You Can't Run Forever

It was there. Alice could feel it. It was the definition of terror, and Alice didn't want to look. She didn't know what it looked like and didn't want to know. Alice never knew where it was most of the time, but she knew that it was after her and it would never give up.

Alice didn't know how she got there, but she was somehow trapped inside a huge forest at night, with just a torch for company, and it was running out of power. Not daring to waste any precious battery power of the torch, Alice kept it off…unless she heard it coming. Then she ran, following the light until the deep, thundering footsteps of it could no longer be heard. However, it somehow managed to get in front of her every time she ran, and when it did…Alice's vision would start to go blurry, she would feel sick and dizzy, and a ringing would start to sound in her ears. But she always kept running. There was no choice.

It was coming closer. Alice could hear it. A faint boom followed slowly by another; it was walking to her. Alice was scared to think of what might happen if it got her. She hoped that it wouldn't. However the way events were turning out for Alice, that slim glimmer of escape seemed to be getting smaller and dimmer by every minute.

From tree to tree she walked in the pitch black forest with the swirling thick fog. The night seemed to be lasting forever. Maybe the sun would never rise and she would never be caught; she would be running for the rest of her life. Until it got her. And escape was slowly becoming more and more impossible.

She couldn't stop. The thunderous footsteps were getting louder, meaning that it was getting closer. Alice began to pick up her pace of walk. Her wide and frightened eyes were darting around the place, her head spinning in different directions. Her breathing was becoming quicker as Alice started to panic once more as it came closer, and closer…

Suddenly, Alice broke into a run. She whipped out the torch and flicked the switch. The light flickered on…and it was there. Alice screamed and skidded to a halt before spinning and sprinting in the other direction. The booms of its footsteps were making her head hurt and made the floor shake with every step.

Alice lifted up her head, still running. The beam of the torch light scanned the area as she ran, her breathing heavy and fast. It didn't seem to be appearing in front of her anymore, but its heavy footfalls were still giving her a headache. So Alice kept running. Her vision was starting to go blurry, her ears were ringing and her head was wavering slightly, but Alice had to keep running. But again with a flash, it was there, just a few meters from her. Alice cried out again and turned, not able to see anything and feeling like she was going to throw up. She couldn't keep running, Alice had no breath left; adrenaline had given up on her. But she had to keep going.

The footsteps died away to silence and Alice stopped abruptly. Flicking the torch off and bending down, she slowly regained her breath. She looked up…and screamed. It had found her. The ugly blank face stared down at her for a second, and then Alice knew no more.

A body slammed to the ground, face frozen in one of sheer horror. Eyes wide and bulging, seeing nothing. The mouth wide open in a scream that never came. The skull cracked under the impact of the fall, and dark crimson blood began to pool around the body of the young teenager who had been living in terror during the last hours of her life.

Alice had been taken.