Racing Wind- Chapter 1- Edited

Hi, added in all your edits and so on. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter One

Dad lay slumped on the couch, his belly swelling over the stretched fabric that once resembled a shirt. There was a time when he’d meet me by the school gates, a slim line jacket placed over his equally flat stomach. He would throw me up in the air and call me his princess; and all the children would watch enviously as we walked off into the sunset. I couldn’t watch him any longer; it felt like I could see his hair line reseeding just by staying still. I slammed the living room door closed with a sigh, but it made a louder bang than I had intended “What’s the matter sweetie, having a little temper tantrum?” he spat.

“I’m going now dad.” I replied coldly, stuffing my clothes back into the overnight bag

“Kay” he slurred, turning up the TV. I sighed, swung the bag over my shoulder and slammed the front door as loud as I could.

The moon lay naked in the sky, vulnerable without its protective blanket of cloud. I pulled my duffel coat right up to my chin, took a deep breath, and began to walk. In the day you would walk across Fairfield and see children playing, parents laughing, people would wave and smile at you. But in the dark all the smiley faced children were tucked up in bed, and the pubs expelled tens of drunks, each with a gormless and frightening expression on their faces. I could hear them coming down the roads now, laughing and swearing. I was only still in Fairfield, not even near the bus station and it was getting cold. My coat hadn’t provided the warmth I’d hoped and for and my hands where numb with the frost; I should have stayed at Dads, this was all wrong.

I was nearly at the main road when they started following me. I had tried to avoid all the pub roads in Fairfield, going down small alley ways and side streets, but we were so close to the main road that it couldn’t hurt to take a short cut. They came out of the pub just as I rounded the corner, six men with dark hoods pulled over their faces and jeans that hung low on their knees. The youngest one walked towards me, winking at his mates and pushing his shoulders back. I’d heard the stories of girls abducted, found dead and violated two weeks later. The man didn’t look much of a threat as he could only be eighteen, barley two years older than me, but he still had dirty stubble and a heavy voice. I was well aware of what the influence of alcohol could do, how it could change someone in a split second, how it changed Dad.

I gulped, walking a little faster, trying to make a distance between us. “Oi mate, she’s walking away from you.” queered one at the back of the gang. They burst out laughing, shoving him hard.

I saw his face crumple out of the corner of my eye, it was an expression I knew all too well. “What? Don’t you like me then bitch?” he shouted, making a grab for me. I leapt back, my heart pounding irregularly in my chest. I was blinded with panic, unable to think, breathe, act. Frozen for that spilt second in front of them, but I couldn’t help myself.

“Fuck Off” I muttered under my breath, they all stopped and as soon as the words left my lips; I knew I shouldn’t have said them.

“What did you just say to me?” he hissed, spitting angrily through yellow teeth “What did you just say?”

“Get her Billy!” shouted one of them, and all of a sudden they were walking towards me. I started to run, not bothering to turn back; I knew they would be following. I flew down the street, flinging my overnight bag back at them in the process. I heard a soft thud behind me, followed by a chorus of swearing that rose higher and higher. A hand lunged at me from behind, catching the back of my hair. I screamed, horrified as tufts of ginger fell to the floor. I tore down the alley way, fuelled by a new sense of terror and apprehension. I could picture it in my head now, all the sick games they would play with me, the many screams that would escape my lips. I’d always thought in these situations I would know what to do, that I would be prepared or defensive but this was nothing like what I’d imagined. You didn’t have time to think, to plan, you had to act on the first thought that ran thought you mind. And mine was to run, to get as far away from these horrible people as I could. I didn’t have a phone box or a can of mace, all I had was my legs and their ability to keep moving.

I was good at running but the men where better, loping after me like dogs on a hunt. I looked for an alley to run off in to, some kind of escape but there was nowhere. I could feel my muscles giving in, the pain in my chest getting tighter and tighter, I had to stop. I was slowing down. My mind screamed at my body in horror, telling it to start working again, to not succumb, but it was too late. They were within touching distance, the nearest man’s hand reached out to rip another chunk of my hair. Suddenly the road in front of me disappeared into white, a hot blinding light that filled my entire eye sockets until I was blind to the world.

Some part of me was still vaguely conscious of feet hitting concrete and the curses of the men, but it all seemed very far away, forgotten as a dream. Without warning, the road opened up before me, the white light gone as abruptly as it had appeared. I gasped as the street laid spread before me, alive with musky smells and canvases of colour. I wasn’t afraid of the men anymore, they were meaningless and weak and I was strong, powerful against their measly human selves.

The pain in my chest was gone, my muscles had this new lease of energy and I was running, running faster than I’d ever run before. I laughed as they swore behind me, digging my back legs hard into the concrete, this power running through my veins like electricity. As soon as I started I couldn’t stop, it was addictive like a drug. I wanted more so I went faster and faster, gleefully alive with this incredible sense of recklessness. Then I was on the main road, running alongside the cars, quicker than the cars. Lights blurred past me, like ribbons of colours, reds, yellows, greens. I didn’t want to stop, and just as I realised I couldn’t stop, a lorry came out of nowhere, fur collided with metal and all darkness took over light