Out Of The Labyrinth

The Hit

I heard the same ear-piercing scream again. The same darkness surrounded me. With my heart beating twice as fast as usual, I turned around the corner of the street. I saw a huddle of what looked quite close to human beings,  surrounding the object of torture.
I was shivering with fear but somehow gathered the courage to move forward. Boys and girls, roughly around the age of 17, were gathered around it. A tall boy was standing in front of me. Even in this darkness I could see that his hair was the darkest shade of black. His head was the only thing I could see. I tapped on his shoulder.

"Excuse me, you're blocking my view."

"I am the view," he said after he turned around.

In the moonlight I could see his eyes gleaming, big brown eyes. I would have thought he was handsome if it wasn't for the smirk he was wearing.

"What is happening over there?" I asked

"Some guy getting his ass kicked by some other guy, I suppose.",  he said seening completely unfazed as if it was the most normal thing ever.

"And you're just gonna stand here and watch?" I asked again, this time with a look of disgust.

"If that means I won't get punched in the stomach for something which is none of my business, then yes. Absolutely. In fact, they're putting up a great action play" He replied, with that smirk still there.

"Someone is getting tortured and you're just standing here and enjoying the show? Just get out of the way." I frowned at his indifferent and cold etiquette.

"Tortured?" He let out a small laugh and moved to the side. I walked past him to get a better look of what was happening and saw a boy on the top on another, punching the living daylights out of him.
The one getting beaten clearly didn't have any relish to defend himself.

If he had got beaten for one more minute,  he wouldn't be able to walk on his own legs ever again. I couldn't take it anymore. 

"Hey, leave him alone!", I screamed and ran towards them.

The bad-ass guy, as I named him in my head, looked at me as if he would like nothing better than to see me dead.

"You trying to stop me, princess?" was all I heard him say with a face of a serial-killer and before I knew it he got up and punched the living daylights, this time out of me.
Everything became blurry as I took an almost lethal blow to my stomach, helplessly. A thunk was heard when I fell on the ground and everything became silent as I shut my eyes.I felt something wet touching me. I opened my eyes and there it was. Patches, my cat licking my toe. I sat on bed and noticed one thing. I was drenched in sweat. Was it really a dream? It felt so real!

"Ouch" I exclaimed with pain. My stomach. I pulled up my shirt to examine it and to my horror a bluish black mark was there, exactly where the bad-ass guy had hit.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"Amal, keep your voice low. Are you out of your mind? Get your arse up and get ready for school or you'll be late," I heard my mom say.

I was about to jump out of my bed and go down and tell her about what had just happened but her tone made me feel like the bruise was going to be the least of my worries if I didn't get ready for school on time. I changed into my uniform as fast as I could. Washing my face, I looked up into the mirror. Exhausted big black eyes stared back at me. Shaking my head, I combed my hair, picked up my bag and got out of my room. Taking two steps at a time I reached the bottom of the staircase.

Dad: Off to work as usual.
Adan and Hassan: Fighting over a toy that came out of a cereal box. Mom: Packing their lunch bags.

"Hassan, give that toy to Adan. You had one last time," Mom said in a hurried voice.