The distant street lamps were the only light the beach had at dark.

The smoky smell of burned wood

from past bonfires still impregnated the night and the humid air was heavy with salt and desperation.

My feet hit the sand in quick motion, my heart a frantic tattoo that only searched for a means of escape.
A scream was clogging my throat and my hands and knees were well past the point of simply shaking.
They were closer, I could feel it. My breaths were coming in shorter, and nausea was wrapping its way
around my stomach, but I couldn’t stop. Stopping was admitting defeat. Stopping equalled dying at their
hands.

And that would be the only death I could not endure.

But there was no place in my mind for such thoughts. Nothing mattered except running; because if I
stopped, only for a second, then everything that mattered would mean nothing. There had to be
somewhere to hide; somewhere to cloak my presence long enough to be lost within this deserted piece
of land.

In my mind I kept alive a vague hope that maybe a group of college students would be staying late, or
maybe a family would be out camping tonight. But in the case either of them was to become true, how
would I approach them?

I tried to summon air for a loud enough scream. It was in vain. They were closing in on me. I could
almost feel their breaths upon the back of my neck. The more I ran the more air I lost. The more I ran,
the faster they grew. I could no longer escape, there was nowhere to go. My God, will I really die this
way? Will they really win?

Tears were running copiously down my face, and a sob escaped my lips without consent. In my mind
there wasn’t any place for ‘what ifs’ or ‘what will be’, it was all about the now. My body was already
admitting defeat, but my mind was nowhere near it, though I knew it wouldn’t be long before I had to
stop completely

Desperation overcame determination and my already clumsy limbs turned to mush with every step I
took, until finally my knees buckled under me and my body fell with a muted thud into the cold, grainy
sand.

“Please, please, don’t. My...my father!” I cried with renewed inspiration. “He’s a man of many
connections. I’m sure whatever you want he can find it for you!”

They remained silent.

“Why?! Why do you want to see me dead?!” I exclaimed, my weeping slipping farther away from my
control.

No one answered.

For a second I fantasized maybe I’d be left unscathed, and then I saw the glint. A simple beam of
moonlight reflected upon a shiny dagger.
Nothing in my life had scared me more than the simple retaliation of light against an echoing mirror.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to see my own demise, and let out a bloodcurdling scream. There could
not have been a soul in this earth able to ignore such a much macabre call for mercy. I no longer cried
for help, but in the anger of the absence of it.

I opened my eyes in time to see the dagger raised in the air, shinning as if Zeus himself had sent a
lightning bolt to see to my epic finale and then...

Steps...

Steps and barks approaching quickly in our direction.

Could it be possible that...

I looked away from the weapon, taking my chances to search out the visual of the sound.

Coast guards

And they were so close to us too. If only they would be scared into leaving.

I turned; ready to see the dagger upon my throat.

They’d vanished.

“Miss...Miss, are you alright?” One of the coast guards asked, I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

“I...I...just want to go home.” I whimpered shaking now more than ever before. Every part of my body
quivering in such a manner I thought even the sand under me was trembling.

The pair of coast guards nodded and carried me to a van they’d left just beside the main street.

They sat in front, leaving me behind in the cabin, wrapped tightly in one of their thick blankets. Their
conversation was hushed, almost imperceptible when the car’s interfering sounds were added.

“I’m sure...it’s her.” I heard one of them say, in any other occasion the phrase would have been
completely innocent, but taking in count the past events, that caught my attention.

“I don’t know. This one looks pretty shaken.” The other one replied.

I looked into the van’s front place as the coast guard in the passenger seat opened a glove compartment
and took out a black and white picture of me.

“Yeah, that’s her alright. I’m gonna make a call.” He said.

What was this? Could it be possible that they were everywhere? Could I trust no one really? I had to get
away from them. I was safer alone.
I caressed the thought of threatening the driving coastguard and taking his place behind the wheel. Then
thought better of it, and without giving myself time to think out all the reasons why I shouldn’t, I threw
myself out of the back door of the van’s cabin.

Without any recollection of how I did it, I arrived walking –or maybe its better describe by limping—at
the nearest village, once I was there it was easy enough to find the commissary. it was still dark, the
night swallowing everything in its infinite darkness.

At the front desk a lady with kind eyes and an even kinder smile looked at me with curiosity.

“What can I do for you, honey? It’s awfully late for someone like you to be roaming the streets.” She
commented.

“I...I was being followed and...”

“Rachel, is the coffee machine done brewing or...”

A man in his early fifties with a salt and pepper moustache and a receding hairline came from behind a
closed door. His uniform clearly identified him as a senior police man and everything about him would
have been normal had I not seen the spark of recognition that flashed quickly through his eyes before he
hid it with a forced expression of curiosity.

“It’s alright, Rachel, she can come in. I’ll take care of her personally.” The police officer said. But there
was a certain edge, an edge of urgency about his voice that made my already pathetically thin nerves
start on edge.

I walked into his office warily. He made me sit down in an absurdly uncomfortable chair in front of his
desk. I did, however, have a perfectly clear sight of how his hand curled around a piece of paper and
balled it into his fist before trying to throw it inconspicuously in the trash basket under the desk.

“Well, can you tell me what happened?” he inquired.

“I just...I don’t think I can even explain it. It’s...not easy to assimilate...” I tried to gain time, looking for a
means of escape. The door was my only chance. “If I could just have a little water... I think I saw a
fountain when I came in.” I made a move to get up. He got up first.

“I will get it for you. Just stay here and try to keep yourself still.” The policeman ordered, already out the
door before I could even protest.

I ducked under the desk and looked for the crumpled paper. Sure enough, I found me staring at myself
in black and white. This time I kept the picture. If anything, I’ll at least have proof.

I walked carefully through the lobby, Rachel –the secretary— was fixing a cup of coffee, while the
policeman was engrossed in a phone call.

“...I’m sure, they need to get here soon.”

Those words set me on motion, and I ran and ran and then ran some more. I don’t know quite how
much I ran, but I know that by the time I stopped the first beams of sun light were starting to decorate
the sky and the sounds of the village were no longer heard. I could only hear the waves.

That’s when I recognized were I was. I wasn’t at the beach, but in a mountain close to it. The peak was
over three hundred and forty feet high. Just the thought of the distance made me take a step back from
its edge.

And then I heard it...

It was them. They’d found me again. I’d been through so much already, but somehow they’d still
managed to find me.

The realization hit me like a bullet to the chest. They’d always find me. This will never end. I can run all I
can, but eventually it will all lead to this. To live a life full of fear to end up like this? Is a life like that
even worth living at all?

They were closing in on me, and I knew it was now or never.

It’s sad that my life should end when I’ve only foreshadowed what an ecliptic ending it could have had.

With those thoughts in mind, and my eyes wide open, I jumped all the way down at the sea, waiting for
nothingness.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Two mornings later the local newspaper’s front page announced ‘Teenage girl suicides after escaping
mental care facility, parents grief her death’.
“’We are living in a storm where a hundred contradictory elements collide; debris from the past, scraps
from the present, scenes of the future; swirling, combining, separating, under the imperious winds of
destiny.”

-Adolphe Rette (La Plume 1899)

Foreshadowed
By: Yeilis Quintana Ramirez