The wind blew with a passion I had never witnessed before. My hair whipped into my eyes and I tried in vain to tuck it behind my ears. My foot brushed over the crumbling doorstep as I made my way into the decrepit old place.
SMASH! I let out an involuntary yelp of surprise. One of the windows had been blown right out of its frame and shattered into a thousand pieces. This house was falling to pieces. Why did I decide to come here? I was walking my usual route around the forest behind my house when I glimpsed this crumbling old farm shed. Or house. It was hard to tell from its run-down condition. Despite the many years I had lived here and walked this path I had never once seen that building before.
Fear began to run down my spine as some ungodly creature ran across the half decomposed floorboards right in front of me. I jumped back and my hair stood on end. I was barely three steps into the house and already its inhabitants were coming out to attack me. I couldn't do this, what was I thinking? This was probably someone's property and I was trespassing.
I turned to leave. This was too creepy. I twisted the door handle but to my horror, it didn't budge. Oh great, the door was jammed, I thought to myself. I yanked hard in an attempt to open the door but the handle broke off in my hands and went flying backward and landed hard on my ass. "Dammit. That hurt." I cursed. I looked down and inspected myself. No injuries save a few scratches where I had crushed the splintering doorknob in my hand.
A man's laugh jarred me suddenly from my reverie. I looked up terrified I was going to be caught in this godforsaken place. There was no one. I got up and turned around a few more times to make sure. Nothing. It must have been the wind. At least that's what I told myself.
The noise came again. The one that sounded so much like a man's laugh. I froze. Then I realised what the other noise was. Footsteps. I dove towards what looked like an old cupboard in the corner. Just in time. Out of the shadows, I could just see the outline of a man. Or an extremely well-built female. I was more inclined to believe it was the former. I don't know what possessed me to hide. I could have just explained the situation to whoever was here. Still, I got a weird vibe from this place, like I needed to escape as soon as possible.
The man began walking toward my hiding place and my heart rate soared. He was going to find me. Just as I thought I was discovered, he bent down to the left and began rummaging through what looked like a box or some sort of chest. It was hard to tell from my vantage point. He then found what he was looking for and stood up. I couldn't see exactly what it was but I saw a glint of metal in the dim light.
The realisation hit me like a battering ram. A gun. It was a gun. Not a small one either it looked like a shotgun. I told myself to relax. A man living around here is very likely to have a gun, I reasoned. He could have cattle or maybe he shoots the pests. Surely there was a perfectly logical explanation for this man having a gun. Right?
He began to walk back to the hallway he had come from. I let out a small sigh of relief. When the man was well out of sight. I opened the door to the cupboard and quietly made my way to the broken window that had smashed earlier. As I lifted my body to the window and was almost out when my knee knocked on another flimsy pane of glass. It was already weak from the wind and my knee was the final breaking point as the glass window fell with an earth-shattering smash. I looked up and almost gasped. The man was staring at me from across the room. Holding the loaded shotgun. Another window smashed above me and glass came raining down. I realised belatedly he had fired.
I scrambled the rest of the way out of the window and feel a solid two metres into the bush below. Ouch. I landed hard on my left leg. My ankle throbbed but I couldn't deal with it now. I shoved myself further into the bush as the man came running around the corner, brandishing his shotgun. I don't know how he had exited the house seeing as I broke the doorknob, but he probably had a backdoor or something. My head was pounding I reach up to touch my temple and feel warm wetness. I slowly realised I was bleeding. I must have cut my head on glass on my way down. I was starting to feel light heading. I tried to breathe heavily to avoid detection but my heart was pounding. my eyelids started to droop and I felt very sleepy. The last thing I remember is holding my bloody hands to my head and then it all went black.
I woke to a stabbing pain in my ankle. It must be sprained. I sit up and it takes me a minute to get my baring. Oh yes, that's right. I was being chased by a big scary man with a gun. How cliché of me to get into this situation. At this point, it was pitch black. I wonder how long I had been passed out. Only a pale strip of moonlight illuminated what was in front of me. I glanced at my watch. The glass was cracked but I could still faintly make out the number on the screen. 1:34 am. I blinked in surprise. I had been here half the night.
I poked my head out of the bush and wasn't surprised to find nothing but the dark forest staring back at me. I climbed out of the bush trying not to jar my already hurting ankle and started limping back the way I came.
A loud bellow stopped me in my tracks. I couldn't make out what he had said but as I turned I saw that the man was once again facing me with his gun. My heartfelt like it was going to burst right out of my chest. I figured the only chance I had was to run. So I did just that. I turned and sprinted back towards my walking path. My ankle was exploding with pain but the adrenaline kept me going. I was almost back to the road when a deafening shot rang out through the night. I caught what I assumed was the man yelling at me to stop. But I didn't. I made it to the road and followed it to where my car was parked. I practically jumped in, thankful that I hadn't dropped my keys on the way. Not bothering to put my seatbelt on I slammed my uninjured foot on the accelerator, the force throwing my back in my seat. At this moment I was so extremely grateful to have an Audi.
I sped off down the road in the direction of my house. My roommate was out of town for the weekend but my dog probably waiting for me. The further I got from the forest the more I calmed down and eventually I was back within the bounds of the speed limit.
I reached my house and pulled into the driveway. Since I had the house to myself I could park right in the middle of the garage. I would have to move the car tomorrow though before my roommate got home, in case she got mad.
As I opened the door that led to the house through the garage. A dog started barking and before I knew it my black staffy came sprinting across the tiles and body-slammed me onto the ground. Her attack consisted of a lot of tail wags and licks all over me. I laughed and patted her shiny coat. She eventually calmed down and I was able to stand up and walk toward my room.
After tonight's events, I was exhausted and all I wanted was to curl up on my bed with my dog in my arms and sleep. I closed the door to my bedroom and my dog jumped up on the bed. Normally she wasn't allowed on the furniture but tonight I felt I needed the companionship. As I quickly changed into some baggy pyjama I membered my sprained ankle. I was too tired to do anything now besides take some painkillers so I resolved to go to the doctor when I woke up the next day. I lay down in bed and snuggled into the covers.
I was just about to fall asleep when I felt a slight breeze blow across my face. Damn, I forgot to close the window. I unwrap myself from my blankets and reach upwards to pull the window down. When a shape outside catches my eye. It was quite dark so was assumed it was just a tree or something. That's when I began to shake with fear. It was the man.
A/N
To my sister liv. Thanks for the inspiration little sis :)
