April Kelly Editing and Writing

She ran. What else could she do? Though her lungs burned for more oxygen, she ran. Bare feet stumbling over exposed roots, she ran. Branches whipped her face. If she could only make it to the warehouse, she could disappear and he’d never find her. She knew every portal in the abandoned building.

Suddenly the trees cleared and the warehouse appeared, looking dark and foreboding, as old abandoned buildings often do. But to her, nothing had ever been more beautiful. Salvation in the form of crumbling steps and rusted metal. As she scrambled over the uneven ground, she looked over her shoulder to see if her pursuer was close behind.

She didn’t realize he was already there.

Pain exploded behind her eyes and the world was black.

She woke, head throbbing. Her mouth so dry she could barely swallow. As she opened one eye, just a slit, she saw two chairs upholstered in peeling vinyl sitting in front of an open doorway. I’m in the warehouse. One of the offices probably. It smelled of rat droppings and decayed leaves. Trying to raise a hand to her throbbing head, she realized her hands were tied. So were her feet.

He wasn’t in the room, she had to move now. Quickly rolling to the side, she fell off the desk and onto the floor, through the invisible portal. Gone.