She woke up gently. It was going to be a good morning. After her walk around the track, she was meeting two old friends for brunch at the place with the bottomless mimosas. She smiled as she swept her hair back into a ponytail and adjusted her sports bra. The drive to the high school was short and soon she had her earbuds in and the cardio playlist started.
She was rounding the first curve when she sensed the heavy footsteps behind her. Hopefully they will pass me soon, she thought. She wasn’t a fan of being followed. It made her anxious. But the footsteps remained at a steady pace behind her. Feeling annoyed, she decided to quicken her stride to increase the span between her and the other person.
But it wasn’t long before she noticed that the footsteps had merely adjusted in order to maintain the same amount of distance. Now she was starting to feel concerned. Why didn’t they pass? She thought about stopping so that they could go ahead. As she slowed down, the footsteps did too.
Then she froze and turned off her music. No more footsteps. Should she? This was so awkward. She bent down to tie her shoe, like that was the reason why she had stopped. She wanted to turn around and see what had been stalking her. With the music off, she could hear loud breathing. It must be a very large person. Did she really want to engage?
In a moment of bravery, she stood up and whipped around to face who was making her so uncomfortable. It could not have been worse. A large hulking figure towered over her. No wonder she could hear footsteps over her music. It glared at her and started to advance.
“What do you want?” she cried out as she backed away in fear. “I want them all,” it growled at her, picking up speed. “I want all of your ideas, your thoughts, your imagination and your creativity!” As she listened in horror, it continued. “I want all of it for myself. I will squeeze you until you are an empty shell, devoid of originality and purpose.”
As it came to stand over her, she shrank to the ground. She had one chance to get away and she knew what she had to do. She grabbed her cellphone, that beautiful black hole that sucked her into hours of nothingness and hurled it straight at the figure. Hitting its mark, the creature toppled and fell. As she heard it screaming in failure, she ran to her car and drove quickly back to her house.
Before it could find her again, she grabbed her notebook and wrote down anything that came to mind. She didn’t worry if it seemed stupid or childish or offensive or crazy. She would sort that out later. Now was not the time to get stuck in self judgement, censorship or revising. Now was the time to open the floodgates and let out all of the percolating bits and pieces running rampant through her to come out and bask in the light.
After she had finally exhausted her current well, she changed and got ready to meet her friends. She looked at the notebook as she grabbed her car keys. It fit nicely in her purse next to her favorite purple pen. Writer’s block might have tried to take everything from her today, but she wasn’t going down without a fight!
