Running out of Time by Christina Chorney (love letters to the dead txt) 📖

“Emily! Wait up!”
Emily turned to see Jenny running full speed straight at her. Before she could register what was happening, she found herself lying on the pavement below a whole lot of her best friend sprawled across her. Giving her a good shove, she rolled Jen off of herself and sat up.
“You really should consider joining the football team since you insist on tackling me like a linebacker on the opposing team.” Emily said dryly. Jen laughed at the comment and stood helping her up off the ground. “The most amazing thing happened to me today in History class!!” She practically screamed into Emily’s ear.
“Noticed,” She answered back, checking to see if she hadn’t gone deaf in that ear. “Wait don’t tell me! Mr. Shatner actually managed not to put everyone to sleep!!” She said feigning shock. It was every student’s worst luck to end up in his class. He could put anyone to sleep with one of his lectures within one minute or less. Not even the principal would venture into the classroom. Jen frowned and punched her arm lightly. “I’m serious Emily something incredible happened today!” She said frowning. Emily motioned for her friend to continue. Jen smiled brightly.
“Ok, you know James Kinney right?” She asked. She nodded. James Kinney was the most popular jock on the football team. She and Jen used to sit and drool watching him on the field. “Well, anyway I was telling Misty about what we’re doing tonight and he came over and talked to me!” She squealed jumping up and down. Emily only gaped at her.
“Wait, you told Misty? Are you crazy? She’ll blab about us!” Emily hissed. Jen merely shook her head at her. “She swore to secrecy before I told her. But anyway, James overheard and said that it’s cool!” She said. Emily stared at her friend with a huge grin. “He said it was cool?” Both girls squealed and bounced together getting a few odd looks from other students.
They continued their chatter as they got on the bus. Shortly after the departure Jen looked over at Emily. “Okay, so when are we going to head out to eh campsite?” Emily thought about it for a brief moment.
“Well, mom gets off of work at five tonight so I’ll be leaving the house by six. I’ll meet you at your house around six thirty ish and then we’ll wait for your mom and dad to go to bed. Jen nodded. “My parents won’t be up too late, they have that business meeting tomorrow morning in New York so they’ll probably be in bed by nine tonight. They girls planned to head out just after they went to bed. It wouldn’t take more than thirty minutes to hike up the back woods to where the campsite was.

Skyline Corps, South Carolina


The trio pulled up to the building, silence hung over them. As Erik instructed, everything would go as Michael wanted. The rest will go as planned. They proceeded off the elevator and went directly into his office as the secretary instructed. Erik noted the box under her desk was filled with papers and books. They were getting ready to flee. Michael was pacing around his office, his cigarette smoldering between his fingers, a deep frown brooding. They waited for him to speak; he stopped abruptly, turned to his group and gave them a cold stare.
“I’m sure by now you know there’s something going on.” He paused waiting to hear any responses. When no one said anything he continued. “We underestimated Virecrios. He has a half-brother, Lucas Mocello. He had somehow managed to find out about Enrique’s affiliation with us.” Erik raised a brow at Michael’s restrained violence to crushing his cigarette.
“How did Lucas find out about us?” Erik asked. Michael looked away from his mashed cigarette and back to the group. “One of our men had reported that Enrique’s driver had sang to Lucas just before he was dumped into the back alley of West Valley. “ He said lightly chuckling. “Shame, I was looking forward to having the pleasure to do that myself.”
“What did you need us to do?” Lena spoke stepping closer to Erik’s side. Michael smiled briefly at her. “Lucas has sent an exchange request. He’s got the blow we want. We get it; your job is to keep the driver distracted to implant this.” He handed her a small device.
“I need you to plant this on the car where it can’t be seen. Erik, you’re going to handle the exchange and Ben you will be in the car. If anything goes wrong, you’re in charge of getting everyone out of there. We’re going to track that bastard down and silence him.”
They left the building directly after receiving the bag for the exchange. All three got into the car and drove off. Lena reached into the bag and pulled out the directions to the exchange point. “Looks like we’re going to Wincrose; The drop off is going to be at the Chinquetique Campground. Sound familiar to either of you?” she asked. Ben shrugged his shoulders but Erik nodded. “That place closed down when I was seventeen. Two kids had drowned in the river. From what was said, one of the counselors and a camper were romping in the bushes and rolled too close to the cliff overlooking the river. The girl’s body was found washed up on the shore in Deerfield, but the guy’s body was never retrieved. “Lena muttered a “damn” and Ben let out a low whistle.
“So, uh when do we have to make the meet?” Ben asked.


Lena looked back at the paper. “According to this, we are meeting our friend at ten tonight.”

Chinquetique Campground

Erik rounded the car through the narrow path. The darkness and the trees seemed to be swallowing them into the darkness like an open mouth. Slowly he gentled the car through until a clearing made through shone by the moonlight. They pulled into the parking lot and he shut off the car, and leaned back in his seat. Lena rolled down her window and lit her cigarette taking a long drag before exhaling, leaning her arm out the window. Ben sat in the back texting on his phone. Erik looked into his side view mirrors and groaned irritably. “He’s late.” He grumbled snatching Lena’s cig and lighting his own on it.
She snatched her cig back and glared at him and shook her head. The air in the car grew tense. Ben looked up at the two and cleared his throat. They both turned to him with identical glares adorning their faces. “You, you know the guy might just be running late I mean, this isn’t the easiest place to find.” He stammered adjusting his glasses on his face making his eyes look twice their size. Both of them turned back to face the front leaving Ben muttering in his nervous procurement.
Deeper into the woods, Emily trekked slightly behind a very ecstatic Jenny. “You think you could slow down a bit? The camp isn’t going anywhere you know.” Emily grumbled. Jen slowed down and waited for her to catch up falling in step with her friend. They chatted along the way until they finally could see the outline of the campground building.
“There it is!!” Jen said jumping up and down. Emily panted and flopped down and slipped off her pack. Jen turned and looked down at her. “Oh come on Em! It’s right up there about a few yards.” She moaned. Emily shot her a tired look.
“Just give me a minute before I die of exhaustion.” She panted out. Jen huffed out and sat down with her friend. Emily smiled leaning back and lay flat to look up through the opening in the trees at the stars. Jen followed suit forgetting her aggravation and took in the wonder of the constellations.
“Hey look there’s the big dipper!” Emily exclaimed pointing to the left at a group of stars. Jen looked and stared and shook her head puzzled. Emily laughed and tried to explain to her how to find the patterns in the sky. Both girls ended up laughing pointing at other “dippers” they saw. Jen sat up suddenly when she saw a stream of light heading through the campground. Emily sat up as well, her body tensing.
“Was that a ghost?” Emily asked. Jen rolled her eyes. “No way, ghosts don’t float around with headlights attached to their bodies. It was a car. But why is there a car coming up here?” She asked.
Emily shrugged. “It wasn’t your parent’s car was it?” Jen shook her head. “No, my parents headlights aren’t LED’s.