Nightmare Shift: Part 3 of 3

treklord

3

Jane’s fear was absolutely palpable.
She could do nothing but run. And that was what she had been doing for what seemed like an eternity. She knew her pursuer was close behind but she could not over-ride her fear and will herself to turn her head around and see what size of a lead she had. It took everything she had just to keep running.

Running on the verge of exhaustion she was bumping into walls and almost lost her balance several times. It was just the fear of being caught by whoever it was that was chasing her that spurred her on. She picked up her pace again as she thought she felt hot breath on the back of her neck and raced across the road dodging and weaving between the passing cars that swerved, with a squeal of protesting rubber and tyre smoke, to avoid her.

She dove down an alleyway, knocking over bins left out by the business owners for disposal the following morning as she passed as possible barriers to this pursuer. One alleyway led to another then to another and soon she found herself lost in this urban maze. She sensed, rather than felt, her pursuer gain on her with every step he took and, with a mighty effort of will, she forced herself to turn her head to see how far behind her the pursuer was, and indeed to find out who he was. But when she turned her head around she saw that she was alone in the alley. She let out a deep sigh of relief -

And ran straight into the brick wall at the end of the alley.

She picked herself up slowly from the ground, head reeling from the impact with the wall. She brought her hand up to her nose, which ached mightily, and when she brought it back down it was covered in blood. It took her stunned mind a moment to realise what had happened and then she began to look at the wall he had run into. It was about ten foot high and stretched from one side of the alley right across to the far side, completely blocking it off.

‘Aw hell!’ she said as she realised that she would not be able to climb the wall to get away. It was only then that she remembered why she was here. She turned slowly, as her fear stole back over her body, to check the alleyway for her pursuer.

But the alley was empty except for the bins she had knocked over during her flight. It was then that she heard the sound behind her. She turned slowly, her blood moving like a glacier through her veins, and found herself facing the wall again. But this time there was something else there. Her vision had tunnelled during her flight, looking at only what was before her that could help or hinder her escape. A foul-smelling, dirt encrusted dumpster hove into view as her eyes readjusted.

Checking the alley behind her and finding it still empty she made the only choice she could – she jumped into the dumpster and proceeded to cover herself with its contents. Jane’s protective sense began to run at hyper-fast speed. She sensed that her call for help had been received and that the police were already on the way. It was only a matter of time now before she was rescued. She had to remain undetected until they found her. She realised now that leaving the alley behind the bar had been a mistake but she was also confident that the police could follow the route she had taken with little difficulty because of the mayhem she had caused. So she buried herself as far under the trash as she could squirm her body. Even though she couldn’t see the alley from where she lay in the dumpster, she knew that the man had followed her into the alley and was now moving slowly towards the dumpster at the far end, checking each and every hiding place as he moved.
Jane tried to control her breathing and her stampeding heart. The last thing she wanted to do now was to start vomiting from the God-awful smell that she was immersed in, so she began breathing through her mouth. She knew that what was happening was extraordinary and that she should be afraid, considering that she had run into this alley in fear of her life, but strangely she wasn’t. Her fear tank was running on empty and would take a while to refill.

She could hear the man’s quiet footsteps slowly approach her hiding place. Knowing it was a dead end, her pursuer was taking his time making sure he searched all of the possible hiding places and also because he knew that the more time that passed before he finally found her, the greater her terror would be, making her death all the sweeter.

While Jane remained concealed beneath the trash, hoping beyond hope that the police would arrive in time, she let her mind wander back over the encounter with the man behind the bar. She tried to figure out firstly, why he had thought that she was Elaine, and secondly, why he would want to hurt her.

It was then that the hand reached into the dumpster, gripped her arm in a vice-like grip and lifted her out. Jane screamed in terror. She had thought that he was further up the alleyway by following his soft footfalls. The man grinned his wicked grin again and dropped her to the ground. Jane noted, with a rising hope, that he was breathing a little harder than he had been earlier. As terrifying as he might be, he was still only human. Looking up at him from where she had been dumped on the ground, Jane saw that he still held her mobile phone in his hand and that it was still active. She smiled inwardly as her hope rose to a new level. She knew that she had to delay him only a few more minutes. The rising wail of the approaching police sirens proved that to her.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Jane screamed at the still grinning man, knowing the 911 dispatcher would also be listening. “What did I ever do to you?”

“You know exactly what you did to me Elaine!” he sneered, a sudden angry look crossed his face. Gathering his thoughts again, his features re-formed into the maniacal smile once again. “You shouldn’t have left me! I love you, Elaine!”

“I’m not Elaine!” she shouted back at him, “I’m Jane. Her friend!”

This statement had the desired effect. A confused look passed across his features as his troubled mind processed the possibility that she was telling the truth. This alley had more light than the one behind the bar and he weaved from one foot to the other to study her features. Jane held her breath. Any sudden movement would be fatal. She had to find a way to prolong his confusion to allow the police to get closer. Trawling the depths of her memory for any clues as to this guys identity Jane suddenly recalled her and Elaine’s first weekend in America. They had gone out for the night to the bar that they were going to be working in to get a feel for the atmosphere there and to celebrate their freedom. There were finished with school and they were living (and working) away from home for the first time in their young lives.

Being new faces in the bar that night, word had quickly spread that they were Irish girls and they had been chatted up by every guy there. One guy in particular had hovered around Elaine all night. He had seemed to Jane, a little peculiar. He seemed to have fixated on Elaine and had even started a fight with a guy he had earlier warned away. Elaine had taken him to the dance floor to break up the fight and because she was secretly thrilled that she had been fought over. As bright as a supernova, his name flashed into her consciousness.

“Adam,” Jane said as the name registered in her mind.

Taken aback, as much as Rumplestiltskin, by the mentioning of his name, Adam recoiled from Jane as if she had struck him. Seeing that she had him rattled, Jane went on the offensive.

“Elaine only danced with you to stop you from beating up that other guy. She never liked you! She thought that you were a creep!” Jane stepped closer to Adam as she pressed home her verbal attack. “She even called you a freak!”

“No, no she didn’t! She loves me!” he stammered back.

Jane found a new inner strength surge through her as the first of almost a dozen police cars skidded to a screeching halt at the mouth of the alley, disgorging their armed occupants that immediately ordered Adam to the ground and proceeded to hand-cuff him.

Sitting safely in the back of a police cruiser five minutes later, wrapped in a blanket given to her by a paramedic and sipping coffee from a polystyrene cup, Jane’s exhaustion finally crumbled the defences of her newly found strength. She realised how close she had come to death. The police had found and removed a large hunting style knife from the waistband of Adam’s pants. They had been convinced that had they not arrived when they did, he would have used it on Jane, as he had previously used it on several other women, two of which had later died of their injuries.

Jane buried her head into the blanket and cried. The tears took Jane’s tiredness with them as they flowed down her cheeks and, thanking God for sparing her, she felt more alive than she had ever felt before.

The End

swimfan

did you write that??

because its really really good well done.

treklord

yep.

thanks

BEAT

I really enjoyed it, it had my heart racing a bit as well.

I am going to guess that you are new at writing?
there were just a few places I noticed that could have been phrased better, the story line seemed familiar somehow, like I have heard it before somewhere...but I really enjoyed it.

I hope you will share more with us

Shad0r

Enjoyable. Keep up the good work.