-It’s 5 pm; I have time to go to Ocean Beach to take a walk before dinner, thought Lisa, closing her laptop with a relieved sigh.
Tired but satisfied with her work for the day, she changed her clothes and rode her bike to the near shore. It was warm and sunny, and the beach was almost desert.
Almost.
She hadn’t walked half a mile when she saw him—standing in the distance, looking at her, waiting for her.
-Can’t you leave me alone? She yelled with sudden anguish as he began to approach her.
-No, Lisa. I’m not leaving you. You can’t hide from me. I’ll always find you wherever you’ll go.
-Don’t dare to come closer!
-Or what? Do you see someone who can help you? You can scream, you can run, but nobody will hear you or see you, and I’m faster than you, said him getting closer and closer as she froze.
She didn’t know how much time had passed. She only noticed that it was already the golden hour of sunset when everything finished.
She washed her hands with the water of the Ocean and began to walk away alone slowly without looking back.
Tears were rolling down her cheeks. She was scared, but somehow, she felt light and free for the first time in ten years.
The following day a runner found a man’s body on the sand, with his head smashed against a rock.
He didn’t know he was Ralph Kurt, a convicted killer who had escaped prison three days before.
Lisa was the eyewitness of his crime, decisive for his conviction, and he had sworn retaliation. Since then, she had lived in a panic and moved from Washington, DC, to the East Coast to be as far as she could from him.
She knew this would happen, but she didn’t waste her time. She had learned martial arts.
A sudden unexpected and rather hard kick on Ralph’s jaw made him lose his balance and fall. His head hit a big rock, and he died almost instantly.
Almost.
Lisa waited a little bit just to be sure that nobody was around to ask for help or to see them…, and to check if he was really dead.
Then she slowly walked away.
The gentle waves erased her footprints from the wet sand, and the fresh breeze gradually cleared her tormented mind like the ocean’s rhythmic and constant sound filled her senses.
Sounds like he got what he deserved.
Yeah. I have seen criminals intimidating witnesses during their trials and how they took advantage of the fear of their victims. I don’t know what’s the matter with me. I’m a very quiet possitive and peaceful person, but I have seen too much in my life as a reporter and I guess all that is stored in my mind and is going out thru these dark stories.