I Walk the Line ♤ (gxg)

chapter 3: run rabbit run

She could feel the wind beneath her.

"Get her!"

The very second she heard those words bounce off the damp brick walls of the alleyway and into her ears, she was off.

Her heart was thumping against her chest like a rabbit's foot. The rabbit in her chest was just as antsy as she was, thumping its bony heel against her ribcage and resounding throughout her whole body. The thumping couldn't even be covered up by the sound of her feet hitting the concrete ground over and over again. Her nose was numb as she tore through the cold New York wind, the air slapping her in the face as if punishing her for disrupting it so badly. She could feel the blush in her cheeks, her veins pulsing with blood rushing like a river throughout her, begging for her heart to slow down and give it time to distribute throughout her body.

Her feet were numb, and her legs were aching. She hadn't gotten that much exercise since P. E. in her first year of high school. She was out of shape, but the adrenaline pulsing in her was keeping her moving forward, her petiteness finally giving her the advantage of being so fast. Her arms were pushing her forward even faster. She wanted to ball her fists, but she kept her hands open, remembering when her ninth-grade track coach told her that keeping her hand in a fist would slow her down. She didn't have time to mentally thank him.

She wanted to turn around to see how close the people were behind her so she could at least have an idea of who her murderers might be. The thing she feared the most was that they were right behind her, and that her world would go black with the swing of a knife or possibly even a gunshot. Or even worse, they would grab her and take her away. She would disappear from the world and the world would disappear away from her, except that she would still be alive, sitting probably in someone's creepy basement or warehouse, tied up and enduring whatever torture that the demented people would most likely love to inflict on her. They had just jumped someone and killed him; there was no telling what they would do to her.

Her legs wanted to falter. Her heart wanted to stop. She was sure that if she didn't die in someone else's hands, she would die by the failure of her own heart. Her heartbeat was right in her ears, whispering to her how each sharp, fast breath she took would be her last.

She finally stumbled into the yard of the house, scrambling up the steps to the porch. The tips of her shoes banged against the wooden stairs, tripping her up. She couldn't even hear the loud music over her own racing heart and even faster racing thoughts. On her knees, she crawled to the door, only then feeling the wetness of tears on her cheeks.

Her pale hand reached up to the doorknob, and before turning it, feeling some sort of safety by at least being right at the doorstep and nearly in sight of witnesses, she turned her head back to see if the people were about to grab her by her feet and drag her back to the alleyway for their second kill of the night.

They weren't there. There was no one there, besides a guy leaning against a tree in the front yard, holding a cigarette to his mouth and a red solo cup in his hand, looking at her with pure bewilderment and judgement. She didn't even think about being embarrassed.

Letting go of the doorknob, she shot up to her feet and frantically looked around. The hooded figures were nowhere—not on the streets, not standing behind any trees, not sitting on the porch swing right next to her. There was no one there except for her and the confounded guy standing against the tree.

Her heart slowed down, but the anxiety still had her in its grasp. Her nerves were shot, but she felt numb all at the same time. Maybe it was from running, or maybe it was from going into cardiac arrest. Either way, the cat in the cage suddenly disappeared, and the rat was left shivering in the corner, worried that the cat might still be lurking near. The rabbit in her chest thumped to a slower beat, the loud music from inside the house finally drowning it out.