Silent Running

She ran for her life, her palms were sweaty, her head and her chest was throbbing, and she was hot and sticky.
She ran past the end of the road and stopped briefly to take a breath and her bearings, she wasn’t dressed for this.
Maria was wearing a cocktail dress of monochrome black and white, and her hair which was tied back in a bun was falling out, and her red nail polish had already started to chip off, cheap sodding nail polish, her mascara had also started to run.
She surveyed the cross roads wondering which way to turn when she heard a noise coming from behind her, a rasping wheezing sound, like someone out of breath with asthma, she was too scared to turn round and ran down a side street to her left, the sound of rasping and wheezing was getting closer, and closer, she climber over a tall steel mesh fence and dared to stop and look behind her, there was no-one there, puzzled, dizzy and out of breath she backed away from the fence, she stopped as she could hear something clatter in the alley way behind her, then she could feel a breeze coming from somewhere and she froze, it was a very distinctive breeze, just blowing her hair from the back and giving her goosebumps, terrified she realised it was a warm breeze, more like something or someone was breathing really heavily behind her. Where she was standing was a few old fashioned bins with metal lids, she grabbed one slowly with her left hand, turned and swang it as hard as he could, into what she realised too late that she was swinging into empty space. The impact of hitting nothing with the very heavy lid made her topple over, and gravity took hold as she was propelled onto the concrete floor against the wall, in a very undignified manner. H er her hair was now completely out of what started out as a very tight bun, her mascara and the rest of her make-up had all but come off, all but a few smudges of mascara on her cheeks. Her dress which started out being gorgeously pressed and the colours of black and white shone brightly were now virtually one colour – grey, and now to add to the ensemble her new heels which she had been waiting 2 weeks to wear were scuffed and now one had a broken heel.
She lay there getting her breath back absolutely knackered. She thought back to the beginning of the evening, it was so full of promise, the party was lavish, some kind of charity bash she couldn’t remember which one, there was a silent auction, nice food, live music and handsome waiters, she remembered drinking apple Martini’s and flirting with a few handsome waiters handing round canapés.
The speeches were next, lots of thank you’s for all the help raising the money etc…., and congratulating the person who won the silent auction, she couldn’t remember what it was , a vague memory of a holiday to Paris maybe. Then she remembered dancing, badly to pharrells happy, and almost fell into the make shift bar by the side of the dance floor. After that she had decided to call it a night and went outside for a ciggy, she noticed that the air was cooler than earlier and she wished she had brought a jacket, she walked away from the hustle and bustle of the building towards the main road and that’s when she started to panic, the sounds of clip clopping shoes behind her, getting faster and faster, until now. Phew, Maria thought, she realised she had been lying down for awhile remembering the evenings events, she she couldn’t hear the noises any more and her back was cold against the floor and brick wall. She very ungraciously got up and straightened her dress, took her shoes off to carry, it was easer than trying to walk in them limping, and tried to straighten her long brown hair with her hands. She held her head up high and started walking, all of a sudden there was an almighty crash of bins behind her and she turned, then blackness, the last thing Maria saw was black surrounding her and the wetness she felt as she put her hand to her stomach, after seconds feeling like minutes she closed her eyes and the black was permanent.