Wandering home, her head in daydreams as usual, Sondra moved along oblivious to anything around her as she made her way down the quiet street after work. Normally she would have gone with one of her colleagues but that night they had been driving the opposite way and she hadn't wanted to be a bother, popping her MP3 player on and slipping the earphones in she had marched off without a care, even as the evening had darkened around her.
The town she called home had once been a relatively safe place for a young woman to wander, the last few years however had changed that and although she was aware of the fact in principle, the idiom of 'It'll never happen to me' was unconsciously burned into many of the local peoples minds, including Sondra's. The man of steel had been gone for close to five years and it seemed he had left them forever, certainly the local criminals believed so as they almost exclusively ran the little town now. Even so, Sondra walked down the street apparently without a care.
Shadows began to draw longer beneath the evenly spaced streetlights and bats now darted around haphazardly scooping at the little flying insects over the water of the river just off the street. Quiet, almost silent in fact. Most sensible residents of the town, though sure they would not be the ones harmed, would never tempt fate the way Sondra was as she stopped for a moment to play with the little gadget to change songs. Her shoulder length chocolate brown hair swinging around her slender frame as she did so, her normally inquisitive green eyes now unaware of anything save choosing a theme to wander home to, she had no idea of exactly how stupid her actions were.
Moments, that's all it took for her walk to change into a nighmare. Suddenly other shadows joined hers on the pathway before her, faces loomed closer and before she could consider running she found herself within a circle of young men, all smiling and none of them kindly. "Mhmm, well now. Aren't you the silly one to be wandering about out here at this time of night then? What have you got that might convince us to let you past sweetie?" All of them had at least 6 inches in height over her, all wore black and this followed through to their heavy steel toe capped boots. They circled in closer.
Feeling the wall that banked the river against her back, Sondra attempted to think her way through what was happening, no escape routes filled her mind, only overwhelming fear as she saw from their eyes that they had no intentions of letting her flee, it was merely a way to draw out her terror. They would play with her like a cat with a mouse, nevertheless she offered her handbag out to them with trembling hands and when an over enthusiastic member of the crude gang yanked it and pulled sharply she fell forward to her knees on the cold slab of pavement, another had made a grab for her at the same time, catching her blouse and, as she fell, tearing it from her shoulder to her wrist. Her hands thankfully took most of the impact, her knees still taking a bruising that left her with unshed tears glistening from the lights of the lamps lining the street, her torn clothing somehow bringing shame to burn red on her cheeks.
Her foolishness at not calling a cab flooded her senses, mingling with the pain of her fall and the fear that had already rushed her brain. From her position on the ground she knew she would not see morning, her hope fled and she lifted her chin in a tiny show of defiance, her voice trembling yet clear in the cold, silent air of the evening. "I don't think you're murderers, not yet anyway, so why don't you all just take my things and get out of here. I'll forget I saw your faces, but I swear if you touch me I'll go straight to the police!"
For a moment she was certain she saw amusement on their faces and she felt her head droop as she knew her desperate gamble in fact had nailed her coffin shut. As she prepared to fight whatever was coming she suddenly saw them running away, her eyes lifted from the gutter and watched in astonishment as they literally seemed to be running for their lives. Seconds passed as she first tried to make sense of what had happened and then simply allowed the tears to come, she curled her knees round and up close to her stomach as she wrapped her arms around them and pulled them tightly against her body, then she could do nothing but let the tears flow as she began to cry the pain and the fear away.
