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One

Elsie

Thank God for charity 5ks and the heavy layer of guilt people slathered on to get you to agree to do such a thing in the first place

Those were thoughts I never thought I would think See, I hated running I hated running the waywith a fiery passion People who thought sweating through theirin unood time were seriously whacked

That being said, thank God for all those pre-dawn ed out of bed to train before h to object to the absurdity of it all After all, anyone with a fully functioning brain would know sleep wascold and running along the empty streets

Because, well, that training was paying off

In the way that I was running forchased by two men Now perhaps all they wanted was to tellas A- I didn't s around soe of protecting and C- men didn't chase you down street after street to co for my life' idea

My lungs were burning noin jeans wasn't fun Then there were my feet Ballet flats were cute and all, but they weren'tat the backs ofstarted I half-expected to, when I took the I lived, that there would be so I could put on my feet for a week that wouldn't hurt except for flip flops It was January

But, if I got out of this, I figured cold feet were a relatively small price to pay

Behindonlegs I inherited from her

I was out of the slums Crap 'Slum' was probably not the PC way to phrase it But every other word that cahetto Okay I was sticking with slu it was a really really crummy part of town that there was no way that I should have been in at twelve o'clock at night, alone, ever But I had ure out what happened

"Give it up, Barbie, you ain't getting away!" one of thely in control of his breath I'd caught one good glance of hi and didn't look back He was the kind of built that caym and a very likely heavy use of steroids He put a classes to shame

The road split ahead and I heard one tell the other to go up souy behind me Even if it was just for a couple seconds, a couple seconds to find a place to dip into and hide, call the cops, call my father, call someone

When I heard only one set of feet behind y forward, turning the corner with every bit of strength and determination I had in me

I had just barely ed around the waist A hand claht and hauled

I felt hysteria floodno clue what I was actually doing, but knowing I needed to do so

"Shh," a voice hissed into my ear as I was pulled deeper into the store

I was pretty sure quiet wasn't so I should be either I was pretty sure I was supposed to screa hand across my mouth, that was pointless anyway

"How many of thes at once: it was a very nice voice, suys who had been following me for the past ten or fifteen"Don't screairl, and they'll find you Got it?"