I lived pretty far from the mall. My house was on the other side of town--that's a good half hour walking distance.
I managed to get home in about twenty five minutes. You'd be surprised how fast one can run when he or she is running like hell! I didn't dare look over my shoulder. I'm no fool. See, I've seen all those dumb horror movies, where the main character is running and running and running, and the bad guy in the cheesy mask is chasing them. You just know the idiot is going to trip over a rock or something that just happened to be sitting there. So I just looked at the ground the entire time, hoping that the dinos and the centipedes were a lot slower than they appeared to be.
Eventually, I got to my front door. It was only then that I stopped to check if I was being followed. So far, there was nobody in sight. Good, I thought. Maybe I lost them.
My mom was on the couch in the sitting room. She turned to see who had opened the door.
"You alright?" She asked. "You look like you ran a marathon."
"Hah." I said, forcing a smile.
I walked up the stariway to my room, brushing past my younger brother on the way.
"Hey, watch it." He snapped.
"JUST SHUT UP AND GO TO YOUR STUPID LITTLE GROUP!" I shouted.
He looked surprised by that. Mom just looked mad.
"James--" She began.
"Save it. I'm already going to my room!" I said.
I walked into my bedroom and closed the door behind me.
Then, I shut off the lights and crawled into my bed.
I fell asleep about three hours later, armed with a flashlight and a hockey stick.