Fear in the alleys
The steamy pavement boiled beneath her feet. She glanced about nervously. The soft scrape of her footsteps echoing back to her is what had scared her. The soft drip of water somewhere drove about the alley, bouncing and distorting itself like writhing phantom.
Something crashed down the alley towards her and she dove for cover just as a brown tabby cat ran by. Shaken, she rose and wandered down a narrow but cavernously tall alleyway.
At the end of the alley there was a swollen wooden fence and the passage turned down another high vaulted path. Just then the moon slid behind a dark ebony cloud engulfing the eerie Prussian blue light radiated from the all seeing eye aloft.
From behind the fence came a flurry of drool and fangs and she ran panicked down the path. Her step dipped deeply into a soggy pool of inky black liquid and she stumbled.
A desperate moan erupted form her throat as she rolled over and pulled her leg from the offending hole in the thick rocky pavement. She hugged her ankle and her back arched form the pain. She examined the small deep cut on the side of her swollen black-stained ankle. It stung. "Oow," she said aloud.
"Shedd'ep ye low-life worthless rag scum," came a squeaky gargling voice from the shadows. "There're peeple try'n t'sleep roun'ere now beat it!"
She hurriedly yet painfully stumbled to her feet and hastily made her way around the next corner, where she flattened her back against the red chipped brick building with her eyes closed to the pain. When she opened her eyes the moon was shining brightly into her red swollen eyes.
She roughly wandered about like a black butterfly in a shadow through the midnight mist of the back city.
She finally saw a light other than the moon. A dirty pane glass window lie around a corner with promising rays of silver radiance slicing through the pitch coldness. She slid her haggard feet toward the cross-beamed window.
She peered in pressing her tear-stained face against the glass and covering it with her breath. The window was warm and within there was a rather disorganized but homely household. There was no one in sight but she pulled herself away from the crystal panel and took a step away. The icy frigid night blackness wrapped its unseen arms about her and she shook in the cool breeze like an autumn leave.
Her body finally took control and she went to the door set into the wall by the window. She turned the knob and found it to be unlocked. She walked in basking in the lukewarm air of the small apartment as if it were a sunny beach.
She looked around the rooms and found no one home. Then suddenly the door flew open. She panicked and ran. Her shoes squeaked on the wood floor of the front room as searched frantically for a way out. The person in the other room must have heard because a large burly unshaven man came clomping in shouting.
She ran to a door but found it only to be a closet. He caught her and flung her around.
She started crying and she collapsed on the floor shaking in frightened sobs. The large man took her and sat her on the couch.
"Hey c'mon now stop cryin. Now, what's your name? We'll see if we can get you home."
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