She was being followed.

There was no denying the extra set of footsteps.

The sound, a sharp clip-

 on the cobbled street. 

 

Her feather light footsteps began to beat a faster tempo on the street.

His staccato steps

also increased. 

 

Her breath became more panicked.

Small bursts of fog escaping from her mouth.

Her small pink tongue, licking her lips.

 Silently cursing the chill night.

The dark of night reigning over the joyful sunshine. 

 

His steps echoed off the surrounding buildings.

The sounds like gunshots, shattering her thoughts.

Panic overtook her. She began

to run.

 

The confusing maze of cobbled streets

and abandoned factories confused her.

Broken windows like jagged teeth of monsters,

threatening to consume her.

 

Her lungs began to ache.

Bile raising in her throat,

blocking

what little air she had managed to suck in.

 

Still she ran.

 

Lights up ahead.

Perhaps civilization and salvation were near?

 

The lights were a farce.

 A dead end street gazing over the town.

The glow of the city below little comfort to the girl lost.

 

The same footsteps began to creep down the alley.

The sound

muffled by debris tossed carelessly along the road.

She couldn’t move.

She had recognized those footsteps earlier in the night.

They haunted her dreams and her nightmares.

They beat a steady rhythm into her soul.

 

The man entered the realm of light.

His hand held a revolver,

aimed as though to kiss her.

 

She couldn’t stop staring at the piece of metal.

The night seemed to rally around the cold steel sitting in the hand of her stalker.

“You know who I am.”

Words whispered across her mind. 

The sound of dead leaves and forgotten flowers.

 

Tears formed a ghostly trail down her face.

She had known him for months now.

This echo of the man she once knew.

 

Her memories flowed down the path of tears to her tongue.

She moaned his name.

An almost loving caress.

He stared into her eyes.

Pulling the trigger.

 

Guilt had killed her.