Barbara's Jog

Barbara was running down the street. She was actually jogging for fun. When she was about to be at her street she stopped to change the song on her phone. By the time Barbara found a song she wanted to listen to, the view in front of her finally caught her attention. A man was busy moving his arm from side to side inside a car window. The man turned around at the same time as picking up what turned out to be a large kitchen knife, covered in blood. The blade reflected some light at Barbara and she looked up. Her eyes connected with the murderers eyes.

Barbara turned around and bolted back up the street. She looked back and the murderer was only a few meters behind her. She ran towards the next intersection, but halfway down a man got out of his car. When Barbara heard the man yell out behind her, she reluctantly looked behind herself, again. This time the hooded murderer was standing over the man from the car, the blood was once again dripping from the blade, and the wielder locked eyes with Barbara for the second time.

Barbara took off down the new street before the hooded figure was able to step over his second victim. This time when she noticed an old woman sitting outside, she paused. Looking back, she silently took off again when the hooded pursuer turned the corner. When a gurgling sound reached Barbara's ears she turned around and saw another horrible scene. Barbara took it in for just a second before turning back and running towards a new intersection. She was now getting tired and it showed in her distance. When the murderer turned the corner she was barely halfway down the street. After crossing the street and heading towards the next right she tried to run. She mentally screamed when she failed to attain the same speed as before. She looked behind herself and saw the hooded man catching up. When she heard something in front of her she turned back around to the front and almost ran into a random man.

"Please, sir, he is after me!" Barbara screamed at the random man.

The man thought he was a match for the hooded figure, but after a few swipes the good samaritan was bleeding out on the ground. Barbara was able to get to the next road and took another right. She was now turned around and wasn't sure of where she was, but she never stopped running. She didn't want this to lead this guy to her house so she ordered a taxi. It was to pick her up a little over a mile south of where she was. Barbara lured herself into a false sense of security as she ran. She never saw the murderer the rest of way.

After she made the last turn Barbara slowed her pace, but kept looking back. She completely felt secure when more people started to show up on either side of the street. Barbara even started to pay attention to the song that was playing. It felt like forever since she had stopped to change the song just a few moments ago.

Barbara took in her whereabouts and realized she was only a few streets from her house. She now felt stupid with the taxi coming and she quickly canceled her ride. She then headed home. The first few streets were full of people, and cars. There was even a cop. She didn't stop and relay her experience because, to her, it was over now. She just walked right by the park police car. When her turn came up to turn down the street she stopped to find a song.

Somehow Barbara had forgotten about the hooded figure. It became a figment of her imagination and couldn't hurt her, apparently. Except the hooded figure was lurking outside her apartment building. He blended into the shadows quite well, but she could see him. She would have been able to see him in a dark room with the lights off. She stopped. Then she turned to run.

"Barbara!" The hooded figure called out.

Seeing it as a taunt, Barbara ran for the police. It felt almost instantaneous that the figure was on her. She fought with all her might. She got lucky and landed a good hit on the murderer's nose. Barbara took off, again. With a clean break from the man she found her fire, once again, and flew down the street. A mother, with her child, came out of a house and Barbara had 5 steps to decide what to do.

"Get back inside and lock the doors," Barbara yelled at the woman, "You have to save your precious baby!"

A split second passed before Barbara grabbed the child and ran. She had no train of thought to try and reason with the mother why she had to run. Now Barbara was being chased by a woman, and then a murderer. The child was a baby, so despite only being able to scream, knew something was not right. The woman chased after Barbara screaming "My Baby!" all the way to the next intersection.

There was no one around when Barbara reached the intersection and turned to the mother. The mother had an extremely mad face as she screamed "Give me my baby!", but it quickly changed as she felt a long knife pierce her back. She went to scream out, but the hooded figure was faster with his knife over her throat. The gurgling once again traveled to Barbara's ears and she ran towards the busier street she could see through an alley. She was quickly grabbed, baby thrown aside, and had a familiar raspy voice invade her ear.

"You thought you could run and hide from me?" Jason's voice was the last thing she heard as her ex-husband plunged his knife into her, over and over.