Run With Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

suddenly, my
mind quickly alert, my eyes open wide. I quickly scan the room but
see nothing, no one. I can feel the sweat soaking through my T-shirt,
my hands and forehead clammy and hot.
    I reach for my phone. No call
back from Brad. Nothing.
    It's late now, the minutes just
ticking past 3 AM. I can only have been out for a few hours.
    Another
flash and rumble, even louder than before, causes the house to
tremble. The sound of rain on the roof grows stronger, pounding
harder and harder, louder and louder. I slide to the edge of the bed
and hang my legs over the side, taking a sip of water from the glass
on the bedside table.
    My pulse is racing, my breathing
fast. I feel like I did in the movie theater, as if I'm having a
minor panic attack. I must have been dreaming, a terrible nightmare
creeping around in my head as I slept, but I can't remember.
    When I stand my legs are
slightly weak and shaky, but quickly sure up. I see the faintest of
lights through the window on the street outside, but it quickly
disappears. It's so loud I can hardly think. The rain is relentless,
the storm unyielding, booming its angry song amid the strikes of
sharp lightning outside my window.
    They come in their pairs, one
quickly followed by another. As soon as the night sky lights up with
a flash from Zeus, the thunder follows a split second later.
Lighting, thunder, lighting, thunder. And amid it all is a chorus of
rain, hitting hard on any surface it meets.
    I walk to the window and open
the curtains, my eyes drifting down to the street below. There are no
lights now in any of the houses on the opposite side of the road, no
light at all barring the faintest celestial glimmer breaking through
the storm above.
    A flash comes down again,
illuminating the street. I can see puddles, wide and deep, forming on
the tarmac of the road and in front yards, beautiful flower
formations being decimated by the force of the rain and wind.
    Another flash, and my eyes drop
to the road just outside the house, a little way down the street.
There's a car there, one that wasn't there before. I eye it closely
before the light fades once more. The sky lights up again, and I get
a better look. I can see, through the heavy rain, a wisp of
condensation rising from the back of the car. The engine's hot. The
car's just arrived.
    Once more it grows dark as the
sound of thunder cracks and fades. I keep my eyes on the car as it
disappears again into the blackness. There's no other house on this
side of the road for 100 feet or so. Why is someone parking right
there at this time?
    When the lightning flashes again
and the thunder grumbles in the heavens, I hear something else.
Another thud, closer this time, short and abrupt. It sounds like it's
coming from downstairs, timed in with the thunder.
    I sit in silence and listen, but
only the sound of rain fills my ears. Then, again, the lightning
comes, then the thunder, and I hear it. Another thud, just as the
thunder cracks.
    My pulse begins to race. There's
someone downstairs, someone breaking in.
    I creep to the door and press my
ear to it, focusing my hearing. The sound of rain is drowned out now
as I hear the lightest sound of movement, of footsteps creeping up
the stairs. They're old, they creak. With every step I hear the
bending of wood underfoot, of someone trying to move upstairs without
making a sound.
    I step back, as quietly as
possible, keeping my eyes on the door. I feel my bag at my feet and
pick it up, grabbing my phone and dropping it into my pocket.
Carefully I pull on the zip, winding it across the top of the bag and
locking it up, and all the while my eyes keep staring at the door, my
ears keep searching for any sound beyond it.
    But amid the incessant patter of
rain and the frequent crashes of thunder, I hear nothing. I move to
the window, walking backwards for fear of turning from the door. When
I reach it I open it up, and the world grows suddenly louder.
Splashes of rain jump into me off the window sill as