He was running.
Running was what he did best. He was the faster runner on the cross country team. He could outrun anyone.
But not her.
He couldn’t remember why he was being chased. All he knew is that he had to run as fast as possible. If he ran, he could escape. He recalled what the woman at the fair had told him.
He had to escape.
Everyone else was trapped. But he could be free. From what he was trapped, he didn’t know. But being trapped wasn’t usually a good thing.

He was running. A quick glance over his shoulder and he saw the flash of white blonde hair. He pushed himself farther and faster.
Avoiding tree after tree, he looked back to the girl. She was beautiful. Long white blonde hair, deep chocolate colored eyes, and lips as red as blood made him almost stop just to look at her closely.
But he couldn’t. He had to run. He had to escape.
His feet were as graceful as a gazelle and as fast as a cheetah as he sprinted under the canopy. His footsteps rang loud and clear. But he could barely hear hers. She sometimes almost caught up to him and began to run next to him. Then she looked to him with a keen smile and held out her hand.
He continued to run and started to reach for her hand, as if in a trance. Somehow he broke it and began to run faster than he’d every run before. She ran beside him keeping in step with him. He looked at her again.
She wasn’t smiling.
She was glaring at him.
He ran faster.

The dark canopy opened up to a bright field of pale yellow grass, which seemed like it was crying for water. In the middle of the field was a blue wall, translucent but still blue. It looked like the color of his soft contact lenses when they sat in his hand.
He still ran.
The grass was short and much easier to run through. He created a breeze as he ran by and the grass began to deteriorate before his eyes. He turned to look as the bits of yellow grass that formed a mini tornado in the wind.
Suddenly, the tornado spilt in two and the girl, with her blonde hair whipping in the wind like a snake ready to strike, walked through the glare still on her face.
He ran faster but he tripped. He landed of the hard ground right in front of the translucent wall.
The girl was still walking toward him, hair whipping in the wind and the grass tornado seemed to follow. She held out her hand as she walked and a devious smile appeared.
He, still lying on the ground, scooted backward until he reached the blue wall. But when he reached it he realized it was no wall.
It was a portal.
His hand went straight through the wall. He stifled a cry and looked at the girl one more time.
Her face was contorted with anger, her fists were clenched, and she was shaking with rage. She forced her hand out closer to him.
He wanted to grab her hand.
But somehow he knew that it was a bad idea. He pushed himself deeper into the portal.
The girl’s eyes flared and she lunged toward him. He escaped through the portal completely. He could still see her, beating her fists against the blue wall. For some reason she could not enter. She shrieked and the sound rung in his ears. He stood up and turned toward the new world he was in.
It was gray. And blank. It was a flat surface of dying plants with stumps strewn about the place like someone has thrown them there, not caring of what would happen to them.
He didn’t know what to do. What was this world? Was this the future? Or had it already happened?
He didn’t know what to do.
So he ran.