I was running through Central Park listening to my iPod. It was a typical Monday afternoon. There were the usual suspects who were walking through the park with their dogs, nannies with the kids they nannied to, and other runners. Nothing felt very weird about the day. The sun was shining and all the clouds were just like giant puffs of cotton in the sky. There was a slight breeze that would gently sweep by every few minutes or so. It was pleasantly cooling off my sweaty body as a ran farther and farther. I was trying to add more miles to my run and at the same time, cut down my speed. I had recently taken up running as a workout and I was doing quite well. I felt someone come up next to me and I turned my head. It was Bob, we always ran at around the same time. He would be on his lunch break and I had a break in between classes.
"Hi Bob. How are you today?" I asked
"Good, a little tired but that's normal. How about you?"
"I'm doing good. Tired as well but you remember what it was like around finals time."
"Busy as hell."
"Exactly. I almost had to skip this to get work done, but I needed to clear my head."
"I know how you feel. Work is quite backed up today." Bob was a banking associate and I knew his job got hectic.
"Well, I'm glad we were still able to run into each other."
"Me as well. I always enjoy our chats."
"Me too Bob, me too."
"So, what are you plans for the summer?"
"Taking a few summer classes, working, seeing my friends and trying to sleep in between all of that."
"Well enjoy. Will you still be coming for a run?"
"Of course."
"Good, then we'll still see each other."
"Most definitely."
"Well, I better pick up the pace or I'll be late back to work. See you next week."
"Yup, see you next week."
Bob was a nice guy. We had been "running together" for about a month. I don't even really remember how it happened. I think he asked me for the time or something. And we just kind of started talking ever since. He's a really cool guy to talk to. I had learned that he was in banking, and he was engaged and he had a pet dog named Buster. He lived not too far away from the park on seventy second and Lexington. We had talked about college. He was five years out, I was three years in. He had also went to Columbia, and he graduated with a Bachelor's in Business Management. I was studying Ar History and English. Though we were an unlikely pair to have things in common, we did. We always found something to talk about in the few minutes we designated to run together. It was never more than a few minutes and then we would go back to our separate workouts. I was going to lose weight and get in shape, and he did it to relieve stress. But it was always fun to run into Bob. Once we had met for coffee after our run and he was a lot of fun to talk to. We had exchanged emails too but we barely communicated that way.
I felt someone come up behind me again. I was surprised that Bob would have come back so quickly since he would have been off his usual route at that point. So I turned around. It wasn't Bob, just some random guy. I didn't give it another thought and I just kept running. I did turn my iPod's volume lower though. It was kind of weird that anyone else was on the path because at that time of the day, I was usually the only one. I shrugged it off as someone who was taking a new route. And I kept running. But as I was turning, something didn't feel right. I could feel the guy still behind me. I picked up the pace, so did he. I was getting scared but I didn't want to turn around to face him again. So I decided to take a detour off my usual route. I knew there was a woodsy path coming and I could navigate my way back from there so I decided to take it and lose the guy. So I turned off the path I was on and went running in the direction of the other path. I still heard the sounds of his feet hitting the ground. I really couldn't lose this guy and I was getting more freaked out by the second. I couldn't take it anymore, I had to say something.
"Is there a reason you're following me?" I demanded. He didn't respond, so I kept going.
"Look, I don't know what you want from me dude."
"I want you Annabelle." he finally spoke.
"How did you know my name?" I croaked
"I know everything about you." he said in a creepy kind of voice.
"Okay, you're freaking me out."
"I just want to be friends."
"No, you're just creepy. Stay away from me."
Then I felt him stop, I took that as an opportunity to keep going. When he realized that's what's I was going to do, he ran again. All of a sudden I felt him grab me and press himself against me from behind. I stopped breathing. He leaned in close to me and whispered in my ear:
"Don't fight me Annabelle, you know you want this."
"I want you to get off of me!" I yelled and struggled against him. He grabbed me tighter.
"If you keep fighting me, I'm going to get angry. And you don't want that."
"I want you to leave me alone." I said, close to tears.
"I can't do that."
"Why not?"
"Don't ask such silly questions."
"Okay, now you're really scaring me."
"Don't be scared, I just want to make you feel good."
"No!" I screamed, fighting against him as much as I could.
I kept fighting against him as much as I could to try and free myself. I finally got free, elbowed him in the chest, kicked him in the nuts and ran as fast as I could. I just kept running until I couldn't run anymore. I just ran, even though I was out of breath, scared, and crying so bad I could barely see. I heard footsteps again and I stopped to hear where they were coming from. Then all of a sudden, everything went black.