Beautiful Disaster

Chapter 10: Broken Hearted Alley

Broken Hearted Alley

The pace of my stride increased, the hammering of my footsteps challenging the hammering of my heart. I clutched my bag tightly and looked back once again. There he was. The man that I rode over stood in the distant background, my eyes still seeing the faint mark of the ghastly scar on his face.

Immediately my pace increased, and dramatically. I started running, a cold sweat mixing across the sweat across my forehead. My heart pounded rapidly. I wanted so much to scream but it would a useless attempt. After all, if I called for help who would listen? I was completely alone, the only other person here was the man that seemed like he wanted to kill me.

As I ran, I dug my hands through my bag and searched furiously for something that would be able to help me. But much to my utter dismay, there wasn’t anything that would remotely help me.

To simply say that I was scared was an understatement. I was terrified, and more terrified than I’d ever been in my life. The man behind me kept walking step by step as I ran ferociously. I considered crossing the road, but how would that help at all?

I looked around me. The street was dead, not a single trace of life in sight. The structured buildings before me were lifeless and dark, not a single window emanated lights. The only lights that came from the ghost town were the streetlamps that I was incredibly grateful for. Without them I’d probably been dead by now.

As usual, my thoughts drifted to Cap. For some unfathomable reason I needed him now, more than ever. Not in a sexual way, but to protect me. Though it was arguably Cap’s fault I was in this mess in the first place, I still needed him. Cap brought on protectiveness and a safeness that no one else could bring. And I knew he’d be the only one who’d be able to protect me.

I forced myself to look back, the man wasn’t there. There was no one behind me. Just to be sure I turned around and looked frantically at my surroundings. There wasn’t a soul in sight.

But wait, to my left I noticed a figure plunged in the darkness of one of the alleys before it disappeared. I stood there frozen to my spot. No matter how much I pleaded with my legs, they wouldn’t respond.

The silence was deafening. Though the shadow had disappeared into the darkness, the menacing presence it help had escalated tremendously. The rabid beating of my heart must’ve clouded the rational thinking of my brain because I saw the figure move to an alley on the right side of my vision in an impossible inhuman speed. A scream stuck in my throat, refusing to exit my open mouth. My fear heightened when the figure moved back to his original position in the same phenomenal speed, the only proof that anything happened was the blurry blackness and the ruffling of debris below his footsteps.

My feet finally figured out how to move and I backed away slowly, my body colliding with a building behind me. I looked to my left; there was an alley that had an exit on the other side of the road. If I had any miniscule chance of escaping, this would be it. Or so I thought.

I backed against the grimy walls of the dark alley and prayed that I’d make it through the night. I gulped – my heart pounding through my chest – and reluctantly inched closer into the alley.

My legs carried my body stride by agonizing stride as I tried to get through the alley. The events of what happened in Park Avenue stood blatantly in the center of all of my thoughts. I tried walking faster but the miniscule pace of legs was all I had in me.

The alley was longer and darker than I expected. When I finally reached the center of alley, minutes had passed. My already muddled vision was completely cut off as the only source of light – a flickering light bulb on the side of one of the buildings – switched off, or died out, or got killed.