I sneaked along the dark alley as quiet as I could, looking back frequently for fear of being followed. Here in downtown Toronto there was every chance, which merely added to my uncanny bad luck. Water dripped from the gutter after the torrential rain from earlier that day, the drops echoing eerily as they hit the sodden ground, making the silence even more condemning.
I was only four blocks from the apartment, but I was making slow progress. At every corner I had to stop and peer around it, along every alley I had to creep silently as any noise would attract unwanted attention. I risked a quick peek around the next corner and I knew my hopes of getting home quickly were shattered. At the end of the street, I saw a tall dark figure standing beneath a flickering lamppost.
To calm my breathing, I pressed myself against the damp brick wall. No noise came from the adjoining alley. Stay calm I told myself over and over, trying frantically to slow my pounding heart. Beginning to make my escape, I shuffled sideways still clinging to the wall. I concentrated on being silent. I made it to the dumpster without making a single sound.
I crept round the edge of the bin, when the putrid smell of yesterday's lunch hit me full in the face. I gagged silently, resisting the growing urge to cough. Please don't cough, please don't cough! The temptation subsided. What happened next appalled me, something furry skittered past my feet and I squealed.
If that wasn't enough, I had to make it worse. I reversed quickly into the dumpster with a large crash as I managed to make out two rodents. There was no doubt that he hadn't heard me. I could hear loud footsteps approaching from around the corner, I swore angrily and no longer bothering to stay quiet.
I sprinted along the alley, away from the approaching individual. My feet seemed to find all the puddles; I tried avoiding them, but only succeeded in soaking my new shoes even more. The level footsteps behind me turned into quick thuds as he started to pick up speed to catch up with me.
I dared a quick look back. There was nobody to see in the alley behind me. He was far behind me, but he would soon catch up. I couldn't outrun him on my best day and today was certainly not one of my best days.
I span round another corner and ran past several dark and empty doorways. I stuck to the middle of the narrow street, casting wary glances at all the doorways preparing myself for a surprise attack. When it happened I turned and knocked him a quick jab between the eyes and he scarpered. Yeah, that's what I like to think happened, but no it didn't.
As hands grabbed me from behind and a knife was pressed again my throat, I was frozen in place not daring to move. My heart thrummed in my ears, I made a small movement and the knife was pressed against my throat harder. Now that was what I was afraid of.
In Toronto there were two different types of attackers, the ones who wanted what you alive to use for hundreds of reasons, normally unpleasant and others who just killed you with the slightest rebellion. My attacker wanted me alive; I reasoned it wasn't for that motive as it hurt me to say that I wasn't a stunner, just a bland looking woman.
My curly blonde hair tied up tightly in a pony tail. My face was one you saw, but never remembered, my features plain. My limbs were those of an athlete, hidden beneath baggy clothes, with them I could run for miles. It was my bright blue eyes that always attracted unwanted attention from people I would rather avoid. I had the blue eyes of a furië, but I didn't just have the eyes. The thing was I was one. I was a furië, not just any old furië though I was the queen's granddaughter and I'd gotten stuck in the world above.
In this world, I was worth a fortune that was if people realised what I was, which was rare. Not many people knew what a furië was, some people have never heard of them. But those that had heard of us normally categorized us as folklore. Even if nearly all the population of this world didn't know what I was, it was the few that did know what I was that unnerved me. I knew little about humans and it panicked me to find people who knew information about me. In my world, furiës are spirits as nothing in Sulaësia was actually solid, so when I travelled to the above I got a shock.
