Yomi

• Patrick Slattery, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2014

I sprinted down the streets of India, sweat dripping off my hair, none of this mattered. He was coming for me. People clotted the streets screaming out but they seemed a million miles away to me. He was coming. I couldn’t see him I didn’t even look back, I could sense his presence, and it made my stomach feel like cement. He was coming. I sprinted faster down the streets weaving through the crowd as fast as a hummingbird. I knew deep in my heart that this chase happens with people every day since the beginning of time, who was I to change this? Yet I still ran. The wind rushed against me, its cold touch clearing my mind. How did he find me, simple he’s everywhere, no matter where you ran he can follow. Yet I still ran. All I felt was fear as I sprinted faster, my lungs and muscles exploding with effort. I dodged down an alleyway, above on the rooftops I saw a boy running same as me. But he was ignorant to the chase, the boy didn’t realise that he was coming for him, maybe not then but eventually he would. I dived down another alleyway, a tree grew in the middle of the street. Its beautiful pink and white flowers littered the ground. They were going to kill me. I felt him again. He was coming. I sprinted back, and down another alleyway the setting sun made everything glow orange. He was getting closer. An abandoned house sat barren and purposeless at the side of the alleyway. I dived through the shattered window and ducked down, blood dripped off me like warm honey. I tried to stifle my ragged breathing but to no avail. I sat there in that abandoned house hiding. Minutes stretched into an eternity, a steadily growing pool of my blood settled on the ground. I felt dizzy and my stomach felt hollow, I slowly rose deciding that by now it was safe. That’s when the door on the other side of the room exploded. Shards of the cheap rotting wood flew across the room. He found me. I forgot a vital thing, he can appear when you least expect it. I cowered with fear as he stood there, since he had found me it was all over. Though he was the height of a normal adult, he emanated fear it wouldn’t matter if he was the size of a child, the fear he emanated was all encompassing. A long black coat shrouded his body, his body was truly an enigma, his face firm and chiselled was expressionless and his hair dark as night itself hung lazily over his eyes which shone like molten gold. Ever since I first escaped him he chased me, he made me treasure every moment and fear for losing everything. He walked casually towards me knowing as I that the chase was over. So I walked off into the twilight with Death