the chase

crashing through dark forests,
lungs burning,
legs aching,
arms scratched by whipping past branches,
and you can hear the creature panting,
behind you,
ever closer.

increase your pace,
though you feel like you're dying,
this way it would be more bearable,
more fitting to die.

it's too much, you're slowing down,
gasping for breath
and about to give up and surrend-

wait, is that a house?

sprint, sprint, sprint,
faster than you were before,
aching, hurting,
scramble through the door
and SLAM it,
throw yourself against it.

safety.


was that a cough?