--Disclaimer-- All in this are over 18.
When I met Allison, something changed. Perhaps it was the circumstance, perhaps I was out of my head, but whatever it was, it shifted me forever.
That night before, I ran around to the local bars, met my friends and flirted around. It was my usual routine, and nothing felt different, nothing felt like it was on the verge of changing.
The only thing I chose to change up that night was that I decided to walk to Willie's old rundown shack, The Office, by myself. It was one of those nights just on the cusp of autumn that cooled down with the wind and warmed up in the moonlight so that it was the perfect temperature for a light jacket and a walk.
I made it about three-quarters of the way there before Devon found me, wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and said, "So, Grace. You ready to get your drink on?"
I laughed, Devon was the drinker of the group. We, most of us, went for the good laughs and a couple drinks, but not him.
Perhaps I should describe my group or the chatter and the drinking that came before the walk home, but all of us over eighteen know how that goes. Plus, it wasn't different from any other time, as I said, so why chitter on about that?
No, it was on the way back home that my life tilted and changed its direction for good. My mother would say I was on a downhill slope, and I, for my part in the matter, came to welcome it. Here's where the story gets good, so tune in. Maybe then you can tell me what happened because I'm still reeling.
I had my jacket draped over my arm, my face tilted into the wind a little to cool the heady glow of being around everyone and having a little fun. The night was winding down, people were going home, bars were shutting up for the night, and soon it seemed like just me and a few stragglers here and there. Now, I'm not stupid. Bars have shut down, people have left, it's dark, and I was alone. I was starting to get nervous.
Sure, I told myself that I'd be fine, but I'd seen every horror film and read every instance of women disappearing only to show up raped and dead. I did not want to be that girl, and so I jumped at every little bird flapping its wings and pebble my toe accidentally connected with and sent skittering. On edge, I clung to every shape of a couple that were stumbling along the sidewalk on the other side of the road. If other people were about, I wasn't going to disappear without a trace for certain. No one would kill me, and a mugger might be more easily stopped.
Or so I thought.
I never saw him- them, her, I don't know who. Walking past an alley, my attention on the couple across the street, someone must have slipped behind me. I felt a prick on the side of my neck, an arm that snaked around my waste, a hand over my mouth, and then I sunk into the person holding me and was out.