You woke with a start, heart thumping loudly in your ears and chest aching for air. Your limbs felt heavy as you rolled over onto your side to be met with an unforgettable sight. You ran your hands over the charred symbol on the road before pulling yourself up to stand, knees buckling as you took in fully the unknown drawing. A burning in your hand brought your attention to it, wincing as you took in the same symbol burned into your left palm.
"She's over here!"
The voice made you jump. Someone was coming, and by the sounds of it, they weren't alone. Unsure of what to do, you look around and take in your surroundings. You were in the middle of a street, late at night with next to nowhere to hide. Thinking it would be safe to see who you were up against, you quickly scuttled behind a car, careful to position yourself so you could still see the symbol on the ground, artfully placed on the road.
A group of eight men in suits appeared by the symbol, looking frantically around. Some called out in dismay for god knows why.
"She's not here! She should be here!"
"We're going to get our ass handed to us if we don't find her."
'Her? Do they mean…me?' your thoughts were interrupted when a van pulled up, the door opening to reveal more men in suits and…
"Shit." You kept your voice low.
When the door of the van opened, there was only one who didn't get out. He kept looking out and around, raising his hand to scratch his face before dropping it to look around again. He then looked down at his right palm, rubbing his left thumb over it with pain evident on his shadowed face.
"Where is she?" one of the men from the van asked.
"I don't know – she wasn't here when we got here." One of the men who arrived first said cautiously.
"You don't think that maybe Crowly's men got to her first?" said another, less cautiously than the before him.
"Impossible! We made sure that we were the only ones here…! Unless…they're here." Said one of the men from the van.
You looked around for an opening to space while they talked. You didn't know how you knew, but deep down you knew that you didn't want to be anywhere near these guys.
You saw an alley and crept towards it, seeing that it wasn't a dead end, you felt your spirits lifted, a plan forming in your head.
You waited.
Eventually, you heard one of the men tell the others to split up and saw this as your chance. Carefully, you slid under the car and held your breath until you saw only two sets of feet near the van. The footsteps of the others faded and you crawled out from under the car, careful to not make any noise. You made it to the shadows of the alley without being seen. Looking back on it now, you regret looking back to see him step out of the van in a daze and ask one of the men what was going on.
A ping in your heart told you that you had more of a chance together than apart. Scanning the rubbish-filled alley, your eye caught something.
You picked up the heavy walking cane, accidentally disturbing a rubbish bag. One of the men near the van, who was obviously annoyed with the confused young man, came to investigate the noise. Once he stepped into the dark, you hit him as hard as you could with the cane, stunning him as you placed the cane in front of his throat and pulled hard. His struggling quickly stopped as he became limp. You let go of one part of the cane and allowed his body to drop to the floor when someone grabbed you from behind and delivered a punch smack bang into the middle of your face. An audible crunch indicated that you had broken your nose. This was proved true when you felt warm liquid trickle down into your mouth. Growling, you ducked under his next punch and swung hard into his solar plexus, successfully knocking him out.
Sighing, you lowered the cane and stepped out of the shadows. The young man gasped when he saw you, making you frown.
"Are you coming?" you asked, turning slightly to indicate where you were headed. He quickly followed after you and together you traveled between the two massive buildings.
You took the lead in walking towards what appeared to be an American diner. Once inside, the waitress turned to you both and gasped. That's when you both looked down at yourself and realized…
…you both looked like shit.