Okay well, this has been a long work in progress (well, it’s taken at least a month to complete).  This was a piece that I stole, with permission, from Jake’s site.  Some of you may be able to relate.  It inspired me and I hope that this version inspires you too. 

           The breath heaving from her lungs and the sound of running foot steps were the only sounds Dahlia heard on the otherwise quiet night. When the sounds from behind her started to pick up in speed she realized something; she realized that either she was doomed or she had untapped depths of strength and speed that she needed to find quickly. Lights began flickering before her when suddenly thunder crashed and the world seemed to spin.  Rain began to pour from the sky.  It beat down on her face and made the earth harder for her feet to grip.  The foot steps behind her persisted, they caused her to push herself.   Despite the shooting pains coming from every part of her body, the pain in her chest was the source she felt most.  She knew that these feet hitting the pavement were the direct cause but there was nothing more she could do but run.  She couldn’t stop or it would over take her.  She couldn’t ignore them or they would destroy her.  But she couldn’t keep going, her strength wasn’t going to last. 
            The hardest part of it all, Dahlia thought, was that she had believed she had out run this.  She thought she was going to be safe.  She had fought her battles and won the war or at least that’s what it had let her believe.  Now it was after her again, and this time with new found strength.  Strength she did not feel she would be able to fight. 
            “God!” she cried, “Why is this still here, haunting me?  I don’t think I can do this anymore!  This pain is too deep, too constant.  When will the end come?”
            Her only answer was a crash of thunder.  The cold rain was beginning to drenching her whole body and all she was wearing.  Her clothing was becoming weights around her.  Her aching body continued to complain.  She began to slow up.
            “I can’t do it!  Okay?!  I can’t keep this up!  You are going to have to do this through me.  Everything in me is dying!  There is nothing more to fight with!  Please come and save me from this.  Don’t let this take me again.”
            As her feet were beginning to coming to a halt she felt something inside of her, she knew her God would take care of her.  She just had to keep running.  
            She heard the whisper again, “Hold on.”
            Just a head of her, she noticed that the sun was beginning to come up over the horizon.  She ran towards it with her everything.  The foot steps behind her began to hit the ground harder and faster.  
            Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes to refocus her strength.  A peace rushed over her; it gave new strength to ignore her aching body.  When she opened her eyes the sun was hitting her face with such warmth she could not mistake the hand of God in it.  Dahlia was so overwhelmed by this new found life that she didn’t even notice the fading of the foot steps behind her.  She barely realized that the warm rain was washing her pain away.  She just knew that she was running with new strength. 
            “Thank you,” she whispered back between breaths, “Thank you.”

Running for my life,
       Ashley