Lilly stood under the street lamp. She was wearing her favorite blue jeans jacket, a red skirt, knee high socks and tennis shoes. The kind that just slip on and off. She stopped under the street light because someone was following her. She didn't see the person but just the same, she knew he was there. Lilly cranked up her hearing aids and stood absolutely still... nothing but the buzz of insects. She pulled out her cell phone and quickly typed out a text message to her friend "pls hurry being followed standing under street lamp near school".
It was so still. Lilly strained her eyes and saw nothing beyond the ring of light from the overhead lamp. A shrill sounding screech erupted from somewhere beyond the light and Lilly jumped straight up clear out of her shoes. "An Owl" she said between breaths and turned her hearing aids back down to a "normal" level. She looked down at her cell phone but the text message was not sent. She resent the message and waited. nothing. The txt message would not send. Why not? Lilly started to panic again. "calm down" she said as her heart raced.
A flutter of birds took flight somewhere. Lilly turned her hearing aids up once again. No dumb owl is going to scare me again she thought. It was as if the air itself had turned heavy. The lamp had a slight flicker to it that was annoying. She could smell the dew forming in the air. And then she heard it. A twig snapped. Her panic over took her and she shot off into the night running as fast as her shoeless feet could take her down the road. She could hear it now, the sound of heavy feet pounding the pavement behind her. She flew, faster than she ever though possible.
Lilly looked up, a bright light was shining down in to her face. She blinked her eyes to clear her vision and slowly looked around her. She was lying in a bed. there was a needle stuck in her hand. She started to struggle but the blanket over her was too heavy. She heard a voice shouting Lilly! Lilly! She looked towards the sound and blinked her eyes again. It was her friend! Oh Thank God! she thought.
Lilly sat up in the hospital bed and faced her friend. "I was so terrified, I thought someone was following me so I texed you to come get me and you did." Her friend put her hand on top of Lilly's hand. "I didn't get a text message. I just wanted to go out for a drive."
"At 1 in the morning?"
"I couldn't sleep I kept dreaming that someone was chasing me, so I drove out to the school and saw you running and fall. I brought you straight here."
Lilly left the hospital and the two friends drove out to find Lilly's shoes. The looked all around under the lamp but never found her shoes. Then Lilly saw it, just outside where the light would have ended. A single foot print in the dirt right over a broken twig and she knew then how close he had been to death.