THEIR RUNAWAY BRIDE

I ran and ran till my feet felt like giving up, and I wasn't ready to.

No, not this time; never.

I have been running all my life, and this is kind of like something I'm used to now.

But this time it's different; the villain is catching up to me, and if I don't think fast, I think that will be the end of it.

No, I'm not giving up just like that.

I haven't gone this far just to be cast out like this.

I kept turning from one corner to another, not even caring where it would lead me.

I kept on and on until I finally reached a row of houses.

I didn't take time to study them at first, but when I saw the first gate that was opened, I rushed into the house without even thinking twice.

I was trying to find a place to hide when I saw two children, a boy, and a girl, and they were all staring at me as if I had fallen from the sky or something.

"Listen here; will you play a game with me?" I asked.

They both nodded as if they had been awaiting my question all this time.

"Ok, it's a hide-and-seek game; I will hide, and you will be the ones to seek me out," I try to explain.

"I will hide with you, and then Tonny will seek," the little girl says.

"No, you both will seek me." I try to argue with her.

"No, I want to hide with you. I want to hide with you." She keeps jumping up and down.

I can hear him coming closer by the second, and my heart is about to fall out of my chest.

No, not again; not this time.

"Ok, listen, Tonny, whatever happens, don't come looking for us till you count 1000, and don't tell anyone where we are, ok?" I say.

He nodded, closed his eyes, and started to count.

I tried to find a place to hide in the meantime and escape as soon as I could, and I spotted a little corridor by the side of the house and rushed over.

I had forgotten about the little creature until she started calling out to me to wait for her.

I picked her up and rushed into the corridor.

Not long after I entered, the gate opened again, and then his voice echoed.

"I know you are in here," he calls out.

"Who are you?" Little Tonny asks.

I am now feeling guilty about living with a poor child out there, but then again, he won't harm him.

His only target is me. He is only assigned to get me and no one else.

"Shall we play a game?" the little girl asks.

Can't she stop talking for a while?

I let go of her and tried to find an escape route.

"I am Lily; what is your name?" she asks.

Goodness! This girl is surely going to expose me.

"Keethana, I know you are in here, so you better come out before I come to find you," he says in a sing-song voice.

I know he is just trying to guess; he is not sure I'm in here, and he will leave as long as he does not find any evidence of me being here.

"Who are you?" Tonny asks again, but he doesn't even acknowledge him.

"You should get out before I call Mom," he adds.

"Listen, kid, I want you to answer me. Has anyone come in here recently?" he asks.

I didn't hear the boy say anything.

"Don't lie to me; good boys don't lie," he says.

"I am telling the truth," Tonny says.

Good boy.

There was a bit of silence until Lily decided to break it.

"Is he also playing with us?" she asks.

Goodness! I don't want to get caught today, but it seems like she is intent on making it happen.

I just nodded my head.

I tried to look for a possible escape, but I couldn't find one. All the walls are too high for me to jump off.

I knelt in front of the girl.

"Listen here, I am going to check if they are coming to get us; all you have to do is wait for me here," I whisper to her.

It seems like this time she has finally gotten the gist, as she nodded.

"Good girl," I say, and I pat her on the head.

I slowly walk over to the edge of the corridor and take a peek at the two.

He is still standing there, checking to see if there is any sign of me being in here.

"Keethana, this is your last chance; just come out, and we'll make this much easier," he calls out again.

He stood there for about ten minutes while Tonny kept on counting to 1000.

He starts walking to the gate.

Maybe he has figured I might not be in here.

I sat down on the bare floor, letting out a huge sigh of relief.

At least this would buy me some time before I found another place to escape to.

But what I didn't expect was

"Yay! He's leaving; we have finally won!" little Lily shouts at the top of her tongue, and let me tell you, even someone from Mars could hear her.

That's it; I'm done.

My breath got caught up in my lungs.

What am I going to do now?

I need to find an escape route before he finally gets to me.

But it seemed like I was too late, and the next thing I felt was someone grabbing my hair so hard that I'm sure some strands must have been tugged off.

"Ahhh!" I scream.

"You b*tch, you think you can hide away from me; well, now I've got you," he says, still pulling me by the hair.

"Hey! Let go of my new friend." Little Lily tries to beat him off, but seeing the brutal look on his face, she stands back.

"Let go of me, you monster." I tried to pull away, but I was doing more harm than good to myself.

F*ck! My head hurts so badly.

"I guess I'm going to be paid double the amount I was promised after all the troubles you have caused me," he says.

What trouble have I caused him?

He has been on my tail for the past twenty-four hours.

He pulls me out of the corridor.

"Hey, let go of my new friend or I'll call mommy," the little girl threatened again.

Tonny has also stopped counting and is now looking at the scene unfolding in front of him.

If this girl keeps on talking like that, I'm not so certain if he will spare her.

"Come on, take me already," I threaten him.

I don't want these children's lives to be scarred forever, so I won't want them to face any brutality at this young stage in life.

He smiles at me with his crooked face—not a pleasing smile, though, but a devilish one.

"Go on inside; I'll be back soon, and we'll continue with our game," I tell the children.

"But I don't want..."

"Tonny, be a brave boy and take your sister inside," I ordered the boy, and he obeyed.

I can't believe that in less than ten minutes, I have grown close to these kids, and I'm already afraid of losing them.

I watched them as they walked back into their house and closed the door.

The man tugged at my hair and pulled me out of the house.

"You sure are one nasty sl*t, you know, and sneaky; if I had not been asked to bring you alive, I would have killed you already," he keeps on cursing.

I wasn't paying attention to any of his insults as I was looking for a way out, and finally, I got one.

Without wasting any time, I grabbed the little knife from his pocket and stabbed it into his thigh.

He screamed so loudly that my eardrums felt like they were flying out.

"You b*tch!" he screamed and let go of me, but I didn't let go.

I kept on piercing the knife into his thigh.

As soon as I pulled it out, blood started oozing out and splashing all over my body.

He screamed in agony, but I do not care, not now.

I closed my eyes and kept on stabbing at him with the knife, every which way.

He was shouting and screaming and begging, but I don't care.

I finally stopped when I felt that he had stopped moving.

Ever so slowly, I opened my eyes.

"Ha!" I screamed and fell back, throwing the knife aside.

I can't believe I didn't do that to a human being, and that too in broad daylight.

His face and chest have been completely disfigured by my stabbing, and I am covered in his blood.

I have seen so much bloodshed in my life, but not as much as this one—me staining myself with someone's blood.

But there is no time to agonize.

I'm sure they must have found out he is down now, and soon they will be sending another one.