Chapter Text
Your feet slipped outwards on the wet autumn leaves as you rounded the corner, the cold evening air shocking your throat and lungs as you inhaled deeper, faster. With each footfall a jarring pain shot up ankle to knee, knee to ankle. Perhaps jumping that wall onto the stairs wasn't such a smart decision, after all.
Your heart was pounding like the thundering hooves of a thousand wild stallions. Your entire life was currently dependant on the adrenaline rush that right now, was probably the only thing that was keeping you from meeting your impending doom. If you failed, if you gave up now, then your whole body would pay the price, but if you ran, then the damage was limited mostly to your shins and knees.
You knew this estate better than they did, those pigs were just pretty boys in uniforms, shipped in from the nicer end of town. They were weighed down with guns, batons and electrical stun devices, all of them were useless unless they got a clear shot, which they wouldn't. You could hear them panting with the effort from three-hundred yards behind, that's how f*cking noisy they were. Conditioning from a treadmill with a stopwatch would never beat real life training in the streets.
Being chased was nothing like the movies. The stars looked heroic, sexy and in command of the situation. Reality was far removed from that pretty version of running to save your skin.
These heels were no good to you now. As you kicked them off your heart beat faster and the adrenaline demanded that you continued to run, right now, no delay. But unless you got them off, you couldn't. You wished to God that they were sensible but unfortunately for you, they were three inches high. Then the cold, wet near-winter mud kissed your soles and you punched away into the darkness, heading for the yellow light of the street ahead. Your feet slipped and you tumbled over, more time you could not afford.
You were panicking; anxiety clawing at your chest. You couldn't think straight. Your heart pounded, sending blood to your muscles. If you continued like this, you definitely wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer. You were losing stamina. There were cuts and slashes painting your skin. Your face was bleeding, lips busted. You could taste the metallic tinge of blood on your tongue.
You rounded another corner and ended up in front of an alleyway. You knew that this was probably a bad idea, but you had no other choice at the moment. In the dim light that oozed through a narrow gap was the alleyway. It was the underworld of any town: gloomy and unpleasant. The vines that crawled up windowsills and the crumbling plaster that enveloped the old stone bricks appeared romantic at first but became daunting as the sun set behind the skyline of chimneys. Darkness was lurking in every corner inside the labyrinth of narrow passages and dead ends. Litter was dumped on the street and ominous birds nested amongst the sprawling rot. After a quick glance over your shoulder and one more to make sure, you left the well-lit street for the gloom, feeling your heart quicken.
You couldn't do this anymore.
You were tired.
You were shattered.
Unbelievably so.
You wiped the beads of sweat from your forehead; exhausted. Your legs desperately wanted to give way, they wanted to give up on you. But you couldn't let that happen. You didn't want to be found. You didn't want to get caught. Your heart was racing a mile a minute and you knew that you had to keep going. Branches constantly attacked you, leaves crunched under your feet and big, brown logs seemed to appear out of nowhere as if to try and stop you. You had to stop before your lungs collapsed. Your [H/L] [H/C] hair was tousled, your arms and legs all bruised and cut and your clothes looked like rags, dirty and tattered. You looked like a leaking pipe, but you had to keep running.
You had to keep running.
You had to keep ru—
You couldn't. You couldn't run anymore. Your vision was becoming blurry. Your legs were not functioning. Heart beating. Breathing tepid. You stopped in the middle of this dingy alleyway as your eyes slowly began to close and you felt yourself falling.
But in the last few moments during your blurred vision, you remembered seeing bright blue eyes, like a cat lurking in the dark shadows appearing before you. Was it a ginger cat? A ginger cat glowing red, wearing a fancy hat? A ginger cat with blue eyes? Those eyes were the blue of the mountain lakes, hues that could tell tales of the cerulean sky accompanying dawn. What a beautiful cat; an exquisite hallucination before you were caressed by the hands of death; slowly ebbing into unconsciousness.
"What a pretty cat—" the words escaped your mouth before you could stop them.
And as you fell into the comforting arms of a handsome stranger, you smiled. A smile so saccharine sweet it seemed like you might have been dreaming. And then your vision became black, allowing the insatiable darkness to consume the entirety of your body, mind and soul.
"Cat?" An unfamiliar voice questioned as he caught you in his arms. "Did she just—? What the f*ck!"
And then, without an inkling of sympathy, he immediately dropped you on the ground.
