When She Perished

| One |

Chapter 1

I ran as fast as my little fragile legs would let me, dodging in between trees as the wind blew past me, causing my long orange hair to blow around and tangle.

It crossed my mind a few times to look behind to see if he was still hunting me, but I knew deep down that he would never stop. So I kept running.

My throat was dry and my eyes felt puffy and wet from the wind that gushed straight towards them.

I quickly glimpsed down at my cold pale legs that were all scratched up and bruised, I could feel them beginning to fail me as my pace slowed down.

But I wouldn't stop, I couldn't. I knew that if I did, he would kill me.

Of course the worst and most typical thing that could possibly make this situation any worse happened. I gasped loudly as my foot caught onto a thick tree root causing me to trip and fall, my body hitting the hard dirt below me.

I lay stomach first on the cold hard floor of the woods. Not daring to move. I knew my fate, my time was surely up. I'm surprised I even lasted this long. There was no point in running anymore. I was tired of running and fighting, but mostly I was done with living in fear.

Just as expected, I heard his footsteps approach from behind me.

I felt a new weight on my back as he placed one of his feet on top of me, it felt heavy, pushing me further into the ground. I winced at the pain and the sound of bones in my back cracking.

"Did you really think I would give up?" He laughed. His voice itself reminded me of nightmares from my childhood. It reminded me of every terrifying memory I had from my past.

There was no struggle before he killed me. Just silence.

My name is Jade Winter, and today I died.

Seven days earlier.

"I'm going now!" I shouted out to my mum who was upstairs, but she didn't reply. I shrugged and then walked out the front door, closing it behind me. I continued walking, out of our fenced off front yard and onto the cement foot path.

I didn't mind walking to work, after all, it was only a five minute walk from my house to the cafe I worked at, which wasn't a long walk at all. It was quite relaxing actually. The neighbourhood I lived in had nice scenery, and wasn't too busy. We never had any problems in the three years of living here. It was rather perfect.

Although, I did spot something out of the ordinary on my walk to work that day. I noticed a tall man standing on the other side of the road, opposite my house. He was standing in the shade of the trees, so I couldn't really get a good glimpse at what his face looked like, it was almost like he was just a shadowy figure. I did however get a weird feeling that he was watching me. I felt shivers run down my spine at the thought. I squinted my eyes shit for a quick second blocking out all sunlight, and when I opened them, he was gone.

I didn't know what to think of it at first. I convinced myself that my eyes were probably just playing tricks on me, I shook the uneasy feeling off and proceeded to walk to work.

—

I'd been at work for four hours, waiting tables and serving customers. I looked up at the vintage clock on the wall and smiled when I noticed it was 4:30pm. I only had half an hour left until my shift was over.

The cafe was almost empty by this point, there were only two customers left in the shop. My heart sunk to the bottom of my stomach when I gazed over to one of the customers sitting at a table and recognised him to be the creepy man that I seen on my way to work. Even though I didn't get a good look at him earlier today, I could definitely say it was him. His slender build was the exact same, and he wore the same dark hood too. I was still having a hard time trying to get a look at his facial features.

My brother always told me that if I were ever being followed, to try my best to get a decent look at the persons face and body so that I could describe what they looked like if I ever had to. Which is exactly what I was trying to do now. But the stranger wasn't making it easy for me with his face now buried behind the newspaper he was holding in front of him.

I sighed in defeat before quietly walking into the kitchen.

"Sarah, I'm off now." I stated to my manager who smiled at me and gave me a nod. I returned her smile before taking my apron off and hanging it on the kitchen doorknob, and then made my way out of the cafe.

As I began my walk home I felt a sudden urge to turn and look behind me, and so I did.

And sure enough, there he was.

The same creepy man, slowly walking towards me with his head down.

"Shit." I murmured under my breath.

I quickly pulled my phone out of the back pocket of my denim jeans and dialled my brothers number.

I hoped more than anything that he would pick up before I was murdered.

"Hey J, everything okay?" His voice spoke with a concerned tone from the other end of the line.

"Ashton, can you please pick me up? I'm walking home from work but- someone's following me." I whispered as quietly as I could into the phone, hoping that I spoke loud enough for my brother to hear but not too loud so that the strange man following me could hear.

"I'll be right there." He exclaimed before he hung up the phone and the line went dead.

I picked up my pace a tiny bit, hoping that the stranger wouldn't notice and then begin chasing me.

I turned my head ever so slightly so I could get a glimpse of him in the corner of my eye, once I realised that he was still a bit of distance behind I turned back to watch where I was walking.

Finally I was greeted with the sound of my brothers fancy car pulling up beside me.

Thank god. I felt so much safer already.

I turned to look back at the man one last time, but he was gone. Just like last time.

I got into my brothers car and explained to him what had happened on the short drive home. I also asked him if it's possible that maybe I'm just going crazy and that my mind is making it all up, but he denied that and focused on trying to calm me down.

That night while I was sitting in bed watching The Witcher, I promised myself that I'd no longer be walking anywhere by myself for a while. Ashton offered me his car to drive to and from work for now, and I accepted.

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Chapter 1. ✔️
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