The Runner | Page 3 The Runner: Page 3 Page: 1 2 3 Short Story (continued) Suddenly I tripped again but this time I landed head first in the gravel. My nose bled, my eye swelled, my teeth were now loosed by the impact of the dead ground on my face. The reason for my fall this time was not an inanimate object like the fall from before but this time it came from the keeper of the alley. A skinny man with a runners build smiled behind his coat and hat. His face was dark and his eyes had no life in them. He knelt down to look me in the eye. I almost missed what he said because I was still taking inventory of my injuries. Through my sobs and his smokey voice I heard him say, "You were ever a runner, if you were you wouldn't run here." I believed him and began to destroy the beautiful images of mountains and streams and the ocean. I slowly took my past and erased my memories one by one. Then the figure said to me, "you belong here." I cried and cursed the one that told me to run. I began to accept the fact that I belonged in that dead alley, that the smell of the concrete canyon was actually coming from me. I accepted and cried all the louder. When my sobs began to weaken I heard someone else in the alley. But it wasn't the figure and it wasn't any of the dead things in the deep ravine. "Keep running." My tears pace slowed down my bloody cheeks. "Keep running." Again I look at the feet of the keeper and was convinced that he hadn't said anything. "Keep Running." I recognized the voice and realized that it was the one that had told me to run in the first place. My sobs had now been silenced and I heard what I had been waiting to hear since I stepped into that dark place. "Keep Running." I knew he had not ever left me, that he was there that he had been with me all along. That I had been crying so long and loud that I couldn't hear his voice, that he had actually had been speaking to me the whole time. "Keep Running!" I heard it again and responded, "what if my wounds are too deep? "Keep Running!" He said again and then I felt my wounds mending. It wasn't sudden and I wasn't completely healed but I knew that he had begun to mend my broken bones and torn skin. "What if I there is no end to this alley?" "Keep Running!" Those soft words filled my mind with reasons to go on. My heart began to beat like a runner again. I was overwhelmed with the images of streams and rivers and trees and the sky and stars and his love for me. I realized that those weren't the reason I ran. I wanted the Prize! I wanted to cross the finish line and see the one that sent me on this race and embrace him. I wanted to cry the champion's tears, I wanted to see the finish line and hear that I ran the race well. A smile crawled across my face and tears began to form in my eyes not from pain but from the joy that I was indeed a runner and that the one that had sent me to run wanted me to continue, that he believed in me and wanted to see me run again. I slowly rose to meet the dark figures eyes that still were full of death and sadness. His face said give up but as I slowly stood, I spit out loosed teeth, and began running, I began Running! In my ears I heard the prize and reason I ran yelling, KEEP RUNNING! KEEP RUNNING! KEEP RUNNING! And so I ran. - finis - Page: 1 2 3 © BFC Studios. All rights reserved.