Zuryia's Sprint

Zuriya sprinted past alleyways and junkies in the street, her heart racing, her feet bruised, cut up, and bare, pounding the metal grating on the street. She looked behind her. She couldn’t see him, but she could feel him, like a shadow just come over you. He was not far behind, he never was. She took off again, down a side-alley, trying to zig-zag and loose him in the crowd. It was impossible to tell in the tunnels, but it was hign noon. The bazaar was full of merchants, and shoppers browsing their wares. She slipped through a gathering of them and kept moving. Her pursuer was out of sight, but she could still feel him, his ominous, oppressive presence like a fog at the back of her mind, off in the direction she had come, nearly at the throng of shoppers, now. She turned down another alleyway, this one ending in stairs leading lower into the city. The room she stepped into was a half-floor down, and filled with crowds. The main mall. She walked towards the other edge of the room, through the crowds, toward what she hoped was another exit. Midway through the crowds, she felt his presence enter. She didn’t need to look back to know. She didn’t dare look back. She passed through an open walled building selling coats and stole one as she walked out. Hood up, not wearing hospital scrubs, she hoped she could get away unseen. She spotted an exit through the crowds, not ten meters away. As she started towards it, she felt his presence sense her. He began walking in her direction. Long, graceful strides, as if his feet never had to touch the ground, but rather he glided across the floor. She walked faster, heart beating in her chest again, beating loud in their ears. 3 meters to the door, and he was almost at her heels. The Coat shop was the last thing standing between them. He came around the corner just as she passed through the doorway. She stood to the side, hiding behind the frame, not daring to breathe, nor even think. Outside the door, she heard him approach. He slipped between the last crowd of people, looking in her direction, looking for her scent. She wouldn’t exhale. For a full minute, they stood like that, neither moving. Watching. Waiting. From the mall came a crash and a shout, a lucky break for her. The source didn’t matter. Her pursuer turned to follow the noise and she was up the stairs, out of danger, for now. They would catch her, she knew. They would never stop looking. She could never be free. She knew that, too.