• I ran deeper into the dark forest. The sounds of crunching leaves brought a fresh wave of goose bumps to my arms. I switched speeds again and ran even faster. It didn’t fall behind me one bit, it picked up speed too. I felt a clammy hand come down on me and start to lift me up, it turned me toward it and….
    “AHHHHHHH!!!” Samantha yelled, sitting up in her bed. She heard loud, quick footsteps on the stairs. She buried herself deeper into the head board and pulled the blanket tighter against her. The footsteps got closer. She went in deeper. The footsteps would soon be at her door. What do I do, what do I do? The door slammed open and collided with her wall.
    “AHHHHHH!!!” Samantha yelled in unison with her older brother Tommy. He was clutching a baseball bat in his hands, his eyes were wild and bulged, his hair a tangled mess.
    “What happened, I heard screaming,” He asked searching the room, the bat held so tight it turned the back of his hands white.
    “Nothing Tommy, just a bad dream, go back to bed,” Samantha replied with a sigh, falling back down on her mattress.
    “No can do buddy, its time for school,” He replied with a smirk on his face.
    “Ugh,” Samantha groaned as she plopped back down her mattress. Another dull day at Gutter Farnes High. Samantha, her last name was Rane by the way, was a sophomore at, if you hadn’t noticed, at Gutter Farnes High. She heard a honk, well more like a duck being strangled kind of sound. She took a peek at her clock, ONLY 20 MINUTES TILL SCHOOL! She threw up her window, “I’ll be right there!” She yelled.
    She sprinted to her closet and grab the first pair of shorts and short sleeved shirt she could. She heard the sound again, “I’m coming!” She ran down the stairs and grabbed a doughnut out of the pantry. Where did I sit my backpack? She ran to the front door and looked around. The honk interrupted her thoughts. Her eyes finally rested on her backpack hidden behind the couch. She slung it over her shoulder, turned and nearly ran into her 6 foot friend Jake Red.
    “SAM, COME ON WE ARE LATE AS IT IS!” He yelled, He turned and looked at me, “Oh, There you are”
    “Jake I know I am short but I’m not that short” I announced.
    “Oh Yes you are,” he said, “now come on.” He grabbed my waist, pulled me to him and slung ME over HIS shoulder.
    “Jake!” I screamed, “Put me down, now!”
    He didn’t listen, instead he carried me all the way to his car and then slammed me down in the back seat of his new 2005 mustang next to my friend Halla, who was laughing so hard she had tears brimming her eye lids. “Hey what’s so funny?” I asked
    “You…You…You should have seen your fa..face Ha Ha,” She said in between laughs.
    “It’s not funny, he hurt my ribs,” I said, rubbing my side.
    She stopped laughing and turned to me, “I wish he would carry me on his shoulder,” she said looking pathetic. She had, had a crush on Jake since 7th grade, which is when we all met.
    I ignored her and starred out the edge of the car. I thought back to my dream. It seemed so real. The clammy hand, the sound of those crunching leaves, the coldness on my face and arms. I just wished I could have slept long enough to see the face of my capturer in the dream. I felt the sense someone was watching me, I looked around me. We had arrived at the school and were sitting in a parking space, and not 2 cars over there was a boy about my age looking at me. More like starring at me, intently. Finally he met my gaze and a slow, easy smile formed on his lips. “Hi,” He mouthed. He had on black jeans, and a whit tee, that brought out his 6 pack. He was definitely muscular and definitely H-O-T HOT. It wasn’t just his clothes that made him hot either. He had jet black hair that hung in his eyes, and what looked like maroon colored eyes, he had pale skin but rosy cheeks.
    My breath caught in my throat. “Oh I guess that’s the new guy” Halla said, her breath hot on my ear. “I heard there was one but I didn’t believe it… until now.”
    “I didn’t hear about a new guy,” I said, keeping my eyes trained on the new guy, who’s back was to her while talking to Brad Frat, quarterback of the football team, president of student council, and most popular guy in school (no really he was voted most popular guy in school).
    “Ugh, he’s new and he is already gonna be in the “cool” crowd,” I announced to Halla pointing out the two talking by the new guys car.
    “Bummer, he looked like he could be a loner…like us. I would have been fine with him hanging out with us, ooo yummy, would I like a bite out of him.
    I looked at her for a minute, looking at her features and her expression. Her eyes were glazed over, her mouth slightly open, almost in aww. The worst thing was she looked like she was yearning for him. Her body was tilted toward him, her arms stretched out to him, her feet starting to move. “Hey!” I yelled, “Hello!” I screamed waving my hand in front of her face and shaking her with my other. A second later she seemed to fall out of her “trance”.
    “Whoa,” she said, “What happened, my head hurts, bad”
    “I don’t know,” I said, still starring at her, making sure she was alright, “One minute you were talking to me, the next you were starring at the new kid.”
    “Ohhhhh Yeah,” she said, her eyes glazing over again “The new kid,” she whispered.
    “Hey!” I yelled, “Snap out of it!”
    “Sorry,” she said.
    “Wow,” I said.
    “What?” She asked.
    “You, you’re really out of it today,” I replied
    “I didn’t get much sleep last night,” She said, “I had a bad dream last night, I was running from someone in the woods and they caught me, and that’s when I woke up screaming, I couldn’t go back to bed after that”
    “Wait, what…..,” I started to say, but I didn’t get to finish my sentence for the bell rang at that moment.
    “Come on lets go,” Halla said, pulling me to the school. I pulled my hand from hers and we took of for the school door.
    What they didn’t know was not far in the bushes a predator sat, watching them, listening to them, and waiting for them.