Thunder Roads

Marcus was running.

Not the casual jog-down-the-street kind of running. The I'm-escaping-my-mistakes kind. Through the school parking lot, past the auditorium where Student Council elections were happening, where he'd just frozen on stage. Completely blanked. Zero words. Just stood there like a glitching NPC while everyone stared.

And then he RAN.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Probably more texts from the group chat. Probably another roast session. Marcus — legendary for ghosting mid-sentence.

Thunder cracked overhead. The sky had that bruised-purple look, the air thick and electric. Storm was coming.

Perfect. Just perfect.

The path to his house cut through the old Miller property. Nobody lived there anymore, just weeds and a rusted barn and occasionally — if the neighborhood legends were true — a bull that had escaped from somewhere and gone feral. Marcus had never seen it. Obviously. It was probably just older kids trying to scare the middle schoolers.

Lightning forked across the sky, close enough that the hair on his arms stood up.

Then he heard it.

Heavy breathing. Not his.

Something massive.

Marcus whirled around and —

OH SHIT.

The bull was NOT a legend.

It stood twenty feet away, massive and furious and very, very real. Its eyes reflected the purple sky like it was straight from a nightmare.

Marcus took a step back. The bull snorted and lowered its head.

He took another step back.

The bull CHARGED.

Marcus ran.

Actually ran. Not away, but toward the old fence he'd jumped a hundred times as a kid, the one with the loose board. His heart hammered like it would explode. His legs pumped. The bull's hooves thundered behind him, closing distance, and Marcus was going to DIE, he was literally going to be TRAMPLED because he froze during a speech and then chose the worst shortcut of his life —

He threw himself at the fence, scrambled through the gap, rolled onto the pavement on the other side just as the bull slammed into the wood with enough force to shake the ground.

Marcus lay there, chest heaving, staring up at the sky.

Lightning struck again, closer this time.

And then he started laughing.

Like, actually laughing. Because what just happened?

He'd just outrun a BULL. A literal bull.

His phone buzzed again. Marcus pulled it out, still laughing. The group chat was blowing up.

dude are you okay?

that was brutal but fr you'll bounce back

speeches r wack anyway

Marcus stared at the screen. Then he typed back:

y'all won't believe what just happened

He hit send, stood up, and started walking home. His legs felt like jelly. His heart was still racing. But for the first time all day, he wasn't running away from anything.

Tomorrow, he'd go back to school. He'd own the awkward moment. He'd laugh about it.

Because honestly? After tonight, what was there to be afraid of?

He'd already faced the bull. And won.