Oct 27 writing prompt - "Give it back"

8 minutes 20 seconds, 458 words (55 wpm) - Note that this is the first time doing one of these and I had no idea where it was going to go once it started. In other words, a good exercise! (Man, I'm rusty.)

“Give it back,” he said, in a calm, even tone. He hadn’t moved towards me yet, but I knew he was going to in moments if I didn’t react, and react the way he wanted me to. I hesitated but a moment and felt the rush of adrenaline overcome me, wash over my head as I turned and ran away from him. It was futile. I knew he could catch me easily, but I didn’t care. I had to do something different this time.

I could hear his footfalls following me as I rounded the corner by the street. The blare of a car horn filled my ears as the Volkswagen Passat narrowly missed me. I heard a sickening thump behind me, accompanied by the screeching of the Passat’s tires, and I knew without looking what had happened. He had almost caught up to me. I thought for an instant that I could feel his hand reaching out for my jacket. A moment later, he was flying through the air, his legs splayed at a crazy angle.

I spun around, trying to get my bearings. I didn’t see him until after he had hit the ground. My vision blurred. I looked back and forth, my eyes uncertain what to focus on. To my right was the driver. To my left, he was lying broken on the pavement, unmoving. After a moment, a faint gasp came from his lips. Then blood sprayed on the pavement as he coughed weakly. The driver had run up to him to see if he was alright. His passenger was yelling at me for running across the street the way I did, but I didn’t hear her.

I walked over to where he was lying, past the driver, and knelt at his head. “It’s mine now. It’s mine for good. It always was,” I said quietly to him. I turned and walked away, leaving him lying in the street. I ignored the pleas of the driver and passenger, and was only faintly aware of the arrival of a police car, flashing lights still visible in the sunlight. I walked behind the old café where he and I used to hang out, back when we considered ourselves best friends and had to stop for a moment to reflect on just how badly things had gotten in the last few years. Was I really able to walk away from him, knowing that he could die on the street, over the matter of this little thing? It was just a thumb drive, the contents of which neither of us had fully understood. But it seemed to hold events of the future, and as we discovered more and more, it was dreadfully accurate. And now it is mine.