Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

I ran and I ran, it felt as though my heart was going to burst through my chest. My head was pounding and my breath fell heavily. I could taste blood in my mouth even though it wasn’t there. All I could think was what just happened? How on earth was I going to fix this? There was no escape from the future that now lay before me.
I stopped running and used a large tree to hold myself up. I heard something coming up behind me. My ears were roaring as I feared what the forest was about to produce. A bird flew from a bush and I crouched low, using the dusky night to hide me. My pursuer passed through the bush and burst into the clearing. I tried to hold my breath so he wouldn’t hear me. He flashed his flashlight over my face, but I remained unnoticed. He moved on and I relaxed. It seemed as though I melted into the earth. I thought back to earlier in the evening. It was a warm night, perfect for the hike I was taking with my co-workers. I walked with the usual group. We were laughing and talking about stress at work. I suddenly remembered I had left a bagel in the oven in my rush to get ready. I had to go back to keep my house from catching fire. I turned and explained to myself to Sarah, and then I began my trudging walk back up the hill to town. I cut through a few back yards in order to save time in getting to my house. Just then I heard a loud crash. A car had slammed into a light pole. The man spilled out of the car onto the curb.
Without giving my house a second thought, I rushed over to help him sit up. He was bruised all over and his head was bleeding badly. His clothes were filthy and torn. I asked him if he was alright, but he just kept mumbling something about a book. He just repeated take the book, please, don’t let him catch you with it. I was convinced he was delusional from the crash. I decided I would go to the nearest house for help. I ran and knocked on the door, no answer. The sun was fading quickly and the man wasn’t going to last much longer. I moved on to the next house and a little old lady came to the door. I asked her if I could use her phone and dashed into her house behind her. 9-1-1 the buttons beeped and I shakily pulled the receiver close. “Operator” the woman on the other end came through. I explained what had happened and where I was.
I thanked the old lady and back to help the man. As I got to the end of her walkway I saw someone else there with him. A big man towered over him. He was holding him by the collar. He was close to his face but still screaming, “Where is the book?” He hurled obscenities at him then threw him onto the sidewalk. His head crashed against it with a sickening thud. The big man tore through the crumpled car until he found a rough brown book. He turned around with a snicker and pulled out a pistol. It had a silencer on the end which led me to believe this wouldn’t be the first time he had used it. He aimed and shot the man in the chest. I let out a gasp before I could stop it. I dove behind the old stone wall at the end of the drive way. The whole time I was praying he hadn’t seen me, but he had. I bent low and ran through the old lady’s back yard until I came to the back wall. I leapt over the wall and found myself in the woods. I stood up and saw a bullet shatter the back on the tree next to my head. I ran as fast as I could, dodging braches, rocks, holes, branches, hole, rock, hole, hole. Down I fell. I felt my ankle twisting right before I fell into a tumble. I swallowed the cry of pain that had welled up in my throat. I got up to run some more. With every step I shed a tear. The pain was excruciating, I felt like I couldn’t go on. So here I lie. Fearing for my life, wondering about that book and why it’s so important. Yet at the same time, I want nothing to do with it.
I bolted up from my resting place, I have to get to the police and tell them what I saw. I reach up and grab the tree to pull myself off the ground. I look above the trees in the direction of town and I see the cloud of smoke streaming up from where my house once stood. I smelled the burning, but I thought I was too far away to smell it. I heard the chambering of a round behind me and spun around. There stood the big man, with the gun in his hand and a cigarette in his mouth. He through the cigarette to the ground and pulled the trigger. Instead of the bang of the gun, I hear a telephone ringing. I sleepily answer. It’s Sarah, asking me to go with her on a hike. I get up and get ready to go with her. I turn on the news and walk to my bedroom. I dressed while the reported drones on about some fugitive, armed and dangerous, but I wasn’t worried, after all this is the suburbs. I walk to the kitchen and put a bagel in the oven…