The only thing that kept him running was adrenaline. And the thing behind him. For the last few hours, it had been nothing but running. Running, running, running. No matter how fast he ran, he could never shake it off his tail. Once it had your scent, there was no escape. Even so, it seemed to be holding back. Almost like it was toying with him. He tried not to think about what would happen if it stopped playing around. Fueled by the thought, he kept running. After a few minutes, the snarling of the thing stopped. He ran into a clearing. It was quiet. So quiet, that he began to doubt if the beast even existed. As if on cue, the thing roared from somewhere east of him. Naturally, he bolted to the west. It still followed him, hot on his trail. He stumbled, but gained momentum and raced forward. It snarled behind him and went silent. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked around. All he heard was the steady, melancholy singing of the birds. His vision tunneled, and the world around him began to sway in tune with the birds. It was almost like it was all a dream. Yet it seemed so real. The creature startled him out of his thoughts. He gasped and began running again. It pounced at him, but fell short and let him gain a bit of land. It bounded towards him, jumped for the trees, and from the treetops, it fell. He landed face front on the ground with it on top of him. He struggled but to no avail. He stared the creature in the eye, trying not to look afraid, but his face said otherwise. Beads of sweat ran down his face. It leaned in for the kill, and…

“Sweetie! Time for school!” He woke up like somebody had punched him in the gut. He looked around him and saw that he was safe inside his room. He exhaled and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Coming, mom!” he shouted, grabbing his clothes and running out of his room and sprinting down the stairs. Below him, in the shrubbery near his house, a single snarl caused people to turn towards the bush and then hurry away. Once it had your scent, there was truly no escape.