Ghosts

Feb 29, 2008

These are some snippets I wrote in my blog in high school, that I intended to turn into a story at some point, but never quite got around to.




The girl ran, her feet barely touching the pavement below her, and she didn't notice how the rocks cut into her soles. Panting heavily, her heart beating faster than it ever had before, her eyes tearing up from wind, pain, and fear, she ran. Her hair kept beating at the air behind her, her feet beating at the pavement below her, her lungs beating at her ribs.

She nearly fell, too tired to keep herself upright, but she quickly caught herself before she hit the ground and kept running, adrenaline fueling her flight.

Running with nothing left to sustain her, she knew she'd have to stop, she knew she'd have to let the beast catch her. Knowing it was futile, she kept running. She knew the shadow beast would kill her.

She stumbled again, her black hair falling into her face. This time, her hands hit the pavement, cutting her palms deeply on the ragged rocks sticking up. She glanced back as she pushed herself up to run on feet that were shredded from the ground. A scream stuck in her throat as she looked behind.

Behind her was only the street she's been running down.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Silently, he walked through the woods, his feet not making a sound as he stepped on the dry leaves and twigs littering the ground. Walking on the outsides of his feet and very slowly, he kept the ground from announcing his presence to whomsoever might be around. His ocean-blue eyes tracked the world around him quickly, but thoroughly, not skipping a thing. The only thing missing was that which wasn't there. He kept seeing her in his mind's eye, but the eyes on his face could never quite see her. He sensed she was close, and it felt like he should be able to reach out and touch her, but she was nowhere to be seen. The trees weren't wide enough to hide a person, and he was looking all around himself. But still, his ocean-colored eyes couldn't see what he sensed. He could even smell her scent, but she was nowhere to be seen. In anguish, he leaned against a tree, raised his face to the sky, and howled, breaking the glass-like silence of the night.

~~~~~*~~~~~

The earsplitting sound made her heart stop for a moment and her eyes involuntarily widen. She looked over her shoulder with terrified tears in her eyes as she began running, unsure what that otherworldly sound was, unsure she wanted to know, unsure of everything but the need to get away. Running as fast as her feet would allow, she knew it wasn't fast enough, knew the beast was behind her, catching up to her. She knew she would not live long enough to go home again, so she stopped caring where she ran to, simply thought about getting away as fast as possible. Her cheeks had tear streaks across them. She cried for the inevitable loss of her life, and for the utter terror she felt.

She only knew she would not be able to escape the intangible beast that had made that unearthly sound.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Hearing the footsteps suddenly, sprinting recklessly away from him, smelling the intense fear, the young man leapt to attention. He felt her run past behind him--but when he whirled around, he was alone, despite the deafening loudness of her steps. With an angry frustration, he sprinted after her steps, feeling her presence, smelling her scent. He knew it meant everything for him to catch up to her, to find out who she was. Despite the speed of his gait, he stepped lightly on the dried leaves, and made barely a sound aside from his heavy but controlled breathing. Hearing her stumble and fall to the ground, hearing her resigned sob, he knew she would not rise again without aid. He felt a desperate need to be that aid. For the first time in many years, he let tears fall from his eyes. Feeling her in front of him, but seeing nothing, not even a sign that the leaves had been disturbed, was infuriating. He fell to his knees beside where he knew her to be and slowly reached towards the air he knew she inhabited. Gasping, he scuttled backwards when he felt his hand hit something solid in the midst of the air. He heard and felt her move away from him, equally frightened, but too exhausted to move far.

~~~~~*~~~~~

She would have screamed when she felt the invisible beast touch her leg, but her lungs wouldn't let enough air out to make a sound. With no more energy to run, she just leapt away, collapsing onto her knees, and cried. "Somebody, please help me," she whispered faintly before passing out from exhaustion and fear.

~~~~~*~~~~~

His ears twitched and he tried his hardest to listen after hearing whispered words, too quietly spoken for him to understand them, but no more sound came from her direction. He could barely even hear her panting breath. "Are...are you there?" he said softly to the air before him. No sound of movement answered his call. Finally having caught up to and even touched the invisible girl, he knew she needed help. He just had no idea what to do, how to help her.

He crawled on hands and knees over to where she had been, and carefully searched the ground in the direction she had leapt, hoping to find her and perhaps offer some aid.

For two hours, the young man searched, but he never found her again. With every passing second, the sound of her breath faded more and more from his ears. Finally, he sat on his heels in defeat and howled mournfully.

~~~~~*~~~~~

She awoke in a bed in a sterile room, looking around in confusion. Nothing of her flight from the shadow beast made any sense to her. Sitting up quickly, she remembered that touch, that eerie ghost of a touch, and she hurriedly threw off the sheets to look at her leg, as if expecting that touch to leave a mark of some sort. The only strange thing about what was before her eyes, however, was the hospital gown that had taken the place of her sweatshirt and jeans.