I want to live!

Ryver glanced at his watch whilst tying the last knot for the bandage on the girl's foot. It was 2:23am. Two long hours had gone into assessing, cleaning, stitching, anointing and bandaging her injuries. Yet, throughout all this, the girl had barely moved an inch the whole time. If it were not for the soft rise and fall of her chest, he would have assumed she was dead as despite her having a darker skin tone, she was deathly pale.

Carefully, he lifted her foot off of his lap and got up from the foot of the bed. He ever so quietly moved to the side of the bed and pulled the covers over the girl who appeared to be sleeping soundly, before stepping back to truly look at her. 

The girl was quite young, ranging from late teens to early twenties. Nothing about her facial features were extraordinary. In fact, she was as average as one could be, in his eyes, with a square like face, petite nose and black shoulder length hair. However, he was still not sure whether this was due to the uneven swelling or just her luck to be blessed with bad genes. In addition to this he could not recall seeing any curves to her whilst examining her injuries. Her body shape was too boyish making her look younger than his earlier prediction. With another nod Ryver was happy with his analysis. 

"She clearly was not attacked for her looks," he sighed with pity, only to receive a smack to the back of his head.

Grumbling and massaging his 'injury' he turned around to look at the culprit. 

"Gustie, will you be careful on how you fling your limbs. No matter how much of an accident this was, we really do not need another injured person in the house. How will we explain why two people are being escorted to hospital to our neighbours?" Ryver whined.

"We need to talk." August responded with displeasure to his brother's antics. 

He did not understand where Ryver got his personality from. Their father was a stern man despite his caring disposition while their mother was nothing but polite and gentle mother. Therefore, where did this unruly idiot fit in? These thoughts crossed August's mind as he pulled a reluctant Ryver from the side of the bed before going behind him to push him out. Before closing the bedroom door behind them, he glanced at the girl who was fully bandaged and appeared to be resting peacefully. He sighed slightly with relief knowing that she was going to be okay. Turning the lights off and closing the door they went downstairs.

However, unbeknownst to the pair, the girl who was lying peacefully was actually reliving the couple of hours before their meeting. Her living nightmare.

She couldn't see. She couldn't breathe. Everything was spinning. Nevertheless, she ran. Well scrambled was a more appropriate definition as she used the wall for support… And much more. 

'I want to live, please someone help me!' she cried desperately as she stumbled over some bin bags that were laying on the side. 

Alas, the girl was unfortunately a complete idiot. 

Instead of running in the middle of the clear alleyway, to make a breakthrough and run faster, she was clinging to the wall with a determination that just did not add up to her survival mentalism.

'Keep running straight ahead. Don't take any turns.'

That voice was all she needed to continue. It had been guiding her since she had managed to get out of her perpetrator's grasp. She had no idea where it was guiding her, but she knew one thing for sure was that destination was where help was. However, unable to see the obstacles in front of her was accelerating her loss of faith in this get away. She was losing too much blood; she was weak and had had used most of her strength to escape whilst her perpetrator took a bite to its wrist and a kick to the shin during the struggle. They had full strength in comparison to her. 

'Go left.'

With every turn she felt her perpetrator gain an inch. They were enjoying the chase. They were controlling her fear. She was not running fast: she was practically walking and at times jogging. Yet, they deliberately taunted her. They did not believe she would escape them. She was unable to comprehend that this confidence came from the fact that no matter what turn she took she was always turning into the back roads and alleyways. It was as if she had an irrational compulsion to take turns that would consistently lead her towards empty alleyways. To an observer, it was as if she was running blindly then how much more so to her perpetrator? She was practically chasing death itself; with determination at that.

'Left again.'

She didn't understand. Why was she not dead yet? How did she survive the blows to her head? However, this was not the time to concern herself over the minor details of fate. She did not care. All she wanted to do was live. To survive this ordeal. It was because of this she proceeded to cling to the wall as if it were her life line despite the fact that her hands were bleeding due to the constant grazing across rough walls she proceeded to cling to the wall. 

'Right.'

She had no idea how much time it had been since she awoke from being knocked unconscious. All her senses were alert due her haphazard knowledge of her surroundings. Everything scared her. She was unsure whether it was the perpetrator was breathing down her neck or the wind blowing as she ran. They sounded so close but yet sounded so far as they laughed whilst watching her struggle to get away. Yet, she dared not look back to gauge the distance in fear that the perpetrator would be the last thing she saw. She would not give them that satisfaction.

As she ran, her mind drifted back to her previous thoughts. She found them completely laughable. It was utterly ridiculous that she had, had any type of hope that they were going to set her free, let alone the other two who were with her. For crying out loud, she was tied up in the back of a vehicle being driven to who knew where. 

Could it have been anymore bloody obvious! She laughed. She was laughing so hard it was echoing through the street. Was it the fear? Had she gone insane?

'Keep running straight. Don't turn.'

It was this particular command she dreaded the most. It meant that she was coming to the end of her current wall and would need to face the darkness alone - the gap between walls cause by the street splitting into four directions. It was when she was most vulnerable. Will she find the wall again? Or would that be the last?  However, the gap never came as she felt the darkness wrap its arms around her waist and pull her into nothingness. 

'It's finally over.' She sighed, and slowly closed her eyes succumbing to the darkness. She was too tired. 

'Open your eyes. Keep running. The end is near.' 

'You can do this. Open your eyes and look.'

The voice kept chanting however, it was falling in death ears as the girl slowly dropping her outstretched hand away from the wall.

'I want to live… please help me!' Were her last thoughts as she was about to be fully engulfed into the darkness. She was trying to grab onto anything she could was her last pitiful attempt at survival. She had thought that her cry had fallen onto death ears as usual and her last plight to survive was futile however, someone finally heard her. 

Someone had grabbed her hand. Warmth immediately heated up her shivering body due to the fear and her sweat.

It was the first and only time she felt like someone had heard her during her time of need. The image of the handsome stranger, who was the last thing she saw before darkness, fluttered across her mind. In all honesty, he was the definition of talk dark and handsome, with him in her mind she was finally able to peacefully sleep with silent tears of gratitude replacing the ones of fear.