“How long is this supposed to take? I feel like dying.” Aldira’s eyes opened her eyes only to wince them closed again a few seconds later. “Can you wait? I still need to stitch the cut on your shoulder” Rosalyne spat out at Aldira’s attempt to get out of her grip.

“ You could at least let me go, you're holding on to me like I’m going to run away.” Aldira teased while Rosalyne rolled her eyes and loosened her grip around Aldira’s hand. Rosalyne was a short-haired woman with green eyes. She was significantly shorter than Aldira but had the stubbornness to keep up with Aldira’s attitude.

“They're done. So stop whining” Aldira watched as Rosalyne wrapped her shoulder in linen cloth and tied it tight.

“Alright, can I go home now?”

“Yes yes, go along”

Aldira got up and moved past the woman. “I'll get going then.” She walked through the door, hurrying for her home. Up north, higher up than the mountains that most people saw each morning. The valleys that held this house lay soundly, with a familiar wind blowing from towards the north. Aldira moved quickly down the hill, making the gravel shift as she half-sprinted down, holding her shoulder. “You shouldn't run!” Rosalyne hollered from the top. “It'll be dark soon! I wanna make dinner” Aldira laughed out.

She moved down the hill swiftly, her brownish-red curls whipping her continuously. Breaking into a small jog, Aldrira moved between the trees while simultaneously trying to untangle her wire earphones, Her fingertips covered with cololurful bandaids made it hard, as the edges caught onto the wire. “Shoot” Aldira constantly flicked the wires away, before sighing loudly and stuffing the semi-hazardous lump of wires back into her front pocket, pulling out a hair tie, and moving her hair back to tie it. Slowing down as she approached a train station, she walked through the open station, the air light as the clouds moved along with the soft breeze that blew throughout the valley.

The sky was a bright cerulean with the bright sun covered by some passing clouds. Aldira played with the vines hanging from a plant pot. “The next train for South Valley will leave in 10 minutes.” A radio com sounded over as Aldira scooted into a sourly coloured seat, whipping out her phone which had a comedically perfect cut down the middle. Her phone flashing “out of battery” made Aldira sigh loudly before yelping and getting out of the chair determinatly. “ Since when do I need a phone to be entertained,” Aldira thought fondly to herself. “ I'm an entertainer, a great appeal to the public eye, Why, a statue should be raised in my honor!” Aldira tripped over her untied shoelaces abruptly ending her pacing with a shriek. Quickly checking that no one saw Aldira regained herself. “ Fine where’s my charger” Aldira took off her small yellow backpack covered in sequins and badges, rummaging through it before roughly pulling on the charger that resembled more duct tape than a wire. She looked at the schedule board, “6 minutes”. She looked frantically around for a charging port. “ Where are they? They replaced everything with stupid plants. Who the hell needs plants? I mean they could have put them anywhere else. Like over there. This whole place is bad design. This is minimalist heaven .” Aldira chuckled to herself.

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Finally spotting a port, she half-waddled there while zipping up her bag ignoring the family watching her scamper over. She plugged the charger in. “1%” “Yes! Damn, that baby’s ugly. Why do kids stare anyway? Do I want kids... Inflation though... Oh yeah! Gotta tell Dad I'm on my way home.” Aldira opened her contacts to a lot of deleted messages from her father, except for one.

Run

“What?”

Aldira stared at the message. “Dad’s messing around again. Jeez scared me there”

Aldira smiled and ran her fingers through her hair, the knots slowing her down. Her hand rested at her side once again.

“I should..call him” Bringing the phone up to her ear as she listened to the dialing. A familiar rumbling rose from behind her. “The train for South Valley has arrived” Aldira turned around as the train doors opened. The bustling of the crowd did little to ease her nerves. As Aldira pulled the plug to keep it back in her bag, her phone balancing on her shoulder and ear, her eyes caught a familiar figure, and Aldira whirled her body, her eyes focusing before they grew wide. Aldira stood still, her knees trembling ever so slightly, as the other advanced, walking towards her in strides.

Aldira then did something she promised never to do. As the next moments unfolded, all her years of watching horror movies failed her.

She dropped her phone and fled.