She smacked the roof when she couldn’t open the door and took off again.

“Woohoo! You get ‘er, bro! This is the best fucking night of my life,” Abel called after me as I flew past, my strides eating up the ground as the gravel crunched and took the same fence Kirby had without slowing down.

“Get your car and come to Devil’s Ditch,” I called back. I could hear him let out a wild whoop and knew without looking that he would be right on my heels.

Kirby tripped on the rough ground, the little heeled shoes not providing the same traction or support as her normal running shoes. She stumbled again as her ankle buckled, but I was impressed as she managed to stay upright and keep going.

Gaining on her, I could hear her breaths as they labored. I wondered what was running through her mind. Was it the same as when she ran the trail at school? I doubted that. She looked over her shoulder and our eyes locked. Even in almost complete darkness, I could see the fear in her eyes.

I had to give her credit. She managed to push on a lot longer and faster than I thought she’d be able to, and it was taking much longer than I thought it would to catch my Sunshine. I could see lights in the distance and knew she would also see the car. Obviously not hearing me yell at Abel, she angled herself toward the lights like a moth to a flame. Didn’t she just see what happens to bugs when they head toward the pretty lights?

I narrated her thoughts in my own mind as she realized that it was the taxi she’d passed that she was running toward, and she understood her error. She shouldn’t have run. She should’ve stayed and fought. Her pace slowed as her mind tried to decide what to do next. Abel stepped out of the car and draped himself over the car door.

“Come on, girly, get in! I’ll take good care of you,” Abel called out, and her stride faltered.

As she turned to try and go in another direction, my arm snaked around her waist. Sunshine screamed as I took her to the ground with our momentum. The gravel bit painfully as we skidded, but I tightened my arms around her. She managed to crack me in the nose with the back of her head, and I could feel the blood drip as my vision blurred for a moment.

“Keep it up, Sunshine. I’m fucking loving the feel of you struggle.”