"See you tomorrow Veera." I heard Megan call from behind me,

"Night." I called back.

We had just finished closing the restaurant, and I was headed home, exhausted after another long day.

I just want to get home, get these damn heels off, eat dinner, take a nice warm shower, and go to bed. I thought, pulling my coat tighter around myself, trying to ward the cool fall air off.

As I was fighting a yawn I became aware of another pair off footsteps, some feet behind me.

Guess I'm not the only one that works obscene hours.

As I walked on I noticed it wasn't one pair of footsteps, it sounded like two maybe three.

It kind of sounds like their getting closer... I thought, a bit worried now,

Your just being paranoid. I sighed at my silly thoughts, shaking my head slightly.

As I turned a couple corners, headed towards my apartment building I started growing anxious that they were still behind me.

As I came to my next turn I glanced behind me, slightly relieved and worried to see only two men following me.

They were both wearing hoodies and dark jeans, along with black boots, and they were both several yards behind me.

Thankfully they hadn't noticed that I had spotted them. I continued walking, paying very close attention to two men behind me this time though.

"Next corner I say we grab her." I heard a deep voice whisper from behind me,

"Yeah... Man, is she ever hot." Another gruff voice whispered back.

Now that I knew they actually were following me, and actually intended to do me harm I, surprisingly, relaxed a bit.

You see, when I turned 15 I told my mom I wanted to learn how to defend myself, so she signed me up for a self defense class. And when I moved to Boston I signed up for gym that specialized in self defense and boxing.

Not to blow my own horn but, I've gotten so good I can actually knock a few of the trainers on their asses, and if you'd seen some of the trainers in the gym, you'd know how much of a feat that is (those guys are practically just muscle).

So yeah, the two guys behind me weren't all that threatening.

I turned down the first corner I spotted, and since I was so far ahead of the two it took a little bit for them to catch up to me. I used those few minutes to slip out of my heels.

As the first one came around the corner I swung my purse at him, hitting him in the jaw. As he stumbled backwards in surprise I hooked my right leg behind his, pulling his legs out from under him and knocking him on his back.

When I straightened back up the other one grabbed me from behind, pinning my arms behind my back.

I used his grip on my arms as leverage and pulled him closer, then threw my head back hitting him in the nose, I heard him grunt in surprise.

I saw his buddy get up and move towards me, when he was close enough I kicked the heel of my left foot into his gut pushing away from him. Using that momentum I pushed the guy that was still holding on to me into the wall next to us.

When his back collided with wall his breath whooshed out of his lungs and he let go of me. I turned around to face him and as he tried to get back to his feet I cold cocked him, sending him to the ground in a heap.

The other guy tackled me then, but surprisingly, I stayed on my feet. I grabbed his upper right arm with both my hands and, using the same technique you would when trying to flip someone over your head, I pulled him from behind me and shoved him into the wall.

Just before he fell to the ground, for good measure, I kneed him in the stomach.

When I was sure neither of them would be getting up anytime soon I grabbed my bag and called 911, telling them where the two would be, when the guy asked for my name I hung up.

I took one last glance at the two, then picked up my shoes and started towards my apartment again.

As I passed under a street lamp I noticed that there was some blood on my clothes and one of my legs, and even a few drops clinging to my hair.

I wrinkled my nose in disgust,

Gross. Now I really want a shower. I thought, picking up my pace a bit.

When I was only a couple streets away from my apartment I got this feeling like I was being watched.

I stopped walking and looked closely around at my surroundings, scrutinizing every shadow, but still came up with nothing strange.

I tried to brush it off, and continued on my way.

...

...

As the girl turned away a figure stepped out of the shadowed ally behind her, watching as she walked away.