Untouched (Untouched #1)(Old Work)

Chapter One

Her feet pounded the bitumen as she continued to run down the long, service alleyway. The backs of the tall, lifeless high-rise buildings passed her in a blur as she tried to pick up speed. Her hair, her clothes, were soaked from the downpour of cold rain which only added more weight to her body. If she could ditch them she would but this wasn't an option that was available to her. The sound of thunder grew louder as it growled overhead in the distance. The sudden storm that had blanketed the city was not going to disappear anytime soon.

She fought as panic threatened to take over her mind.

She clutched at her torso, her heart beating rapidly as if someone was playing it like a drum. She tried to take steady breaths but it was to no avail; sharp pain shot somewhere near her hips and she felt herself fall off her feet and onto the narrow road. The tiny stones dug their way into her skin and her hands automatically flew to her freshly grazed knee. The water stung and she cursed to herself.

Her stalker would well and truly catch her now. It was over.

Closing her eyes, sixteen year old Ellen raised her face towards the sliver of charcoal sky that was framed by the cold buildings that surrounded her. She felt each individual drop of rain fall onto her face and then trickle into her sodden blonde hair. Ellen omitted a barely audible sigh as she expelled a lungful of air. The pain was too much for her to push through; she wouldn't be able get back onto her feet in this form.

The voice whispering in her mind told her like it was, a straight-shooter as was she. 

She was defeated.

For the first time in her life she found herself praying.

Who she was praying to, she didn't know. She hoped that someone - a higher, divine being - was listening to her desperate cries for help. She wanted to survive. She didn't want it to end this way.

She was young; she had her life ahead of her.

Opening her eyes, she looked up and down the alleyway searching for any signs of movement.

None. Not even the slightest twitch of a muscle.

She could hear the rain hitting the bitumen and the faint sound of city traffic coming from somewhere beyond the buildings. But there were no footsteps which she was so convinced that she would hear. The footsteps would have paralysed her with fear.

To this she was grateful. 

Taking this as a good omen and feeling instant relief wash over her body, Ellen picked herself up onto her feet and limped ever-so-slowly down the narrow road in the opposite direction from which she came. The sound of cars grew more distinct with each step she took. The motor groans and grumbles were suddenly pierced with the wailing of emergency sirens - an ambulance perhaps? 

The combination of rain, slick roads, cars, and human error was an accident just waiting to happen. It was as if the grim reaper was waiting in the darkness to claim yet another life to his growing number.

Another statistic in the accident and injury books and even more repairs that the city would have to pay for from crying tax payers coffers.

She turned the corner into yet another alleyway, this one narrower than the last, and she felt a smile break across her face. There was an opening at the end and she saw throngs of people huddled together. Her mind told her to push on, push through the pain that burdened her. 

She could vanish into the crowd and no one would know she was there. She would become just another body making up the mass.

Most of all, she could be safe.