RUN

PROMPT: You are at a popular Japanese restaurant, eating alone. The waiter brings a complimentary fortune cookie. You open it and it says "RUN"

“Hey, is this some sort of joke?” Caroline waved the fortune out of her cookie at the waitress, who stopped for a second as she went past. She cocked a hip and read it. “It says to give it back to you,” she said, and gave it back to Caroline.

The fortune said, “Don’t show anybody else.”

As she watched, the letters faded, blurring and spreading out to make the background of the little slip of paper a little less stark white before re-congealing into a single larger, bolder, serifed word: RUN.

She shoved the tiny piece of paper in her jacket pocket and walked out of the restaurant; if they were worried about her not paying the bill, they could take it up with the fortune cookie.

There was a bus pulling up to the street just at the corner; a couple of quick steps and she was on it and away. She had no idea where the bus was going, but it was going away from that restaurant, which had to be good.

She looked at the fortune again. GET OFF THE BUS, it said.

Shit.

She pulled the bell-rope and got off the bus. Looking both ways, she crossed the street and turned down the nearest wide, well-lit street she could find. She looked down at the little slip of paper.

NOT THAT WAY, it said. As she watched, it did the fade-and-congeal thing again: RUN.

She turned and went the other way. The fortune was still in her hand; it was fading-and-congealing in and out, giving the word RUN a pulsing, urgent aspect. She began to move faster.

The street she was on was four lanes of heavy traffic, the wide sidewalks full of people; there were tall neon signs all down this block advertising “Live Nude Girls” or similar. She pushed through a knot of people, making for the nearest cross street.

She felt like everyone on the street was watching her every move. She put her head down and covered it with her hands, willing everybody not to see her.

The blinking of the fortune was relentless, it was flashing in her mind now even when she wasn’t looking at it. 

She reached the corner and broke into a run, across the busy avenue and down a quieter, darker street, but she could still feel the people from the sidewalks behind her, staring, following her; and the further down this block she got the more threatening the shadows looked.

Another busy-ish street was ahead, bright lights offering at least the safety of crowds; she ran a little faster, finally deciding to ditch the stupid shoes she was wearing, letting them just fall off her feet as she ran.

She made it, bursting out of the shadows and into the bright street lights, turning around the corner and running straight into a small family out for a stroll; she recoiled, trying to avoid running anybody over, and fell off the curb.

The bus hit her going relatively slowly, but she fell under it, and the world went bright white and sparkly as the tires went across her chest. Her hand gripped the fortune tight, then relaxed, the fortune fluttering between her fingers.

MAX HEART RATE: 165, it said. CALORIES BURNED: 50.

GOOD JOB, HAVE A GATORADE(tm)