Here's a part of a story of mine.

Cold gray walls. Lights flooding the darkness. Rapid footsteps barely audible over the barrage of raised voices. This is what the girl saw and heard as she was running for her life.
As she ran, she reflected on the prospect. If she was caught, chances were that they wouldn’t kill her, but she’d be good as dead anyway. She would be at their mercy. A shiver went down her spine. They had none.
The girl turned into the next hallway. She allowed herself to feel just a little relief as the double-doored exit came into view. It was almost a good thing that she had been found out near the start of her mission. If it had happened when she was farther inside, she would’ve been caught for sure.
But even now, there was no guarantee that she’d make it out.
Sprinting, the girl drew closer to the exit. The voices had died down, replaced by the drumbeat of footfalls. She could no longer tell how close her pursuers were, and as threw the doors open, she only cared that she seemed to have a decent lead.
As she burst out into the chilly night air, a bright flash filled her view. Her vision obscured, the girl swerved to avoid where it had come from. She heard different footsteps now. Softer on grass than on the hard floor. But closer, she realized with panic. Much too close.
A hand seized her by the hair.
A yelp of pain escaped her lips. She twisted, blindly striking out with her left fist. Her captor merely grabbed her wrist.
“Oh, you’re not going anywhere,” he said, his voice dangerously smooth.
The girl could hear the other footsteps getting louder, a countdown to her doom. Her eyes darted frantically, looking for a way of escape. Her eyes settled on something hanging from the man’s neck. She quickly looked away so he wouldn’t know that she had seen it. A camera. With the flash on, no doubt. If she could just-
The voices were back again, blending in with each other. Some of the anger had dropped. They knew that she had been caught.
In one desperate move, the girl grabbed the camera with her free hand, angled it up toward the man’s face, and pressed the button. Once again, a flash filled the night. The man cried out, and his grip tightened. Dropping the camera, the girl then swung her right fist at him and was rewarded with the impact of hitting his head. He grunted and, this time, his grip loosened. Instantly, she was off again, with only a few spots playing across her vision this time.
She heard the man grunt again, and quickly sidestepped him as he tried to tackle her. She picked up the pace. When the voices faded, she didn’t stop. Even when she felt she could go no further, she didn’t stop.
That had been way too close, the girl thought. She could only hope that she would be that lucky next time.
-
Shayla had always heard that it was one of the hardest things in the world to begin. She fully disagreed with that; right now, the hardest thing for her was to end what she had started.
The girl slowly turned a 360, her head darting back and forth, searching the woods around her for any movement at all. There was none, and if it wasn’t for the birds chirping all around her, the scene would have been more than a little eerie. The sound of a twig snapping made her jump, and, hiding behind a tree, she was glad it wasn’t night.
Well, technically,
she didn’t start it. It was Blake’s idea. Shayla had merely agreed to go along with it after he almost begged her to join. No, “beg” wasn’t the right word. Blake never begged. He had just asked her a couple times before she gave in, knowing that she didn’t have anything better to do.
Now that she thought about it, Shayla
could think of other things she could’ve done if she hadn’t joined his game. She could’ve gone home and worked on her schoolwork. Or she could’ve watched her backyard to see the squirrels burying their nuts for the winter. And what about-
“Gotcha!” Someone fell from the trees above her and slapped his hand on her shoulder. Taken by complete surprise, Shayla screamed and staggered back. The roots of the tree she was hiding behind found their way behind her feet, and she fell backwards, landing hard on her bottom.
The triumphant look on Blake’s face turned to one of genuine concern as he held out his hand to her. “Gosh, sorry, Shayla,” he said. “Didn’t mean to scare you like that. You okay?”
“I’m more or less fine,” she replied, taking his hand. With her friend’s help, she got back on her feet. “I told you I’m no good at things like this,” she said, sighing.
“You? Not good? No way!” Blake said, trying to sound encouraging. “I couldn’t find you for a full five minutes! That’s a new record, isn’t it?”
Shayla’s frown deepened. She tucked a curly lock of black hair behind her ear. The game they had been playing was like a more intense game of hide and seek. The object was to keep yourself hidden while trying to find the other person as well. She had played it once before and failed almost just as badly. That was the reason why she had insisted before that she didn’t want to do it.
Seeing that his word of encouragement didn’t help much, Blake shook his head. “Well, um…” He fumbled for what to say next. “Do you want to play something else, or…” He left the sentence unfinished and open to her suggestions.
Shayla took a few deep breaths and looked at the tree tops. “I should really be getting home,” she said absentmindedly. “I really should get started on my homework before the day ends.” In truth, she wasn’t up for any more games, but she didn’t feel like telling Blake that right now. She just wanted another excuse, and homework seemed like a good candidate.
“Alright, then,” Blake replied, running his hand over his spiky, unkempt blond hair. “I guess I’ll be heading home as well.” He turned around and walked away. Shayla followed close behind, knowing that he was far more coordinated in these woods than she was.
Before she knew it, they stepped out into the blaring sunlight. Shayla squinted at the brightness, and soon felt her nose itch. She tried to hold it in, but the inevitable sneeze came out unpermitted. “Bless you,” Blake said, and Shayla nodded her thanks. She was about to start heading back to her house when she saw her.
Lydia was there, in her house across the street, watching them from the window. She had a look of intense thought, as well as a scowl that darkened her face. She seemed to be looking directly at them. Shayla blinked. Had she been watching them this whole time? No, there was no possible way to see through all those trees. Besides, there was no reason for Lydia to be interested in their little game of double hide and seek. Shayla turned to Blake to see if he had noticed, and saw him glaring in the Lydia’s direction. Taken aback by the look of boiling hatred on his face, she looked back quickly at the other side of the road.
Blinds obscured the window where Lydia had once been.
-
Blake felt bad for not feeling bad.
Immediately, he grabbed the thought and strangled it.
Why should I feel bad? He thought.
I didn’t do anything wrong. He knew that was a lie, but he pushed any recognition of that as such aside. He mumbled a sort of good-bye to Shayla and stalked off in the direction of his house.
He and Lydia hadn’t always been on the best of terms. Blake remembered how she had taken advantage of him when he was little, deceiving him into letting her “borrow” one of his cool new games. He’d wait for months, expecting to get them back from her, but she would always say, “I think I lost it somewhere. Just give me a few days; I’ll find it.”
And he fell for it! Every stinking time he
fell for it! Lydia never found the “lost” games, and he never got them back. It was after she had been “looking” for one of his lost things for over a year that he stopped asking her over and over to get it back. Blake had had it with her and her lies.
Sure, Lydia had said she was “sorry” and offered to give him back the games she had “found”, but Blake wouldn’t take them. Better to let her feel rotten for cheating someone younger than her out of his possessions. Besides, he didn’t want them anymore, not after
her dirty hands had been all over them.
That was before her accident; before she was bound to a wheelchair.
Lydia said it was a rock climbing accident. A cable that was supposed to be fine turned out to be faulty and snapped. She was lucky to be alive. That’s what she told everyone.
Everyone but Blake. She never said anything to him about it.
Again, that feeling of guilt limped its way back. Blake stamped his foot angrily and took off running, treading the thought underfoot, crushing it with every footfall, snuffing the life out of it.
He left that thought dead beside the road.