Every muscle in her body was aching. Even her ears were aching. The sounds she was making were surely going to give her away. The sound of her feet thudding onto the earth, her loud, uneven gasping and panting, the loud beating of her heart and the sounds of her blonde hair flying around frantically in the wind were all that surrounded her.. She was running as fast as she could. Through the darkness, in the trees. The only light being the faint glow of a shopping center a couple hundred yards in front of her. If she could just push herself farther and make it under the street lights. To where she could scream at the top of her lungs and surely someone would come to aid her, surely they could keep her safe.
She felt as if she were going to collapse. With one quick glance she snapped around to look behind her, and there it was. The motivation she needed to push herself harder; and she did. She could feel every branch she over looked scratch fiercly along her skin; her arms, legs, and face. But she all but welcomed the pain they brought. The sharp scraping pains that she felt all over, some sharper than others, were little reminders. They let her know that she was still alive and that she needed to run faster.
Less than 100 yards now, she thought to herself. Years of being on the cheerleading squad helped her guess the distance. Years of spending hours after school on the football field standing at the 50 yard mark, all paid off tonight. The then annoying white paint that would occasionally stain her cheerleading uniforms were now the only things that seemed to have ever mattered in her life. They were keeping her sane, giving her faith that she just might make it.
A break in the trees and it was just tall grass until she reached the orange street lights that were behind the shopping center. She could hear cars in front of the buildings and a faint smile grew across her face. Another quick glance behind her led her to choke on her gasp. She no longer had to run. For the yellow-eyed creature she was running from was now running beside her.
In one quick swoop the blonde cheerleader was no longer running. She felt immense pain in her legs and a suddenly tight grip around her waist. She screamed and writhed as loud and hard as she could when she saw, down below, the shopping center gradually shrinking in size. The orange glow of the lights were slowly becoming fainter; and in the tall grass that grew behind the busy mall, were the girls shoes, along with the tall white socks she was wearing, and the pale legs that wore them.