As a blanket of grey swept beneath the sun, Betty’s heart pounded. She knew the thing was fast approaching, it ran almost twice as fast as she did. Her mind was conflicted, at this point, she had ran so far, what was the point of running any further. Should she keep going, or stop taking in the air and let the creature consume her.

There had been so much leading up to this, so many wrong choices, so many right ones. Fear controlled those choices. It was not up to her, the events that led up to this. It was not in her control. She just stood there motionless, looking into an abyss of her own thoughts. Her heartbeat was slowing down, she wasn’t scared anymore.

It was dark now, and she had been standing in the same spot for some time. Staring out into the darkness, the others looked at her with confusion. The others look peaceful, they’re not aware of the creature. They can’t see it, or maybe they could and they’re just turning a blind eye.

The moon, while only peaking from behind the clouds, was particularly bright on this night, it’s light transcended into dark alleyways, giving this town a rather cinematic look, fitting given the occasion. The others were beginning to worry about our dear Betty. Some of them approached her with friendly smiles and hand gestures, but Betty had been fighting the creature for so long, she had lost all empathy.

There was no time for friendly hellos, Betty knew that there wasn’t enough time. The creature had slowed down but it would eventually catch up to her. She couldn’t fight it in an open space, there were too many people around. Betty darted for the nearest building she could find, ran up the flight of stairs and once on the roof, she knew this was the best place for the battle.

It all boiled down to this, the final fight. Betty and the creature had been in conflict for years, she inherited this curse. She looked down at her watch, she was on time but the creature was still nowhere in sight.

Time passed as Betty stood frozen. A cyclone of emotions wage destruction in her mind and soul. The waiting made it worst. Given enough time and the creature made its presence known. The moon was no more, there was only dark. The fear came back and Betty’s heart raced. She was prepared this time, she had fought the creature enough to know it’s weakness. All those fights, all those scares had taught her, she was ready.

The creature stood directly in front of Betty, they stared at each other. Betty was completely focused. She ran towards the creature, still with fear but she knew she would not fail.  As she met the creature she took it into her arms, holding on as tight as she could, this was it, this was the end, for both it and her. She ran with all her might, the rooftop was drawing to its end. One leap and the sky was hers. Falling, she reminisced the days before the creature entered her life, remembered the times in between, there was a lot of good in those moments.

She descended fast, but in that time, she lost all her fear, the pain was going to end, the creature couldn’t hurt her anymore. She was going to be free.

As she reached the bottom, the others gathered in the numbers. A few of them recognized her face. The crowds flocked in even larger numbers, as the blue and red lights surrounded the street. The others joined in on speculation as to why Betty had come to this end. Some assumed she did it out of the hatred of life, some believed she did it because there was sadness in her soul, but none of them knew. They didn’t understand, for they could not see the battle inside.