Escape

Sunlight was fading fast on the terraced street, the light casting long shadows back behind Riley as she walked quietly on her way. It was a street she knew well, one that she had paced often in her life- first on her way to secondary school, and then on her way to the tube train that would take her to work.
Except something wasn’t quite right.
Although the trees swayed in the wind and small birds flitted overhead, not a sound could be heard as she walked. There was no usual hum of traffic in the background either, nor even, now Riley thought about it, the hum of the streetlights which were slowly turning on in succession as the twilight faded to blackness. In fact, the only sound she could hear was that of her own footsteps, boots slapping the pavement as she walked with no purpose.
Riley stopped walking. She felt a prickle on the back of her neck, a sign of warning, of danger, but she dared not turn around. She stood quite still, the slapping of her footsteps being replaced by the pounding beats of her heart. As she listened, the heartbeats got louder, faster. Behind her, a voice whispered on the back of her neck.
“Riley…”
She still did not turn around. She stared forward in horror, terrified of turning around. She knew that voice. She could feel her skin prickling, her eyes widening, her muscles tensing. She wanted to run, or scream, or anything that would mean that she didn’t have to turn around. But she couldn’t.
“Riley…”
The whisper was louder. Riley closed her eyes and bit her lip. She couldn’t, she wouldn’t…
“Riley!”
The voice was a shout now. The surprise of it made Riley’s eyes fly open, but she was no longer looking at the dark, empty street. She was looking at a man.
A man who was holding a gun pointed directly at her face.
The man looked dirty, just as Riley remembered him. His dirty-blond hair still stuck up at odd angles on his head because, as Riley knew, he never brushed it. His lean, muscled frame was hunched over the gun in his outstretched arm, as though he was afraid to even be holding the thing. And his eyes were as piercingly bright blue as ever, staring straight at Riley, baring her soul to him. She stared back, unblinking.
“This is all your fault!” he shouted at her. “Your fault!”
The gun in his hand was shaking, still pointing at his face.
“I told you what to do, didn’t I? But would you listen?”
His voice was echoing all around her. Riley’s heart beat even faster.
“All you had to do was make the damn deal, Riley. That’s it. Done and dusted.”
The adrenaline was pumping through her body, but it was like she was a statue: she couldn’t move a muscle.
“But you fucked up, didn’t you? And now… now we’re going to kill you.”
But Ryan turned the gun towards himself. The bullet shot through his temple, emerging on the other side of his head with a sickening bang as Riley opened her mouth to scream.