Run on Red

by Noelle W. Ihli

Silverwood, a theme park in Northern Idaho.

“You just have to remember the rule of threes. You can survive three minutes without air. Three hours without shelter. Three days without water. Three weeks without food. First things first, and you’ll survive.”

even small-c creeps could surprise you.

If they didn’t care about Laura seeing their faces, it was a sign things were headed from bad to worse. Masks meant they cared about staying anonymous.

She probably already knows who you are.” He laughed. “But drop the big-boy voice. You sound like you’re working a 900 number.”

Semper unum. We’ll take care of her later. Red X on these two.

I’d always thought of myself as a true-crime junkie. But it turned out, that was only when it happened to other people.

I had definitely seen that face before, but where?

Men like this said things like that to girls like us, knowing we’d been told our whole lives that if we listened carefully and followed the rules, we’d stay safe.

The idea that every choice, no matter how small, mattered had fascinated my anxious brain.

I had no idea how big that really was, but it sounded enormous.

Your chances of surviving an assault at any given location are 97%. Your chances of survival, if you are taken to a second location, drop to 30%.

She’s like half your size and dressed like Fuck-me Barbie.

Narcissists think they’re smarter than everyone else. But that doesn’t mean they are. That’s how they get caught. They make mistakes. They underestimate the intelligence of police. And they underestimate the intelligence of their victims.

I’d always thought I could skip the bad parts of life if I tried hard enough. If I was smart enough. But sometimes the trouble came to you—for the simple fact that it could and it wanted to.