Kelly stood at the mouth of a dark alley, making up her mind.
She couldn’t stand it for one more minute. She had to know.
Kelly was a competitive sprinter before she’d dropped out of high school, and was always much faster than the other students – unnaturally fast. Her mother, Hannah, had grown sick with worry that someone would notice Kelly’s gift and report it to the authorities. She had begged Kelly to fake a loss, and then, eventually, to quit athletics altogether. To pretend to be unremarkable.
Kelly had done as her mother had asked, and went through high school as nobody special. Now she cleaned at a supermarket called Clyde’s in the afternoons, just another Citizen of the Kingdom.
But it kept getting harder. Every day she repressed the urge to run, to leap, to pelt headlong down the street. But right now it felt like ripples of energy were pulsing through her calves.
The long, straight alley seemed to call to her.
Could she risk it? She couldn’t see any security cameras on the walls. And, for a reason she couldn’t quite explain, she could sense, for sure, that no one else was down there.
The energy needed – demanded – an outlet. She had to run.
Kelly paused, feeling her heart thumping with fear.
She hated her own hesitation. Why was she terrified to exercise even the most simple desire – to run?
The answer, of course, was the Soul Collector.
Even the thought of his name made her blood chill. And yet there was another feeling there too. Anger, perhaps? Why should some guy in a faraway castle scare me so much? Kelly scolded herself.
Then, before she knew it, she broke into a sprint.
Blurs of dumpsters and rubbish zipped past her in the dark as she leapt over a pothole and swerved around a fire escape. The air through her nostrils brought with it sensory clues about the obstacles ahead. Had she always been so aware of her surroundings? She wasn’t sure. In that moment, she didn’t care.
She realised she was still holding back, and flung herself into a headlong dash.
Adrenaline pumped through her. Her footfalls pounded the ground and propelled her with incredible force, unleashing the pent-up energy. Her golden ponytail whipped into a frenzy, and she reached up to tear it loose, letting her mane fly free.
Deep inside, Kelly knew she was running faster than anyone should be able to.
She felt alive. She laughed and, as a fast-approaching pile of garbage threatened to block her way, she jumped up and ran across the wall beside it, then slammed back to the ground without losing a step.
A main road, full of people and security cameras, loomed ahead. She skidded to a halt and, in a split second, spun around and tore back the way she’d come.
‘Woohoo!’ she cried.
She eventually skidded to a stop by the alley entrance, suddenly fearful again. Her breathing was slightly heavy; whether from running or adrenaline, she didn’t know.
How did she look? She felt her hair, which had flared out wildly around her head.
Cursing herself for tossing her hair tie away, she fished in her pockets and was relieved to find a spare – she was used to carrying spares, her hair was hard to restrain at the best of times.
She fixed herself up as best she could and took a deep breath. Out on the street, people hurried by in the light, heads down. None of them wanted any trouble.
As casually as she could, Kelly stepped out of the alley and joined the flow, making her way home.
