In a drunken stupor, Disco and Lenny sprinted down the high street. Disco’s blue jeans started falling, and Lenny fell flat on his face as he tried to point and laugh. Disco, also known as Danny, didn’t stop. His thick glasses acted as a bug screen as he continued his race. He ran down the high street, across the bridge, took a left at the roundabout, and continued sprinting.

He was laughing between breaths at the sight of Lenny collapsing like a bag of sugar falling out of the cupboard. Still, more importantly, he was going to win the bet.

He ran in the middle of the road. The cross that dangled on the silver chain around his neck burst out of his t-shirt and danced between the dark and the laughs. He didn’t falter; he didn’t slow. He and Lenny were the best cross-country runners in school; they never went pro, but they still ran with each other and had an annoying habit when very drunk. They labelled a random goal as the finish line, and tonight, it was the “Welcome to Steville” sign. Now, they’ve always lived in this town, and they both know which of the many signs is closer and are headed in the same direction.

But now, Disco was all alone. He wasn’t looking over his shoulder and wasn’t letting up. At the end of this road, he knew there was one of these signs, a bit further out than the last house. He eventually outran the street lights’ boundary and was running by starlight.

After three more minutes of running in the dark, he saw the slightly lit signpost and ran over to it. He pulled out his phone and saw it was 2:25 AM. He flipped it to the camera and took a selfie. He fumbled with the apps on the phone as he tried to send the picture to a group chat.

“EEEEEEAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRREIR!” A loud feline sound came from a little down the road in the dark. It’s high-pitched and sends shivers up Disco Jones’s spine. He looks around the sign as he hears it again, “EEEEEEAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRREIR!” followed by a deep growling clearly from something else. He takes a deep breath and turns on his torch. He can see the back of a white cat, its tail bushy, slowly backing away, hissing at something on the edge of the darkness.

“Hey!” yells Disco, and the cat spins its ear, and four large dogs creep into vision. Disco moves forward towards them, but he doesn’t understand why, “Hey!” he yells even louder, moving his arm widely in a shooing motion. The cat continues hissing and moving back as the dogs growl and advance slowly. For some unexplainable reason, Danny “Disco” Jones steps forward and picks the cat up by its scruff.

The cat dangles, stunned, as he stands in front of the dogs a few feet ahead of him. He yells, “AAAAAAAAAARGHHAHAHHHHHH!” and only successfully scares himself as he turns on the spot and starts sprinting, bringing the cat into his chest. It immediately digs its claws into his shoulder and chest. The dogs are close behind and catching up. Disco spots a low wall after a bus stop and heads for it; as he goes close past the bus stop, the fluffy white cat springs loose of his grasp and catches the top of the bus stop and claws her way up.

She turns and watches Danny hurdle over the wall and promptly fall down a hill, tumbling and twisting through the slightly forested section of the town park. She watches the dogs jump after him, and she jumps down and quickly retreats home.

She can hear Disco Jones getting to his feet and sprinting across the field as the dogs’ bark and chase at his heels.

She doesn’t hear him make it to the bridge, and the splash he makes as he jumps into the river isn’t audible to her as she goes through her cat flap into the safety of her home.

The dogs howl and bark at him from up on the bridge as he pulls himself out of the river, but they quickly lose interest, and he continues running towards the centre of town.

He meets back up with his friends, bleeding from his shoulder and neck and thoroughly drenched.

“I was just chased by dogs,” he says, almost on the verge of tears. Lenny hugs him and says, “I would say we could call a taxi, but I don’t think they’ll take you. Wanna race? Loser orders pizza?” A big smile creeps over Disco’s face as he says,

“Let’s go,” and Lenny follows closely behind.

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