My footsteps were the only thing I could hear through the pounding of my ears. I knew that my pursuer was drawing near, but I couldn't afford to look back now. After all this time, all this struggling, I was not going to be stopped at the very climax of my mission by a strange man such as him. No. I would push on, until my legs grew heavier than the stone beneath my very feet.

I questioned myself as to what time it was by now. The only way I knew that time had truly passed was the constant slur of trees and my growing shortage of breath.

The sound of his footsteps behind me grew steadily, urging panic in my lead footsteps. Even with the scream of the pavement and my pounding heart, my resolve to run weakened and sounds around me slowly diminished. After it seemed as though it was the end, that I had lost and my fate was sealed, I heard a new stream of concerned voices. "Are you okay?" Someone called. "I think she has passed out!" another observed. "Is she..." I heard another one start as I faded steadily out of consciousness.