Sunday, June 20, 2010

To Run

This is inspired by Willow's Magpie Tales #19 @ http://magpietales.blogspot.com/
Photo credit: Willow
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Sara didn’t know which way to turn. Her scarf fluttered in the mid-day, summer breeze that swept through the forest. Her feet and ankles ached from the distance she had already run in her tie-up sandals. Why had she worn them this morning instead of sturdy running shoes? Cursing herself, she listened for sounds and scanned the area around her, looking for red, shaking with shock. Where was he? Had she really seen what she thought she’d seen? How far was she from her car?




Driving through the Utah mountains on small highways, Sara was taking the long route to Park City, Utah, where her best friend was waiting. She had pulled off from the highway to break up her trip, stretch her legs, have a quick bite to eat, and read a book for a few minutes. The sun shone warm through the trees, the sandwich she’d picked up earlier was delicious, the book a well-earned treat. Then she looked up from reading and saw something red moving in the trees. She watched it, trying to identify what it was.



Sara stood and walked through the forest, towards the red, her vision focusing on the distant object---a man wearing a red shirt. He moved his arms purposefully, gesturing towards another, smaller man standing in front of him. Sara could tell that they were arguing about something. She couldn’t hear all of their words, but picked out “stop,” “money,” and “don’t” from their distant shouting.



She watched the man in red carefully remove a large switchblade from the pocket of his shorts. He held it down against his leg and opened it slowly with one hand. When the other man turned to walk away, the man in red grabbed him by his shoulder and hugged him, plunging the knife into his gut, pulling upwards. The man yelled out, his mouth open, his face a mask of shock. Sara screamed. The man in red turned and saw her. Without thinking, Sara began to run.

13 comments:

  1. I feel like a cliff-hanger! Please, do tell the rest... A brilliant Magpie.

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  2. wow! talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time, will she get away safely?
    nice magging!

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  3. oh yikes is right...cliff hanging Magpie.

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  4. You go, mystery writer you!! ;) I want to hear the rest of the story now...

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  5. That's pretty chilling. Nice Magpie!

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  6. whew...shivers...i would run as well...no one wins in a knife fight...nice magpie!

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  7. Way real!!!!! Wow! Well written Magpie!

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  8. In the woods with a view -- scary!

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  9. Very frightening. I hope I don't see any men in red shirts today! I especially enjoyed how you gave the story a sinister feel even before we are aware of the truly sinister ending (boy am I glad you left it there).

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  10. Hi!
    I like the pace of this excerpt, gets my interest and keeps it. Good work.

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  11. Brilliant Magpie! The ending leaves the reader to fill it in for themself. Cool.

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