The girl emerged from the store at three o’clock in the afternoon. Making her way across the emptied parking lot to her car, she unlocked the door and stepped in. When she was buckled herself into the driver’s seat she looked up- and saw a man in the car next to hers staring at her intently. With piercing, emerald green eyes and an untidy mop of lively brown hair the man’s gaze never wavered. She smiled broadly at him, waving a hello. He grinned evilly back, pulled out a knife and began to smooth it against his skin, caressing his face, all the while looking absorbedly at the girl, his eyes following her every move. He continued to stroke his face with his knife. With a cry the girl turned away and started her motor. She heard a loud rumble. The man had started his car too. Shrieking once she pulled away and sped off, only to be followed by the man. In his black sedan he was catching up to her old car fast. Glancing in the rearview mirror she saw him, leaning forward, staring at her car. Pulling out her cell phone, the girl dialed nine-one-one, only to realize that her phone didn’t work. She began to sob wildly, throwing glances behind her, her screams bouncing against the windshield and echoing back to her frightened figure. The man was coming closer and closer, knife in hand, staring at her flustered, terrified face in glee.
Shrieking, she swerved her car away as the man pulled up alongside her. He opened his window, and she could hear maniacal laughter. Glancing violently around her car, the girl could not spot a single person other than the lunatic following her. Her face was slick with tears as she stepped on the gas. Her tank was almost empty. She had to turn back to town; maybe someone would notice her.
Her tires screeching, the girl made an abrupt about face and slammed head first into the man’s shiny black sedan. Putting her car in reverse she zoomed backwards. Her head spinning, the girl crashed into a huge oak tree that broke where she hit it. It fell, slamming down onto her car and crushing it. With a scream she squeezed out of her broken window and ran for her life. She sped into the forest, hoping to lose the kleptomaniac pursuing her. Somehow the man managed to see her in the dim light of the forest. She barely heard his footsteps behind her before she felt an arm around her neck, stopping her short. The same laughter that she had heard earlier now reached her worn, bleeding ears. The man held his knife up to her face, a violently gleeful smile on his face as he brought it closer and closer.
Screaming bloody murder, the girl fought the man. Slamming her fist into his face, she managed to break free. She began to run again, ignoring the pain in her head, ignoring the pain in her side, ignoring the pain she felt in every inch of her tired, hurt body. She tried not to pay attention to the thudding footsteps behind her, or the blood pouring down her face, into her mouth, leaving a crimson trail for the man to follow. Mustering one final scream the girl pushed a branch out of her way. It smacked the man in the face, breaking his nose, giving the girl an extra second. His nose spewing blood, he got up and kept running after her wounded figure.
As she slipped through two trees the girl heard a scream of pure terror bouncing through the forest. Turning around for a brief second she glimpsed the man, wrapped in a ghostly net which no human knife can cut. He was thrashing madly, yelling until silver tendrils wrapped themselves around his tongue, his bloody mouth, silencing him forever. The girl knew she was safe, safe from this mad lunatic… until the same net was hurled onto her body, wrapping tighter and tighter. She screamed, struggling, but the net held her tight. A ghostly man appeared, hovering a foot above her mangled body. Crying, she shrieked a plea to the spirit, who laughed the same evil laugh as the man with the knife. Holding up a glinting silver weapon, the ghost pushed it against her face. She began to bleed even more, her whole figure now a deep, dirty crimson. She kept struggling, the net that bound her cutting her even more. Then she lay still, emitting her final breath. A pale silver mist rose from her bloodred mouth, a mist that materialized into the figure of a woman, beautiful and whole once more.
