Interior Monologue

The crowd was walking slowly towards the exit of the school. The play had just ended and there were families waiting patiently to meet up with their loved ones who participated in it. A flurry of cast members came rushing in, girls in bright poofy dresses and boys wearing full tuxes, all searching for their friends and family, laughing and joking excitedly. Their cheeks—even some of the boys’—were flushed and rosy from the excitement.
I smiled and turned to look ahead to find that there was only one set of doors open instead of all four. Odd, but I thought nothing of it and continued with the crowd shuffling out. Eventually, I noticed a man near the open door, standing apart from the peaceful mob. He wasn’t dressed like everyone else: wearing
The world around me seemed to slow down. The low mumble of everyone in the hallway seemed to be muffled, or was it just my imagination? A chill went up my spine and the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. An overwhelming instinct told me to stay within the crowd and get out of that room as soon as possible. Away from the man. I looked down at my shoes and stumbled forward, trying not to raise attention towards myself. The crowd gently pushed and pulled, like calm waves in the ocean. I held my bag close to my waist, feeling my phone’s outline in the pocket. Once I was finally outside, I was aware of a new problem. The
I then yanked my hands free and stomped on a foot and I ran. I ran as fast as my long legs could go, kicking off my heeled shoes as I could run faster without them. There were yelps of pain from behind me. I didn’t look back. I could hear the patter of echoing footsteps running to catch up to me. I sprinted, but I realized that I had nowhere to go. My car was in the other direction and I couldn’t outrun them, so I had to lose them some other way. My mind racing, I looked down and I saw a big tree root that had grown its way through the cracked pavement, but it was too late. I attempted to jump over the root but my foot caught on a jagged crack in the cement, and I went down.
I stumbled and fell, scraping my hands and knees on the sideway. My nose bleeding from landing on my face. The footfalls got louder. GET UP! Get up and keep running! I will not die like this today! They caught up to me before I could try to evade their grasping hands. I tried to defend myself from my pursuers, kicking and screaming into the black velvet night. I punched and clawed at my attackers, but a foul smelling cloth was clamped over my nose and