Running (Did this for my creative writing class)

“For years I have ran. Ran from my fears, from social gathering, from school work, and even from my own thoughts. This year will be different though. I will face my fears, I will go to social gatherings, I will completely my School work, and I will examine my thoughts. My name is Emily StanCoff, and my goal this year is to stop running from things.” Emily quietly said, nearly whispering as she stood in front of the class. Her teacher was behind the desk, filing her nails.
“Ms. King?” One student said impatiently, causing their teacher to jump some. She looked at Emily and gestured her to go. “You can start at any time Emily.”
“I already went Ms. King.” Emily sighed. Her face turned a bit red embarrassed as the class began to roar with laughter. She sighed and walked over to her teachers desk, and laid down the paper, and going back to her desk digging her head into her arms.
“I’m so sorry Emily.” She said, and read the paper that was handed to her. “I think this is a very good goal Emily. I’m sure you can complete it this year.” Ms. King tried to make up for not hearing Emily read her goal.

The bell rang, and the halls were filled. Emily waited till the monstrous wave of students clears, and she was able to walk to her locker without getting pushed or stepped on. As she was putting in her combination, a figure dashed past the corner of her eyes, and she was swift to turn around. She saw nothing, and began to get nervous. She took a couple steps back, running right into someone. She jumped forward screaming, and swirling the rest of the away around to see her devious friend, Micheal, grinning.
“Did I scare you Em?” He snickered. She clenched her jaw and pushed him back away from her locker, getting back to her combination.
“That wasn’t funny!” She muttered under her breath bitterly.
“Of course not” he rolled his eyes. “I heard your goal for the year, lucky I sit in the front I guess, and I’m having a party Saturday, so I decided you were going.”
“This Saterday?! I was thinking that I’d go to the mall, and use the bathroom or something. Not go to a party! And definitely not this soon.” She slammed the locker, she just got open out of frustration, only to realize she didn’t get a thing and began to open it again.
“Oh come on, the mall bathrooms do not count, and I’m not giving you a choice you are going. It’s at nine o’clock, my house.” He smiled, and was already walking off.
“Whatever! But just so you know, the girl’s bathroom at the mall is an extremely social and scary place!” Emily yelled as he left the hallway. She finished getting her things out of her locker and heard something move. She began to walk around the hall, trying to figure it out, but was quick to assume her imagination was just trying to scare her, and decided to start home.
She was only a block away from house, when she could feel eyes watching her. She looked around to see nothing. She took a deep breathe and tried to start walking again, but the feeling kept getting worse as she moved. She turned around and nearly begging yelled, “Please show yourself.” She stayed quiet hoping they would come out, but the only movement was from the wind. A small noise could be heard, but she was having trouble making it out. It slowly got louder, and she closed her eyes to hear it. Small chuckling rang through the silence. Emily’s eyes widen, and there wasn’t a hesitation before she began her dash home. She ran so fast, she thought she was flying. She flung open the door to her house and slammed it behind her.
Panting she sat down at the door wondering what she could have heard. It could have been a child, but it sounded like a man. There could have been a couple in the ally way, it was a popular place for some of the teenage boys when they really liked a girl and didn’t want to take them home. She began to relax a little as she reasoned in her mind what had happened. Standing up, she went to her bedroom. She already failed at her goal, and was going to have to start over.
She was laying down, reading a story, when she hear knocking on her door. She got up and opened the door. Nothing. No one was at the door, not even her dog. A bit confused, she goes back in and hears the knocking again. She opened the door again, but once more nothing. She had no other siblings who would try to mess with her, and she didn’t hear anyone run off. She closed the door and stayed right by the door, waiting to hear it again. Sure enough, the knocking happened, and she flung the door open. There was a man with his hand up, causing her to fall back and scream. She covered her face trying to hide herself, fearful of what was standing in front of her.
Emily’s father ran down beside of her, “Emily what’s going on?! Are you ok?” He said putting a hand on her back trying to see what was the matter. Emily, moved her hands down to see her father standing over top of her. She quickly hugged him and began to cry. He was very confused but held his daughter close to him. “It’s ok baby, daddy’s here.” He whispered into her ear. After a minute or two of her crying, he tried to pull her back some to see her face. “Dinner is ready, I came to get you.”
Emily nodded her head wiping off her face. Her father didn’t know how to respond, so he just kissed her head and walked down stairs. Emily went and ate dinner. Neither on of them spoke about it with her mother, and they all ate silently. Emily was getting close to done when she saw the rush by in the corner of her eye again. She fell back her chair when she tried to see what it was, causing the old wood to break and her to hit her head.
Both of her parents ran to her, helping her up. She only had a couple of pieces that impaled into her back. Her mother sat on the bed with her, holding tweezers trying to get each piece out. “What got you to do something like that Emily?” Her mother had a worried tone to her, she feared for her loved child, and did not want to see her hurt.
“I just thought I saw something.” Emily whispered as the pain of each splinter multiplied as she spoke. Neither one of them spoke until the rest of the wood was out of her back.
“Emily, maybe you should see a psychologist. I have a very good one, and I’m sure she would help you greatly.” Her mother offered, as she did each time something seemed just the slightest bit off about Emily. Luckily her father came into the room to save Emily from having the conversation.
“Darling, Don’t bother Emily with that again. If she wants counciling, we made it clear that she just has to ask, but she didn’t ask. Ok?” He kissed her head then sat down by Emily. “It’s ok to tell us if something is wrong and we need to know about it though.”
“I know.” She said kissing her father’s cheek. This had satisfied him, and both him and her mother left the room. Emily sighed and laid down, drifting to sleep easier than any night before.
When she woke up, the alarm was howling and the sun was up. She was late to school. She had never woken up so late, and she struggled to get ready quick enough. Her parents were already gone to work, so she had to run all the way to school. The doors were locked and she stood hoping someone would see her. In the reflection of the door, she saw a shadowed figure. He was tall, extremely skinny, she could make out each bone. He had no hair, and the skin to his head was wrinkled up. She stood only a couple seconds looking at the disgusting figure, not being able to tell anything from the face. She spun around to get a better look, and nothing. She looked back at the door, and saw a man again, but no the figure before. It was a custodian coming to let her in.
Confused she nodded at the custodian, and silently made her way to class. Micheal looked at her as she came in, and gave her a puzzled look. As soon as the class ended, he didn’t wait to see her at her locker, but went straight to her desk. “Emily, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Someone is fallowing me. I don’t know who... or what. But they are fallowing me Micheal.” She said so calmly, that nobody in the school would believe this was the Emily who had spoken to the class the day before.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know it is, but it’s fallowing me. Everywhere. In this school, on the streets, and even in my house. He’s everywhere.” Micheal grew a little concerned and sat down at the desk in front of hers, but look straight at her.
“Emily. Your mother is a schizophrenic right? Maybe you got some of those genes, and you are just imagining that. Doctors can give you medicine for that.”
“No Micheal. You don’t understand. You didn’t see it.” She snapped at him. He was a bit stunned but sighed.
“I don’t know what to say, but I need to get to my bus. I’ll see you at my party, and tell your stalker it’s a stalk free zone there.” Laughing a bit, to lighten the mood, Micheal left the room, and Emily went to her locker. She decided she would run straight home, hoping he would catch her, and he didn’t. She made it straight into her house, locked the front door, then made it to her bedroom, locked her door, her window and shut the curtains. She sat on the floor by the edge of the bed wondering what monster was watching her.
Night began to creep by, her parents finally gave up on her coming down to dinner, or even responding to them. The only thing they had gotten to know she was in there was a slip of paper on which had the word “Go” on it. She still sat at the edge of the bed, now holding a knife in her hand, hoping to get the creature to leave her alone now. She slowly began to drift asleep when she heard a chuckle. The same as she heard on the street. It grew into a maniac laughter, that taunted her mind. She held her ears as hard as she could. But the sound just got louder and louder each time she’d press harder.
A small splash ended the laughter completely. She pulled her hands away from her head wondering what had stopped the noise, but then another splash got her attention. She looked at the floor, and two red dots colored her white carpet, and then it was three dots. She looked at her hand, and realized that she had been holding the knife the whole time. When she had made the fists to cover her ears, she didn’t even feel the blade enter into her skin.
She yelled for her parents, who rushed to her room as fast as they could. She was still too scared to open the door, so her father had to break it open. He stumbled in, to see his daughter’s bloody hand, clothes and face. Not sure wear the blood was coming from he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her to the bathroom. He turned on the shower, and put her in it, with her clothes still on. The water washed a red flood to the bottom of the tub, making her sick as she looked at it. As soon as her father realized the blood was coming from her hand, he grabbed a towel and covered it up. Her mother came in, holding a phone.
“The ambulance is on there way sweet heart.” Her mother tried to stay calm. Her father lead everyone down stairs, and sat Emily down in a chair. He held pressure on to it until the ambulance came and wrapped her hand better, then rushed her to the hospital. It took everything in her not to pass out, she feared if she did, she would see the creature’s face, and that was the one thing that scared her more than death itself.
After hours of sitting in the emergency room, hours of her lying so they didn’t think she was insane, and hours of nurses coming in and out, they finally sent her home. In the car, her father was going to take advantage of the situation. “Emily, what happened to your hand, we found the knife in your floor.”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember.” Emily said half truthfully.
“If your cutting baby girl, that’s very dangerous and we need to get you help.” Her mother tried to explain. Emily didn’t respond, thinking it was useless. They were going to send her to counseling now, and she knew it. She decided to change the topic completely so that they couldn’t tell her yet.
“I’m going to a party tonight.”
“Do you believe that’s the best idea?” Her father asked concerned.
“Yes, it’s at Micheal’s, so I can talk to him about what’s going on, and he will help me.” She sounded so positive, that neither one of her parents said a thing. Emily never went to parties, or even to see a friend, so they were a little excited to know she was going to open up a little.
By the time they got home, Emily got ready to go. She didn’t take long to get dressed, but it did take a bit longer with her wrapped up and stitched hand. As soon as she had the chance she left to Micheal’s house. When she got there, people were all over the front yard. She grew a bit weary of deciding to go. They held red plastic cups, and had red faces. She made it inside and looked for Micheal. Who was throwing a ping pong ball into more red cups. She had no idea what sort of game it was, nor what was in the cups but she got a bit nervous.
What really got he worried was when Micheal didn’t even ask about her hand. “Hey babe.” He’d say looking at her. He put a hand on her cheek, causing a bit of a discomfort for her.
“Micheal?” She asked concerned.
“Hush love.” He said leaning over and kissing her. She struggled a bit to get away, from his forceful lips.
“Get off!” She yelled at him, pushing him finally. She marched right outside. “Alcohol.” She muttered to herself realizing what kind of part it was. She decided to take a short cut through the woods to get home faster. She had forgotten all about the man before, but not for long. She stood frozen in her tracks. She could feel his glare. Her hairs stood on end. Again she couldn’t see him in any direction.
Still a bit angered by the disappointment she felt from Micheal, she yelled out. “I’m done being scared of you! I’m going to walk home. You can’t do a thing to me!” She began to walk again. She walked even though she heard the chuckles. She walked even as she heard them turn into laughter. What made her stop wasn’t a sound but a feeling this time. The feel of an ice cold bony hand, resting still and lifeless on her shoulder.
The deep voice whispered into her ear, “You should have ran.”