As she stopped to catch her breath, she looked behind, her eyes wide with terror. 770Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡagUwLX19g5
Samantha slammed the book shut and huffed angrily, startling her cat who was asleep at the end of her bed. She leant forward to pat him and crooned softly, “I’m sorry King Charlie, I didn’t mean to wake you,” The cat meowed softly before curling himself around to expose his belly, his eyes looking up at her from the strangest angle – she wondered what she must look like to him from that position. “I just hate it when they leave me hanging like that, now I have to wait another YEAR for the next book to come out. Do you know how annoying that is?” She paused in her ramblings to see if she could gauge a reaction from the black ball of fluff on her bed, “No, I suppose you wouldn’t would you?” Samantha said as she absentmindedly rubbed his belly. She had recently found this new book series that she had instantly fallen in love with and had raced through it in record time and was thrilled when she found the prologue of the next book at the back. That is until she actually read it at least.
That last line left her mind spinning and left her with so many unanswered questions that she thought had been resolved at the end of the first book.
Samantha had always loved books, loved getting lost in a world of someone else’s creation. She had always been able to find something to relate to in books, not necessarily the main character, but supporting characters that didn’t have much part in the story and sometimes not even them. Sometimes it would be events that she could relate to – high school drama, parties, pets. But with this story, Samantha found herself relating more and more to the main character and she loved it. She loved the feeling of someone else finally understanding how she felt about certain things, understanding her reasons for doing some things and not others. She found that other characters in the story had similar mannerisms and traits of the people in her life. She found herself thinking ‘that sounds like mum’, ‘that is totally something Jamie would do’, ‘I’m pretty sure Carol has done this at some point’, ‘didn’t Sarah have a dog with the same name?’
Samantha loved it, because although she could relate, it wasn’t her life and so she found it so easy to fall into this new world she had found. A world she could pretend was hers but without the pain. And when the pain in this new world seemed worse than the real world then she could thank the heavens that it wasn’t her real life, that although her life sucked, it was nothing compared to this.
Samantha sighed and stood up from her bed, giving King Charlie one last quick pat as she did. She pulled her running gear from her draws and quickly changed. Her father would be home soon and she really didn’t want to be here when he arrived. She hoped that if she timed it well he would arrive shortly after she left and be passed out by the time she returned. She grabbed her earphones and her phone before starting her search for her armband. She’d just about given up and decided to just carry her phone when she caught a glimpse of something pink peaking out from under King Charlie’s back. She grabbed the edge of it and gently puled it out from under him, he turned his head to look at her, his eyes wide and innocent but other than that didn’t move. Samantha stroked along his back and he curled up and went back to sleep. She selected her running playlist and put her phone in her armband and placed it securely on her arm. She left the house shortly after and began along her usual route.
Almost half an hour into her run with the sun behind her, Samantha could see her shadow in front of her. But now it wasn’t just her shadow, a second shadow had joined it and was keeping pace with her a few steps behind. She ignored it as she began to make her way home. After ten minutes the person was still trailing her and she became more concerned. She reached for her phone to call the police, trying to make it look like she was changing songs but out of the corner of her eye she saw the figure reach for her so she stopped and just ran as fast as she could, hoping whoever it was would not be able to keep up and would give up. She watched the shadow disappear before catching up quickly and again maintained that same distance. She added an extra burst of pace and the shadow disappeared. She kept running at full pace until she felt she had lost whoever it was before stopping. As she stopped to catch her breath, she looked behind, her eyes wide with terror.
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