26. Strange Men at Night

Date Written: February 15, 2019

Date Posted: August 31, 2019

Characters: Veneziano, Romano

Summary: A young woman stumbles upon a man on the verge of death. Everything goes awry from there.

Notes:

The woman was walking down the street, purse clutched in one hand, the other clenching the hem of her coat. The streets were dimly lit, illuminating the cobblestones that were still slick from the day's earlier rain. As she walked, the shoes that she wore softly clacked on the stones. Once or twice, she would look behind her and clench her purse even tighter to her person. Eventually, she made it to an intersection and began traversing towards the other side.

Once there, she resumed her slightly casual, slightly frightened pace until she reached the mouth of an old alleyway. Here, she prepared to run across so that the alleyway would be behind her—she always had a fear of alleyways—when she heard something strange.

It was a sort of a whimpering sound that pulled at her heartstrings. It was soft and keening, a small plea that had her standing still for even longer than she wanted.

Was it an animal?

Or worse, was it a human?

The woman didn't want to backtrack to the mouth of the alleyway, but—

"H-help…" Again, it was that same sound, but formed into words.

The voice had a pull to it that wrapped around her senses, like a long forgotten blanket that she used to have as a child. Before she could question it, her feet moved forward a few centimeters.

Then a few more.

A few—

And now she was at the mouth of the alleyway.

Even though the streets were lit, the alleyway was still dark as pitch. Hesitantly, she was about to move forward again—just to sate her curiosity, she thought—when the voice called out again. This time, however, his voice was louder, even more heartbreaking.

The woman dropped her purse, the sense of something guiding, pulling, shoving her in the direction the voice was coming from.

Just as suddenly as the woman was pulled in that direction, the pull, that tug, stopped.

That warm blanketing sensation was gone and now...now she felt so cold and so alone. Something heavy and sad seemed to hold her down in that one spot. It was so consuming and heartbreaking, the woman felt that she could cry from the enormity of the sensation.

Common sense demanded that she get the hell out of the alleyway—think of all the rats and the garbage that could be piling up on the ground! She could picture it, disease ridden rodents just waiting to get a bite of her flesh and pass on those diseases to her and—

"H-help me...please."

Robotic, the woman moved forward one step.

It was so quiet, the woman could hear her own breathing, but it was rough and haggard and deep and and and—

That wasn't her breathing.

The woman's eyes had long since adjusted to the darkness and in that same darkness, she could see the faint outline of a human lying on the ground. His chest was moving up and down rapidly, face turned opposite from her, but she could still make out mumbled prayers and phrases for help.

She had to help.

She had to help.

She had to help.

Without any regard for herself, the woman dropped down on her knees and had the man lie on his back. As she maneuvered himself into a better position, she saw that there was some dark liquid on his abdo—

She stopped.

"Y-you're bleeding!" No, no. She couldn't do this. She couldn't help a stranger that she only chanced to meet because she was too stupid and proud to call a cab. She had to get the proper authorities, she had to get someone with far more qualifications. She couldn't do this by herself. "I-I...my phone!"

She raced back to the mouth of the alleyway where she knew she dropped her purse. Once she had done that, she dug deep into her purse and pulled out her cell phone. To her dismay, she realized that her fingers had been bloodied since she had been the one positioning the young man flat on his back. Hastily, without regard for the clothing that she had worn, the woman wiped the blood on the front of her coat before she pulled the screen open and onto her list of contacts.

Someone, anyone, had to help her.

"Maybe police…? H-hospital?" Her fingers trembled as she punched in the numbers on her cell phone.

Just when the dial tone was about to be picked up, the woman felt her wrist being held in a vice like grip.

There was someone behind her as well.

"What. The. Ever. Loving. Fuck. Did. You. Do." With every word, the woman felt the man's hands on her wrist tightening ever so slightly until she thought that her blood flow was going to cease flowing into her hand. Much to her horrified displeasure and growing agitation at the situation, a series of whimpers and tears fell from her lips. The man must have sensed her fear since he had loosened his group—marginally. "Shut the hell up and answer me! What the fuck did you do?"

"N-nothing!" Her voice, one that she had taken pride in for being ever so slightly musical and proud, was subdued and squeaky. It was all too high pitched and quick—signs that she was rapidly cracking on the inside. "I...I found him like—" She felt the man's hand on her wrist jerk her around gruffly. "—like this! Please believe me! I just walked past and felt-felt...something!" Her voice petered out at the end, the tears in her eyes and scratchiness of her throat did not serve as a means for further communication. "Please," she begged, "believe me."

For a moment, the man behind her seemed to tighten his grasp on her wrist. However, as she noisily sniffled, the man behind her clicked his teeth and threw her hand away as if she were naught but some garbage.

"Don't call the authorities, be it the hospital or for the police. Don't call anyone." The woman kept her head down, but she could feel him brush past her, this time a bit more gentler than last time. "I'm this idiot's brother."

He must have turned his head towards her because all of a sudden, she felt a piercing gaze on her person. The warm blanketing sensation that she felt from before seemed to have come back, but there was just something...faintly monstrous about it. She felt like a simple little lamb in the jaws of the wolf. Daniel in the lion's den. A mouse caught in the claws of a lazy cat.

She shivered.

"Go home." The man ordered as he slung his brother over his shoulder in the periphery of the woman's eyes. "Now."

"B-but—"

"Now."

And that warm blanketing sensation had turned fiery hot and without her permission, the woman clenched her phone and purse and ran out of the alleyway.

When she was far enough away, she halted.

The warmth was no longer with her. All she could feel was the cold and damp of a long forgotten rain.