Anna walked down the empty streets of Grimm Town, the flush light of the full moon illuminating what the broken street lights no longer did. She felt good, strong, powerful, for the first time in a long time. She strode down the center of the streets, reveling in the freedom of each footstep.
She also felt cold. She had slipped out of Heather's arms, wearing only her panties and a sheer t-shirt, and that's all she was wearing still.
But she barely felt the chill. She knew, though, that she was in danger. It was only a matter of time.
She couldn't wait. She hoped the danger would show its face sooner rather than later.
Anna turned around a corner, onto a new street. It looked about the same as the others, formerly grand buildings that housed generations of families, now lapsed into ruin, window after window smashed out. A single sickly tree dying amongst rows of other dead trees that used to shade children as they would play. A broken down car, window smashed, one tire flat.
She stood in the middle of the street, moonlight cascading down all over her, and she closed her eyes, and breathed in the cold air deeply.
It smelled delicious. It smelled like freedom. It smelled like life, like excitement, like possibility.
It smelled like danger.
There
it was.
She opened her eyes.
Three men were walking down the street towards her.
"What do we have here," one of them was saying, discarding a lit cigarette into the street. "Someone came to play."
"Are you lost?" another was saying, finishing off the beer from a bottle, and breaking it in the street. "We can help. Don't be scared."
She wasn't. Anna just stood there, small, shivering in her underwear and t-shirt.
"Your old man throw you out? Are you working these streets? Ain't nobody here for you to be hooking."
The men came closer, spreading out slightly as they came close to Anna, flanking her. Making sure that she wouldn't be able to escape if she ran. She could smell the alcohol on them, smell their sweat, feel the danger dripping off these men.
She had no intention of running.
One of them reached out, and ran his hand over her long, dark hair.
"Maybe this bitch just wants to have a good time with us," he said to the others.
Another of them crudely grabbed at his crotch with his hand.
"You come looking for this? You need some of this?"
Anna smiled.
"Oh, boys," she said. "You have no idea how badly I've been needing this."
The three men leered at her. She knew that any second, they would fall on her like wolves, grabbing at her with their rough and dirty hands, ripping what little clothing she had off her. Anna knew that they were going to hurt her, and rape her, over and over again. She could see it in their eyes, in their flared nostrils, their bared and yellow teeth.
All of a sudden a voice yelled out from the end of the street.
"Leave her the fuck alone!" a slight man yelled out. The three men surrounding Anna turned and looked at him, glaring. Anna looked also, peering around the big men that surrounded her. The man at the end of the street looked a little familiar. He was a slender man, his breath steaming in the chill, his jacket pulled tight. Where had she seen him before?
The man closest to Anna reached inside his leather jacket, and pulled out a pistol. It was enormous, shining like death in the light of the moon. He pointed its long barrel down the length of the street at the man.
"You want to be a hero, motherfucker? Or do you want to keep on living?"
The man at the end of the street froze. His eyes grew big with fear.
"Just... leave her alone," he stammered.
"Looks like you want to die, then," the thug with the pistol said, shrugging. "No big deal either way."
In a flash, Anna's bare foot lashed out, kicking the enormous pistol away. It skittered down the street, sliding up against the curb.
The man behind Anna started to say something, but he was immediately dropped by Anna's elbow catching him in the throat, crushing his larynx. He fell to the ground, grasping at his throat for breath and trying to scream in hoarse chokes of pain.
The third man took a roundhouse swing at Anna. They always did that. Easy enough to avoid, Anna ducked under the blow, as she had a thousand times before. She leapt up, shoving the man's nose into the rest of his face, into his brain. He fell, bleeding, into a heap on the cold street.
But the man who had the pistol punched Anna in the face. Too slow, she thought. Off my game.
She fell to her knees, bleeding from her lips and nose. The man hit her again, making stars burst across Anna's eyes. He grabbed a handful of Anna's hair, and pulled his fist back as far as he could.
"Hey, asshole," Anna and the thug beating her heard a quiet voice behind them. They both turned to look, and saw the slight man now holding the discarded pistol and pointing it towards Anna's assailant.
"You can die today, too," the slight man whispered, his hand shaking as he pointed the weapon.
The thug holding Anna turned and ran down the street, ran in a terror past his friends, both of them crawling on the pavement trying to regain basic function.
Anna crouched, and sprung into the air. She caught the running man around his neck with her legs, like she had so many times, spinning him around by his head, and driving his face into the street.
Hard.
He didn't get up.
Anna stood over him, breathing hard, harder than she should be.
Out of shape, she thought. But fuck. That feels
good.
The slight man came running towards Anna. She turned to face him.
"You OK?" he asked her. "Fuck. Where did you learn to do
that
shit?"
Anna just shrugged. She felt good. She felt almost high from the adrenaline.
"Here," the slight man said, taking his jacket off, and slipping it over Anna's slim shoulders. "You must be cold- you aren't wearing shit."
"No thanks," she said. "I don't want to take your coat. Then you'll be cold."
"No, no," he told her. "I don't need it much longer. Day after tomorrow? I'm getting on the bus and heading down south, where it's warm. My sister has a place for me down there. New place, new job. I'm getting the fuck
out
of this City."
