus pulls up to the school and you and Jack have to part ways. As you get your things from your locker you wonder why you had doubts about him. As you walk into your first class you notice that Jack has taken the seat right next to you. You casually ask him his schedule and find out that he has the same classes as you. He sits by you in every class that day. You find him at lunch with no tray. It seems he doesn't need to eat. At the end of the day you see the counselor walk up to your locker with Jack and are told he has the locker next to yours. You decide to walk home that day to avoid Jack on the bus, but the bus drives right next to you all the way to your house and of course Jack is sitting at the window right next to you. You are starting to get a little frustrated with this new kid who seems to have become your stalker in less than a day. You go up to your room and get out of your school clothes and change into shorts and a t-shirt. The dream comes back to you again and you decide to spend the rest of the afternoon researching premonition dreams and self-defense. Suddenly your mom calls you down and says you have a guest. You trudge downstairs and, sure enough, there's Jack wearing shorts and a t-shirt the same color as yours. "I heard there was a new kid in town and thought I'd invite him over for dinner." You are annoyed and slightly shocked. You mother is normally suspicious of any newcomers and would never just invite some stranger into the house. And why, of all people, did Jack decide to stalk you? During dinner you find out that Jack has all the same interests as you, lives in a house that looks exactly like yours, and had the same childhood. You even have the same heart birthmark on your shoulder, except his is upside-down and looks like a spade. After he (FINALLY) leaves, you frustratedly stomp up to bed, put on you pajamas, and fall into a fitful sleep.

You see a shadow of a man standing over you as you lie on the ground. You can tell that he must be around your age. You can definitely tell that it's a male. The person reaches down and pulls up your sleeve to reveal your birthmark. He then picks you up and turns you around. You can't quite make out his face, but the spade mark on his shoulder is a dead giveaway. Could it be Jack?

You wake to the sound of your alarm clock. You rush to throw on school clothes and grab our stuff. You dash to school and have breakfast there. Oatmeal and graham crackers, gross. You decide not to go to your locker but regret it as you find you have a practice test today. You ask the teachers if you can move seats in all your classes so you don't have to sit next to Jack. At the end of the day, you tiredly plop down in your regular chair in your last class as your teacher would not let you move. A few minutes later, a note appears on your desk. You cautiously open it. In a filthy scrawl Jack has written:

Meet me in the woods afterschool

J

You write back:

I wouldn't want to go anywhere with you, STALKER!

The next note you get terrifies you.

Come to the big oak in the Saramack woods at midnight OR ELSE

When the bell rings you race out of class and dash home as fast as you can. The bus drives past you and for 5 minutes you can see Jack holding a sign that says

YOU'D BETTER BE THERE!

When you get home, you lock all your windows and doors and hide in your closet. When you calm down, you take a nap, the fear that racked your body having taken its toll.

You don't dream, but awaken to a scream coming from the front room of the house. You race down the stairs and find one of your mother's shoes lying on the floor. You race to the window and see a dark figure dragging your mother by the arm down the road. You find a note on the kitchen table that says

MEET ME IN THE WOODS OR YOU WILL NEVER SEE YOUR MOTHER AGAIN

You throw on a coat and dig around in the kitchen for a weapon. You settle on a small knife that would work as a dagger. You grab your cell phone just in case and run out the door. You grab your bike and pedal as fast as you can to the woods.

When you get to the woods, you find you have no cell reception. This scares you a bit, as it means there is no way to call for help. You slowly creep into the woods, following a set of large footprints leading into the darker part of the woods. When the tracks stop, you look up. You see a giant tree house that is hidden only by the trees around it. You climb the ladder and find your mother tied up in the corner. You quickly cut the ropes with your knife and hear something sneaking towards you. You drop the knife as the shape of a man grabs you and drags you out of the tree house. Once the thing has you on the ground, you kick him in the shins and he lets you go. You back up to the nearest tree and bump your head, falling into a deep sleep.

The figure picks you up and pins you against a tree. He whispers in your ear, "Are you scared yet?" You stay silent, wondering who this guy is. As if he can read your thoughts, he says, "I am your opposite. When you were born I was born into the nether matter. My primal objective was to find you, study you, and perform a ritual to suck the life out of you." He lifts up his shirt and you see his skin is beginning rot. "As the nether twins get older, we start to rot, for we are not meant to be and therefore dead. The only way to become truly human is to suck the life out of our earth twin. The twin dies horribly and becomes a nether twin, hidden from the world. Nobody can see them except nether twins who have managed to steal the souls of their earth twins. The earth twins float around and slowly decay, their souls and minds dying until, finally, they forget who they are. Once the soul forgets its identity, the soul is no more." He laughs and raises a ceremonial knife above your head.

You slowly open your eyes, your head throbbing from the pain of bumping against the tree. You remember where you are and stand up, looking straight into the face of Jack. Except, it's not quite Jack. His body has become a solid black mass, spikes protrude from his back, his feet like cloven hooves. You back away slowly and see the faces of your teachers and classmates, horribly deformed to look like monsters, staring back at you. You break through the group and hear Jack screaming, "YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU'LL NEVER ESCAPE!!" You pick up speed, seeing more and more monsters staring back at you from the darkness.

You hear Jack getting closer, and you know you might never survive.

But you just keep running, running, past the eyes that never shut. You see a snake on your path and know that this is the end…

"Any reports on subject 102?" the surgeon asks. "None, sir," the nurse replies, "she just keeps screaming the name Jack and kicking the bed as if she's running." "Interesting," the surgeon says. "Wasn't Jack the name of her ex-boyfriend?" "Yes," the nurse nods, "it seems that her break-up drove her insane. She took her mother out to a tree house in the Saramack woods and stabbed her with a knife. Then she ran through the forests, tripped over a snake, and gave herself a concussion. Now she just lays in bed all day, like she's in a nightmare or something. She's got nobody to live for, her parents are dead, and she's just gonna hurt herself." The surgeon thought for a moment, and said, "Take her off her IV. End her misery now. If she stays like this much longer, it could permanently damage her brain." That night the nurse went into the girl's room to unplug her IV. The girl seemed oddly calm. "Go ahead, Mr. Nurse," she said in a quiet voice. "I saved my mother and tried to escape the monsters, but I'm ready to die now." The nurse smiled sadly, picked up the girl's arm, and very gently pulled out the IV. Then he closed the girl's eyes and walked out of the room to alert the morgue people they had a new friend.

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Lily Howlett Mar 19, 2014

OK please excuse the spotty bold-italic-underline I don'tknow what happened there

Lily Howlett Mar 19, 2014

This story won second place in a Scary Story contest at my local library.

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