WEP Challenge & Predator

Predator

Nella squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth slightly. She couldn’t make a sound, not even the sound of a breath.

Her blood roared through her veins and every muscle strained to move. Run. Get away. Go!

But there was nowhere to go. Nowhere to run.

Adrenaline surged and bounced around inside, making her fingers twitch where they hugged her knees into her chest.

No movement. No sound.

Air in, air out.

Slow the breathing. Slow the blood. Slow the brain.

She had to listen, had to hear. But the white noise of panic filled her head.

In and out.

Nella squeezed her toes and relaxed them. The quietest way she could think of to use up some of the adrenaline-fuelled energy.

Slowly, the panic flashes behind her eyes receded and the white noise ebbed. She only hoped it wasn’t too slowly.

She opened her eyes a slit and then a little more. Blackness surrounded her. She couldn’t see. No one could see.

Could it see in the dark? Could it smell her fear and her panic? Were her tiny breaths audible?

A scrape cut the air.

The smallest of sounds. The largest of threats.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Curl the toes, relax. Look. Don’t move.

Blood raced again. Air thickened and refused to process.

Another scrape.

Nella squeezed her lips together. Pressed down hard.

Her breathing quickened and tears built in her eyes.

When light blazed around her, into her, through her, Nella released the scream.

But the predator was the only one who heard.

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Tagline: When there's nowhere to run

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The WEP Challenge for this month is The Scream!

You can join the challenge until October 22. We'd love to have even more writers participating!

There are so many ways to interpret a prompt and the WEP writers always produce entertaining stories!

We're asking writers to include a short tagline/blurb with their stories. But, we'll write one up if you struggle to find one or forget!

Looking forward to the entries!