The Runner

When Riley was 13 years old he came to a revelation that would define what exactly governed his whole life. At first he believed it was simple rule of thumb, "Live as long as you possibly can." After the accident that Riley tries his hardest not to remember occurred, his mother and temporary therapist (temporary due to insufficient funds) taught him to believe that, "Everything happens for a reason. You survived to do great things, maybe you'll help save the world," his therapist would say.

Which planted the seeds for what his revelation would come to be. Couple years pass after his one time therapy session, now 12 instead of 9, he found himself trying out for sports teams. As a gamer, he was terrible at picking up on how to play games. As an athlete he was even worse at picking up how to play sports that had complex rules: basketball, football, ping pong, tennis, badminton, lacrosse, volleyball, and etcetera. Track, he believed, was the most simplest sport out there. It was the easiest sport to pick up, when you are allowed to go, just go.

"I live as long as I possibly can, just like how I run as fast as I possibly can," was how Riley connected it to the rule that governed his life. A month after joining his middle school track team at 12, he ran his best record to that date, "A 5:32 mile," his couch said clocking in the time, "If you get any faster, you'll be able to qualify for states."

Out of breath and gasping for air, Riley didn't celebrate his new record. Instead his mind was focused on asking himself, "Is life like track? If not, then why do I keep doing it? This is so tiring, I feel like I'm dying. Is this how dying feels like? Is this what father-" That day when he returned home, it suddenly began to rain, if everything happens for a reason, then why on this particular day. A day where he thought about death is the day it rains. "Why is rain even associated with sadness in the first place," he thought as he walked home drenched. That was also the same day that his mother had a wine session and told him to stay safe.

He had already been doing that, but now being told it by his mother he felt like he had to revise his life's golden rule. "It can't be run as fast as I possibly can, because what if the fastest I can possibly run, results in my death. At that point I need to reconsider what exactly is my possible best. In fact, what exactly is death." Without a definition for his possible best and what death was, he went on to ignore this issue of his for over a year and a half.

Sometime when he was 13, after an intense game session on a brand new MMORPG that would go on to be the very game that he found his best friends on, his revelation had finally begun sprouting. "Everything must have a reason for existing. Everything that exists must follow some law. Every person obeys the laws of physics created by God; every game the game rules set by the developers; every sport has some kind of player made rules. I must have some rules to life, that like games, failure to follow these rules result in my death."

Now his revelation would not bare fruit for some time, but through observations that he made from the ages of 13 to 18, he came to the conclusion that life contained 3 rules. "The first rule to living, never upset anyone else, always be in their good will. The second rule to living, control your emotions, never let them see you become angry. The third rule to living, run and don't ever stop running, until you've outrun your problems."

Watching Jesuh lift the blade up to release the leech that ate his knee to a degree sent shocks down Riley's back. His stomach shrunk 3 times over, his heart felt like it fell out of his body but it struggled to climb back to its rightful position as fast as possible; it beat against his chest reminiscent to his high school drumline before a football game. Once the leech was completely free, he heard the echoes of gun shots as he turned around and began his sprint.

"Run. Run as fast as you possibly can," infected his mind. As he splashed through the marshes and headed toward the flickering white flame atop the lighthouse, he stopped thinking about anything else. For the first time in a long time, Riley's mind was silent.

*SPLASH*

"Human!" The leech had caught up and emerged in front of him, its gaping mouth was wide open. All of its rotating teeth looked sharper and larger to Riley than any of the army men that came to pick him up. The sight had frozen him in place. The screeching sound of a joyous laugh accompanying a war cry emitting from the leech's mouth triggered the fight or flight response inside Riley that begged to be let out. The smell of rancid decaying corpses and blood leaked out of the gaping mouth that steadily approached Riley, it forced Riley to choose fight.

He clenched his right fist and threw his arm and back to the right. With an almost inhumane speed, he swung his fist at the leech. However due to most likely inexperience, Riley had kept his eyes close while swinging his fist. Unfortunate it was, as the leech had slightly altered its direction in the air, an idea from the 12th brain in its arsenal, the leech had swayed slightly to the right, enough to completely be able to devour Riley's right hand.

The pain was terrible, blue blood poured out the wound like a dull waterfall. The leech rode the waterfall down back into the shallow marshes. Meanwhile Riley fell to his knees as he lost complete control of his breathing and screamed at the top of his lungs. So ragged was the scream, it was near inhuman and resounded down to the soles of feet, reverberating kind souls across Galdorerda.

Jesuh who watched from a distance with his backpack on, lowered his cowboy hat over his eyes. "Use your natural regeneration to heal," he screamed at Riley, who could not hear him over his own thoughts."

"I'm going to die. My hand! My hand! This was my dominant hand," tears flowed down from his eyes, "I don't want to die. I don't want to die! Please, I want to live for as long as I possibly can. Please let me live! Heal. I need healing! I need to calm down. I need to stop the bleeding. Stop it. Please stop it." Riley's thoughts calmed down as he tried to use his left hand to cover his right hand's wound.

*SPLASH*

Riley felt a huge part of him suddenly disappear. He doesn't know where exactly, but he watched as the leech fly from directly behind him to directly in front of him. He felt as though he should have felt some kind of pain, but it all felt useless. He didn't need any more signals from his body to know that he was dead. "Death, is so violent," Riley thought, "but at the last moment, when that burning sensation starts kicking in. This sensation cannot be my will to live, it would be so much fiercer than this burning I feel. Perhaps its my body casting a natural healing spell subconsciously even though it is way too late. I thought in death I would see my life flash before my eyes. Right now, I see nothing, but a broken mirror, even the marsh's waters cannot properly reflect me. Yet, in this euphoric moment of perpetuate emptiness, I've never been happier. Yet at the same time, I can't help but run from this feeling. I have yet to finish living."